Drain plug fail
 

The news nazis jacked this story up... What I heard from an onboard source, the plug was in.. There was no alongside "guy".. As usual this time of year, texas storm cells move in super quick.. High winds and rough seas. The boat had 11 people on it, the storm came in with white caps. they took water over the bow twice. they tried to nurse it to the nearest beach, engine quit. the rest is history. Bummer.. Everyone is safe...

Ya, the media always messes up the news.

I heard on the local news a few weeks back, that after a group of moms petitioned target to ban all guns in the store that target was now making it policy asking anyone with a CHL not to shop there and having their cashiers make customers sign petitions to ban all guns so they, as a company could submit it to legislature.

In reality the story was that a group of moms petitioned target to ban open carry, target told them they would obey all state and federal laws and aren't going to infringe on anyone's rights that are being exercised legally just because it makes them uncomfortable and dismissed them quickly.

A huge night and day difference in what actually happened and what the news reported. They do things for headlines and with as little information as possible to right a story, not what the facts are unfortunately.

dont let facts get in the way of a good story....................

It would take hours for no drain plug to sink a boat. Imagine if you tried to fill a tub the size of a boat with a garden hose. Unless it was left overnight, that boat got swamped by a wave, storm, another wake or its own wake.

Yeah my son left out our drain plug one day about a month back. It was almost 2 hours before we noticed it. It took the engine to start sputtering from the water being slung up from the belts for me to "investigate" ( although i remember thinking that thw wake was awfullt big for no ballast being filled yet lol).

I'll disagree with this. We had an incident a few years ago when someone forgot to put the plug in (their only job) and we didn't make it 10 minutes without issues. When I realized what was going on it was a mad dash to the dock with lots of rollers coming from folks leaving the no wake. Depends on location of the plug, etc. I could see someone getting a belly full and hitting a roller and getting swamped in a heartbeat.

i've seen boats fill up REALLY fast without drain plugs. It may be a small hole, but the pressure of the water being displaced is very strong.

800ish gph unless you have a very small hole. It wouldn't take long if you didn't notice it.

I left my drain plug out on my RZ2 once and had 13 people on the boat. My wife was parking the truck and she immediately came back and we pulled the boat and it took a good 5 minutes with the bilge pump running and the plug out to get all of the water out and it was only in the water 5 minutes. It fills VERY quickly. Keep a spare Tsunami ballast pump kit on board. :)

The good news in that story is that he was able to salvage his Vision Air seat! Whew! Those aren't sold by Tige anymore! :D

My first move if I ever got caught in rough water would be to pop off all 4 of my 800 GPH aerator pumps from my ballast bags. I've got flow rite quick disconnects attaching them to the bags. I'd get those ready to run and then hookup my 1100 GPH portable ballast pumps. Between those 5 pumps and my normal automatic bilge pumps I think I could keep it from becoming completely swamped even if I took a wave over the bow here and there as I'd have about 5100 GPH worth of pumps evacuating the water. 3-4 in a row and it would be over but catching one here and there should be ok.

I do not know the owner of this boat, but to his defense a snotty storm had just rolled in. All the weather apps said light rain, completely wrong. it was heavy rain with a good wind.

Know the owner / been on the boat and most importantly / know how nasty lake Conroe can get on a windy day.

That lake is 100% seawall and is prone to large boats, occassional high winds and really rough water. I heard the took a couple big rollers over the nose. Once the first one hits / the nose of the boat is more prone to take on water since it is alreay sitting lower.

Small town reporting....don't beleive everything you read!