I read Keith's last post about his brake line mishap and thank god that happened at the ramp. It reminded me of the following post I saw recently on the Bassmaster forum. If you are able to log into their forum, here is the link, if not, I copied the post below....very interesting.
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sport=outdoors/bassmaster/community&id=bassmaster&tid=3578532&lid=30
Ever think that a simple thing like going fishing in a tournament might be the last thing you ever do? Well I didn't either. First let me tell you I am not a novice fisherman or boat operator. I have been fishing tournaments for over 20 years and most of my friends consider me a little too conservative. Last Saturday I was a boater in the
Missouri Bass Federation State Championship. We were a very late boat out of 157 boats. After takeoff I fell in behind a boat and just followed him up the lake a few miles.The lake was rough from all the boats and the smooth ride felt pretty good. After a few miles and rounding a very dangerous point I decided to pass the much slower boat like I have done thousands of times. I pulled back and slowly pulled right across his wake. I noticed a deck or pontoon boat had crossed in front of us several hundred yards ahead and a small wave from them (I guess maybe a foot high) was coming up. I thought nothing of this and slowly pushed down on the throttle and started to trim up. Well something I have never experienced but had heard of happened. My nose on the boat was down a little after coming off the boat I was followings wake and with the combination of the deck boats wake I bow hooked my boat. It was determined that it was nothing I did wrong, but a combination of things that happen every so often. Well it all happened so quick an I imagine we were doing about 50 mph the next thing I knew I was flying out of the boat and hit the water rather hard. My coangler was also ejected along with his large tackle box. Now comes the good part. I swam back to the top and realized I was really struggling to stay afloat. It was cold that morning and over my shorts I had on heavy sweat pants, heavy sweat shirt, and heavy fishing coat. I knew my leg was hurt and there was blood in my mouth. I was very concerned for my partner and soon saw he was about 30 feet from me doing fine. Myself on the other hand was having to dog paddle as hard as I could to stay afloat. I was quickly tiring and really thought the good Lord was going to take me home. I was wearing a MUSTANG Tournament series life jacket (the supposedly good red one) and It had blown but only partialy inflated. There are a lot of thoughts that go through your head and finally I had consideded taking off my life jacket, coat, and sweat pants and then I could have swam to the boat. but by the I was out of breath and just staying on top was all I could muster. Finally another boat showed up and really just as I was loosing it helped me grab the side of their boat. After catching my breath They walked me down the side of the boat and I stepped on the motor and got in the boat. The first thing I noticed and them also that was my life jacket had little or no air in it. God bless these two fine men and the other boat that got my coangle out.
The reason I am telling you all this is Monday after all had settled I called Mustang life jacket company and talked to a very nice young lady. I explained what had happened and told her I was concerned with there product. Well she went on to explain (this is the way I took it) that with any mechanical product there is a chance for failure. But only a few out of so many. She wanted me to send this jacket in so her company could do research on it.
Folks, if you have ever thought about dieing, beleive me drowning is not how you want to go. If you have one of these inflatable life jackets or know someone who does get rid of it. I know they are expensive but take it back. I also know the old vest type is not as comfortable but the vest type will work 100% of the time. If I had been knocked out I would not be writing this. And it sure felt good to see my wonderful wife on Sunday and talk to my kids. I am going to send this life vest to the coast guard and let them examine it. If these inflatable jackets word 99.9% of the time, IT STILL IS NOT ENOUGH. WEAR SOMETHING THAT WORKS 100% OF THE TIME. And one other thing and I will not bore you further. Wear you life jacket and hook up your kill switch every time you run your big motor. Sometimes i DIDN'T, But I bet I do every time now. After talking with several experienced fisherman and my boat company under the under the right conditions any boat will bow hook and it was just an unlucky event but as you know with the right conditions it is not hard to get thrown out of a bass boat. Just when it happens to you, and I pray it never does, have a life jacket on that works 100% of the time and your kill switch hooked up.