A boat launched almost perfectly on top of a Jeep at a jet sprint boat course in St. John on Saturday.
The owners of that boat said it was simply an accident that happened while they were warming the boat up. Rick Phillips of Spokane Valley was behind the wheel of the boat when it happened.
"I was amazed it happened. After seeing the video, it was just shocking," he said.
Phillips is the owner and driver of Hammertime, a jet sprint boat. It is a sport where high-powered boats jet around manmade shallow courses. In this instance, the boat jetted onto a car.
Jen McClelland was riding shotgun as the navigator on the boat. This all was a simple accident. The Hammertime team was warming the boat up, and slightly gassing the engine. Then, a chain that keeps the boat in place on a trailer broke, causing Phillips to accidentally hit the gas full on.
No one was hurt. There is no damage to the boat and just minor damage to Jeep. The boat just rested perfectly atop that car, not shooting any further or rolling off. The boat weighs 1,000 pounds and has 650 horsepower. But what are the odds of it perfectly launching onto that car?
Dr. Al Greer, a physics professor, put it simply: The chances of something like this happening again are slim. Since the sprint boat tipped upwards after the chain broke, it likely got a boost from its jets pointed down at the shallow water. Greer said it is amazing that the boat landed as it did and did not go over the car or stop short of the roof. Greer said trying to re-create this would be very hard.
"I don't think you could ever do that, even if you planned it. There's just no way," Phillips said.
He said he has never heard of something like this happening before and it's also a marvel that nobody was hurt.