My Board Rack tried to kill me...

(cweed) · (cweed) **Join Date: Sep 2008** 06-28-2009, 9:50 PM

Heading back in from a great day on the water, hit a roller no bigger than one's I've hit 1000 times before on Sammamish when there was a loud BANG and my wife yells "Holy S**t STOP!"
The board rack's clamp bolt that was right over my head had snapped, the whole rack rotated and fell right behind my driver's seat landing on the floor of the boat.
Long story short no one was hurt and no damage to the boards or the boat, thank god my 3 year old was sitting on the other side and that it didn't fall a few inches more forward when it hit...
Here are some pictures, not really sure what can be done to prevent something like this. I'll send these pictures to Skylon too and see what I should do...

Upload

(Message edited by cweed on June 28, 2009)

(bill_airjunky)

Glad to hear no one was hurt.

The brackets on my Dbot speakers have safety cables around the tower in addition to 4 bolts, 2 on each side. Looks like a pretty cheezy design in comparison.

(wakebrdjay) · (wakebrdjay) **Join Date: Apr 2008** 06-29-2009, 6:36 AM

Doesn't Skylon give a torque spec. on their instruction sheet.Those cap screws will break like that when over tightened.Not saying that's what you did,just a possibility.X2 on the nobody hurt esp. your baby.

(Message edited by wakebrdjay on June 29, 2009)

(ian_ashton) · (ian_ashton) **Join Date: Jul 2008** 06-29-2009, 7:05 AM

The bolt on my Lip wake rack broke last week, only the board and rack fell into the water, and none of us noticed! Got back to the marina and I was wiping the boat down, looked up and it was gone. Luckily we were able to find it floating in the lake, just as a couple of jet skiers were pulling up to it.

Needless to say I have since replaced all the hardware with Grade 8 bolts.

(cweed) · (cweed) **Join Date: Sep 2008** 06-29-2009, 7:07 AM

That's actually the only rack on the tower that was "factory installed" The rest I did myself, but I will try and find what the torque specs are and check that, thanks...

(tampawake) · (tampawake) **Join Date: Mar 2008** 06-29-2009, 7:09 AM

Off topic glad your garage looks like crap just like mine some wakeboard stuff and a bunch of plastic bikes, trikes etc. Glad your ok man. I have have 2.5 y/o twins

(roomservice) · (roomservice) **Join Date: Dec 2006** 06-29-2009, 7:19 AM

Looks like a total loss. So sad. Time for a new boat imo.

(evadehickman) · (evadehickman) **Join Date: Apr 2008** 06-29-2009, 7:46 AM

Kind of a weak looking design to me, with only one bolt on each side of the clamp that holds the rack to the tower. I've installed a few racks on my boat, and they have all had a total of four bolts, 2 on each side of the clamp. Stronger design overall, esp. for holding up two boards, but also safer. If one snaps, 3 are still there....

(brucemac) · (brucemac) **Join Date: Dec 2005** 06-29-2009, 9:37 AM

wow, close call. glad nobody was hurt. early saturday morning was awesome on samm.

(05mobiuslsv) · (05mobiuslsv) **Join Date: Apr 2006** 06-29-2009, 9:40 AM

Corey sorry to hear that I think you crossed my wake that day

.

Seriosly though glad nobody was hurt and the boat wasn't damaged, that could have been bad.

(Message edited by 05mobiuslsv on June 29, 2009)

(brucemac) · (brucemac) **Join Date: Dec 2005** 06-29-2009, 9:43 AM

lol, it was a BU fest at the ramp when we were coming in around 11:30 saturday morning. there must have been 5 newer BU's launching. didn't see a blue and black one though.

(05mobiuslsv) · (05mobiuslsv) **Join Date: Apr 2006** 06-29-2009, 11:33 AM

Hope you're not referring to mine, mine is Moonbeam and Black.

(brucemac) · (brucemac) **Join Date: Dec 2005** 06-29-2009, 11:37 AM

ohh, okay, moonbeam, so it's gray'ish. for some reason, i was thinking yours was a really dark blue and black. just saw your profile pic. :-)

(mikeski) · (mikeski) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 06-30-2009, 12:13 AM

Another great example of Skylon Quality...

(bill_airjunky) · (bill_airjunky) **Join Date: Apr 2002** 06-30-2009, 9:00 AM

I glanced at all my racks last night. I don't have any with only 2 screws. All board, speaker & foil racks have 4 screws. Anything less is asking for a problem when it gets choppy.

(lilsumo) · (lilsumo) **Join Date: Sep 2008** 06-30-2009, 9:36 AM

Go with a Grade 8 bolt and a little Loctite 242 blue and that problem will be gone.