Hello, my name is William, ive been an avid jet boater since i was 15 (im 20 now). I live in Jackson, MS. As you can tell from my member name, i own a 77 Apollo Jet Boat (Click on the link in my sig for pics but be forwarned, what you are about to see may bring tears to your eyes, i know it does to me).
As you can see in the pics, the boat has been VERY VERY well taken care of (by myself and my dad. He even admits that i take MUCH better care of it than he does...and that says A LOT!!!). I always washed before and after taking it out (sometimes waxed), oil changed before storing, waxed before storing, the whole 9 yards. You can say that i am VERY anal about how the boat is treated/taken care of. The only thing we've had to replace was the interior (re-upholster the seat cover/ carpet floor, which was back in 1989.
The boat has a stock 76 Lincoln Ford 460 motor in it, 4 barrel 750 Holley carb, dual 5in bassett racing headers (water cooled), Berkley Ski pump, ect...
I recently ran it up on the rocks at the Reservoir in Brandon, MS. Here's the story:
Well, i was cruising along the Spillway at the Reservoir in Brandon, MS "riding" along w/ cars. I come to some polls in the water and take a right turn away from the road, come back around and head toward the spillway. i go to make a left turn to go back down the spillway and it keeps going straight. so i throw it in reverse, nail it, it slows but not enough and goes up on the rocks.
the wake the boat threw up comes into the engine bay and sinks it. all i see sticking up out of the water in about 6inches of the front-end. only damage was a little gash/hole where the front hook WAS (read on) and some scatches.
and then it gets bad. the sea-tow guy comes and hooks a strap to the front of the boat to pull it along the water so that it will "come up out of the water". well, when he gives his boat gas, he snatches a huge chunk out of the front of the boat .
so now he has to hook his strap to be BACK of the boat (2 anchor points). from then on, all i see it the tip of the boat bobbing out of the water and the rear scraps along the bottom of the reservoir
when we finally get it on the trailer, i see that both the 5in Bassett headers are pushed over to the left, the 9in velocity stack in demolished, scratches and mud all over everything and im in tears. this was a VERY sad day for me and still is. i dont know why i became so attached to this thing but i did. it was like looseing a family member