Thread: Old vintage coolest boat ever........

Tweet

What an unbelievable story! That was crazy no one would stop and help them during the time of it going down. It is amazing everything was in such good shape. I can't believe all the aluminum pieces weren't corroded to powder let alone think the engine wasn't a ball of rust. There must not be much iron in that water over that 30yrs. I'm sure the lack of oxygen is what preserved it all.

lack of oxygen for sure! and like horse theft, abandoning a boater in distress would get you hung here in New England! With small children to boot!

Wow - I watched all of the videos and it brought tears to my eyes! The fact that it sat for 30 years underwater and there was anything left is amazing and the restoration was done so very well (keeping it period correct) it's like it never went down and has aged gracefully.

I'm really curious about what the owner does with it. I'm sure they have a lot of good memories of it, but it was also probably one of the worst and scariest days of their lives.

Don't know if anybody came across this when they looked up the videos,
but here's a 2 minuet clip of it when the lake first dropped enough for it to be visible. It was posted about a year before the boat was retrieved.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcI8orbD17s


Years ago I heard of a HEMI powered jet boat that went down in Lake Mead.....who knows



.

I looked at the Fab Rats Facebook page to see if there was any update, and it looks like Merlin's post about showing it to the owners was on 31 December '22, only a month ago. The wife didn't seem to want any part of it which is not too surprising, but their son who was a toddler when it went down seemed stoked about it. I wondered if perhaps he might chat with dad and keep it in the family.
Keep us in the look, Mike!!

They never really said anything other than they gave them the option to own it. I got the impression the original owners didn't get it back but who knows. I've had conversations before with Merlin about his cummins powered jet boat. He's been looking for a decent boat for me. He said they are few and far between even out there.