Jetsprint boat racing is among the more terrifying things to watch when things are going well but when they go wrong, baby do they go WRONG. In this case it was a couple racing at the Jetsprint world championships in New Zealand when they experienced the worst crash in this type of racing we’ve ever seen. The boat pinwheeled like a flaming tomahawk through the air before landing with a thud and amazingly the man and woman that were in the wreck walked away and are rebuilding their racing operation as you read this.
Since we’re complete imbeciles when it comes to this exciting form of motorsports we’re not really sure what the heck happened other than it happened in the blink of an eye. When heading into a turn the boat seemed to become upset and when that happened it was less and a second later before the Earth and sky swapped spots a couple of times, fire erupted from the engine, and a lot of distance was covered over land.
You’ll see the whole thing go down in multiple camera angles below. If anyone knows more about this stuff than we do (which is likely everyone) go ahead and send along your best theories about how this whole thing went so wrong so quickly.
We wish Kate Hoogerbrug and Blake Briant the best in their quest to get their racing program up and running again and we hope they get back on the water soon. This is a sport that requires amazing concentration, skill, and guts, and they both have ’em in spades.
FOLLOW THE FACEBOOK OF THE 52 JETSPRINT TEAM IN THE WRECK HERE
Watch The Biggest Horror Show Of A Jetsprint Boat Wreck We’ve Ever Seen –
Posted by Bronson Dunne on Tuesday, February 2, 2016
I’m always amazed how these boats turn like they’re on rails! Lost suction? One is curious?
A jet pump sucks water from an intake great at the bottom of the boat, it’s like a big vacuum cleaner pulling it down into the water,,, it loses that and it’s like a race car losing it’s downforce suddenly…
Hi! I am the navigator of this boat 🙂 Yes we lost suction! The boat was very tail happy from the start of the race, we hit a wake and it bounced the back of the boat out of the water, because the water was only ankle deep it was not deep enough for the boat to displace the water and re-suction, therefore we skipped across the water (just like skipping a stone). Blake had the steering wheel on full lock right but there was nothing we could do except brace! The boat is a write off but we walked away with a few gnarly bruises.. All of the safety gear worked perfectly 🙂
I have watched a few of these races on late night motorsports shows. I have not figured out a few things in these races. First, what is the copilot for? Is this like a water version of a rally car? Does that person tell the boat driver which way to go, or are they just ballast? The second is how in the hell do they which way to go on these tracks?
Where can I get one of these boats? Wow!
the co pilot is a navigator. He sticks his hand up in the drivers field of vision and literally points which way he should be turning…
Hi John, Most navis still point with their hand but we use intercoms built into our helmets. I tell Blake where to go and my hand stays out of the way. I don’t think we was listening when I told him to turn RIGHT 😉
Kate (Navigator)
Scott – my partner/driver’s uncle used to build these boats and my partner knows how! Happy to point you in the right direction to get your hands on one 🙂 we learn the tracks by heart a day or 2 before the race
It looks like the rear end just skipped out and tagged the bank.
Rear end skipped out causing loss of suction so we couldn’t turn. We knew we were stuffed before we hit the bank! all safe and sound we walked away from it 🙂
What’s amazing to me is that there’s STADIUMS with river courses in them. Wild…props to the NZ’ers
Thanks Jay Bree 🙂
This was only during the qualifiers, the final filled up with 16,000+ ppl.
The stadium is a rugby pitch with a stock car track around the outside, they dig it up every year for us to race then return it to grass within a few weeks ready for the rugby season!
Kate (navigator of this boat)
I’m sorry, I don’t see the video or a link to it.
Hi Truckin’ Ted,
I am the navigator in this boat. This is the link to the video on your FB page 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/52-Jetsprint-Team-Blake-and-Kate-800611116675550/?ref=bookmarks
Cheers,
Kate