How my tige saved my life

[Tige Addict]

Every year my family and I go to Lake Tahoe for a two week vacation. Of course we tow our Tige to Tahoe as well. We tow it up highway 395 with our Dodge Durango. The drive is absolutely beautiful and towing the boat makes the drive, beleive it or not, more relaxing. Many of the mornings that we are there we take our boat out early to get some waterskiing in before the water gets choppy. After doing many good runs myself my sister decided that she wanted a turn. Now, Tahoe can be a dangerous lake if you arent careful. With rocky points that extend far into the lake and sometimes floating logs that seem to be in the middle of no where. While driving we try to find the best water while still remaining a safe distance from shore. We try to stay at least 500 feet or more from the shore while driving our boat at speed, especially on lake tahoe but unfortunately, as you will read on, that isnt always a safe distance. While skiing my sister at around 30mph the boat suddenly and extremely loudly jolted to a stop throwing me, the driver, and other passengers forward into cargo. A full 600 feet from shore, we hit a bolder underwater. My first immediate thought was if my sister was ok. I looked behind the boat to see my sister standing on a rock which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere she looked at me and said "did you hit this?" I stared blankly back. My boyfriend and I immediately checked around the engine and behind the rear seat to see if the boat was taking on any water and luckily, thank god, it wasnt. The engine turned over but we couldnt steer the wheel or get the boat to move in reverse or drive. We signaled someone to tow us to the marina and the man who towed us was a real jerk. Anyways we got back to the marina and tied our boat up at the dock and called my dad "hey dad, we hit a rock". His response, "Wow, you take the boat out without me and look what happens". What a nice thing to say. We launch our boat at the Tahoe Keys Marina and keep it in the water at Camp Richardson at Lake Tahoe. We dont launch our boat at Richardson because the ramp is all sand and the durango is not a 4x4. Luckily we found someone at Richardson who let us borrow their 4x4 Sierra to pull our boat out. We hooked up our trailer backed in the truck and walked the boat over. Everyone was in suprisingly good spirits and actually laughing about how freezing we were in the water trying to get the damn boat on the trailer. When we pulled the boat out our spirits sank. The solid brass rutter was completely torn off and gone, the brand new ACME prop was bent almost 90 degrees to the right and completely chewed only one of the tri fins was damaged. 8,000 dollars later our boat was repaired to factory speck with a new ACME prop, New Brass rutter, new drive shaft (the drive shaft was bent on impact) and some minor fiberglass work for the hull. Luckily the engine and transmission were 100 percent perfect! My Tige 2000slm comp saved my life. If it wasnt for the superior build quality of Tige and its Carbon Graphite hull our boat would have probably been at the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

[skippabcool]

Sorry about hitting the rock but good news no one was hurt and you are now back in business.

[skippabcool]

I just noticed this was your first post. Welcome to the site.

[ajholt7]

Wow! Glad to hear no one was hurt. Thank God you were in a Tigé!

[Wickedcummins]

You got pics ?

[IDBoating]

Glad everyone was OK, that's what is most important.

If the drivetrain was undamaged, it sounds like you spent $8000 for 1) new propshaft and prop, 2) one new skeg, 3) some minor fiberglass work, and 4) a new rudder. That seems like a lot to me for those things, even including labor. Did you leave something out?

[Bakes5]

Sound like major glass work. My bro did the same thing to his bu and it cost 12k to fix

[IDBoating]

Sound like major glass work. My bro did the same thing to his bu and it cost 12k to fix

I'd have thought the same thing except the post said "some minor fiberglass work for the hull". Maybe it was the work on the Carbon Graphite hull.

[Wickedcummins]

Never happened without pics!

[robert theisen]

Good thing everyone was all right.Glad to hear no one was hurt.

[kenr08]

We actually have a family lake house in Tahoe (Dollar Point area) and boat there during the summer as well. What is interesting is that the lake level was way up this year so many of the usual hazards were under water. Tahoe can be dangerous (granite boulders) and you do have to know where you are going. The North side of the lake seems to be drop off quicker from the shoreline than does the South end of the lake but there are still areas where you need to be careful.

Glad no one was hurt. You can replace the boat, you can't replace people.

[M&M]

CRASH

Did you have insurance? When I tore off my undercarrige I just paid my deductable. Glad no one was hurt. M&M

[Tige Addict]

@wicked cummins. I promise to put up pics of the accident soon! Im gonna look for them tonight when I get home from work. As well as pics of the boat now.

[Tige Addict]

No I didnt leave anything out. There was also some glass work that needed to be done to the hull. Nothing terribly extensive. The work was done entirely by tige so that may be why it was so costly.
And yes I did have insurance.. they covered a portion of it, but another large portion came from my pocket.. Ouch.

[chpthril]

What a story. Glad to hear there were no serious injuries and the boat didnt sink.