Trump Parade Tears!!!

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Timberlake Mark

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Went out on Lake Murray today for the Trump parade. Must have been over 1000 boats. Unfortunately we took a big wave. Scared the hell out of everybody AND crushed my front panel. Of course, I’m just sick about it. I’ve only had the boat two weeks.

My insurance deductible is $2550. Any advice on getting this repaired. Should I just file through insurance. Cost? Go through the Bennington dealer? DYI? Help!
 

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Went out on Lake Murray today for the Trump parade. Must have been over 1000 boats. Unfortunately we took a big wave. Scared the hell out of everybody AND crushed my front panel. Of course, I’m just sick about it. I’ve only had the boat two weeks.

My insurance deductible is $2550. Any advice on getting this repaired. Should I just file through insurance. Cost? Go through the Bennington dealer? DYI? Help!
Oh man that sucks! Must have been a heck of a wave
 
Sorry to hear about that! I thought having 3 pontoons helped buoyancy enough to prevent that. I have an idea if it is ridiculous money to fix it to original look...........They make aluminum sheets with diamond plate texture in different thicknesses. What if you got exact measurements of the "windows" in the front of playpen and had a sheet metal shop shear the metal to exact size and then bow it to match curve. The panels could have mounting tabs rivoted or heliarc welded to attach to playpen frame or 3m type double sided professional adhesive tape (like auto emblems and mouldings are held on with) on backside. The new panels could be pre-painted to match rest of boat colors. Just a thought. Travel trailers manufacturers often add these panels as rock shields (from vehicles rear tires) on lower front. Might have a custom look
 
Have the dealer fix it...send pics he can quote parts/labor...compare to deductible....good luck that sux
 
Jhill- interesting idea. I may explore that. Turn a bad day into an opportunity for a custom look.

I’ve been boating all my life. I’ve never taken a wave like this one on a Lake. My neighbor told me my entire back end was out of the water. It was scary. My 6 year old was sitting in that front seat. Luckily she is tougher than aluminum.
 
Went out on Lake Murray today for the Trump parade. Must have been over 1000 boats. Unfortunately we took a big wave. Scared the hell out of everybody AND crushed my front panel. Of course, I’m just sick about it. I’ve only had the boat two weeks.

My insurance deductible is $2550. Any advice on getting this repaired. Should I just file through insurance. Cost? Go through the Bennington dealer? DYI? Help!

Sadly it’s a one piece repair from Bennington. Fence and panel all in one, dealer only option. If only one sides damaged, I’d probably bite the bullet and fix it with new panel in fall after boating seasons over. It should be a pretty straight forward swap. Bunch of screws, remove seat, some more screws, swap fence assembly. Probably a couple hours at most.
 
I’d pull the seat and pop it back for the time being. Is the area you boat always that rough? If so might hold off to replace so it doesn’t happen to a new panel in a month.
 
Yes unfortunately those boat parades create more wake damage Than anything I’ve ever seen. They aren’t on a plane and everyone is plowing water to keep the nose up as high as possible to keep from getting water over the bow. Saw a hurricane deckboat on the shore taking on water because of all the large wakes at one of these parades washing over his gunwales.

Boating rules say you are responsible for your wake damage. Normally you’d be able to go after the boat owner who created the wake that damaged your boat To pay for repairs but in this case you don’t really know who’s boat caused it.
 
Sadly it’s a one piece repair from Bennington. Fence and panel all in one, dealer only option. If only one sides damaged, I’d probably bite the bullet and fix it with new panel in fall after boating seasons over. It should be a pretty straight forward swap. Bunch of screws, remove seat, some more screws, swap fence assembly. Probably a couple hours at most.
Damn....fence too? Is it one piece? I had assumed it was riveted on the back side.....yikes $$
 
Maybe Bennington should offer an optional reinforcement backing of the frontal sheet metal to prevent this. If they backed with 1/8" or 3/16" aluminum welded or bolted well to the grid of the fence, it would make a big difference. How hard is it to remove front furniture? Are they bolted with nuts underneith wave shielding?
 
I was going to start a “4th of July” thread to capture stories like this. I ate a monstrous wave at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers coming back from the DC fireworks. 30-40-ft boats everywhere putting out major wake and it was just a washing machine of 4 footers. Bow stuffed a confused rogue 5’ and a wall of water came over the fence and soaked us from head to toe. I think the panel did ok but need to look in daylight.

Kinda refreshing until you realize you just showered with city runoff.

That was a little jarring, but the real pucker was driving 30 miles back to the marina at midnight guided only by the moon and the caravan of nav lights in front and behind you. 2-3 foot wake everywhere from the hundreds of boats churning up the river, unlit channel markers, floating wood thumping the skeg and guessing at basically everything related to my senses - I wore a blister into my finger working the throttle so much trying to make the ride and safe as possible.

Thankfully it was only a few of us, can’t imagine doing that with 10-12 people on board. And thank goodness for that 250, there were more than a few times I needed to power out of some bad angles and keep the boat upright.

I think I‘ll watch the fireworks on TV next year!
 
We saw a boat with the same damage at our dealer yesterday while filling up at the gas docks. It was one of their rental boats and they said it just happened on Saturday when the renter had the front loaded heavy and stuffed the bow in a wave. He said it's about $800 to replace, but I think that was just the parts, no labor, so sounds like you wouldn't want to go through your insurance company. Also sounds like this is a fairly common issue that Bennington should look into fixing.
 
If there was a row of fasteners through the center horizontal rib of fence with a backing aluminum plate, it might be enough to prevent the damage.
 
We saw a boat with the same damage at our dealer yesterday while filling up at the gas docks. It was one of their rental boats and they said it just happened on Saturday when the renter had the front loaded heavy and stuffed the bow in a wave. He said it's about $800 to replace, but I think that was just the parts, no labor, so sounds like you wouldn't want to go through your insurance company. Also sounds like this is a fairly common issue that Bennington should look into fixing.
Driver error ! Not a "fairly commom issue" for Bennington to fix. Key word rental boat!
 
Holy sh!t......the exact same thing happened to me this weekend. Brand new boat, took delivery Memorial Day weekend. Had a full load, lake was crazy busy all weekend, took a big wave, swamped a little over the bow. Got back to the dock later and noticed the front and about lost my mind. I could take that exact same picture. Front starboard side.

My previous Bennington was a 2002 that I also purchased new, and I never had this happen before. Yes, occasionally a wave would wash over the bow, but never to the point it dented anything. I am always conscientious about waves like that, turning to take them parallel and not head on.

I am gonna have the dealer look at it, but yea, Bennington should address this. Those front panels should be reinforced.
 
Deke- let’s stay connected on this issue. I’m sending pics to my dealer tomorrow. I don’t really fault Bennington. I should have gotten out of there after the first one over the bow. We got crushed with an 8 foot wave. I didn’t see it due to all the chop and kids in front.

My neighbors Premier took a similar shot with no damage. He was giving me a hard time. Since the fencing is actually 3 pieces, this would probably would have held up much better as a single piece. I didn’t even consider trying to get it covered under warranty, but it’s worth a shot.
 
So sorry you have experienced this. We must all be mindful of the potential for things like this to happen and the precautions that can be taken to minimize damages in some situations. Cross wake a 45 degree angle, balance boat if many in bow shift some to stern, attempt to lift bow some by a combination of throttle control and trimming up.
 
Everyone has to understand there’s a give and take with ANY boat design. For those that say “Bennington should” forget that this statement drives the cost up. Yeah, maybe they should offer the “Wave stuffer” option, so it adds $500 to reinforce the front panels. You’ve now eliminated the “responsibility” of the captain to maintain safe conditions. I’m not saying anyone was driving unsafe, but sometimes you shouldn't be boating in certain areas/times and things happen, but to arbitrarily assume Bennington should reinforce 11,000 plus boats a year (estimate minus Q’s) for the sake of a dozen or two (rentals don’t count, those renters don’t give a crap) that stuff a boat into a wave is not cost effective.
 
I don’t hold Bennington at fault here. Sometimes stuff happens. I never expected this type of wave and I’m not sure there is much I could have done. I was cruising with everybody else. Probably 15 mph. There were 3500 boats in the parade so adjustment to waves were difficult. In hindsight, I should have gotten out earlier. I should have moved my passengers. It’s a hard lesson learned. I’ll take a shot and see if Bennington might help me. If not, it’s only money. I’ll make more.
 
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