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I have always said you get what you pay for in boats and a few years back I saw it first hand. FLW was here for a tournament on Old Hickory Lake. I know some of ya'll have been on this lake and you know it can be very unforgiving if you make a mistake on it. Well, because they didn't have a full field of 150 boats they opened it up to anyone that was a member and fished BFL's. Three of our local anglers signed up to fish and on the end of day one a local angler was in second place with 18 pounds. One of the Pro's decide he was going to follow the local around and fish his areas on day two. Well that will work as long as your following him and you make sure you run exactly where he runs. Well the local decided he did not appreciate having the shadow and made a long run and part of that long run required running a very very narrow ditch across the back side of a flat. On one lip of that ditch is a stump about 3 feet across the top and about 6 inches under the water. Well when the local passed the stump he zigged just barely enough to miss the stump. The Pro was not quite that lucky at 65 MPH the boat came to a very abrupt stop for a mili-second and then eased forward. The Pro turned and looked and his 225 Yamaha was completely gone. The entire motor was gone. He was only 3/4 of a mile from launch site so he gets on trolling motor and cell phone and was getting them to bring him his back up boat so they came to the dock with another Alpo Dog Food Boat. He told them on the phone that he had lost his motor and they thought he had blown it. They didn't realize that he had actually lost the whole motor. They swapped his gear to the other boat and he went back fishing and we stood there as they inspected the boat. The motor was gone. The jackplate was broke in half and both the positive and negative battery posts were ripped out of the starting battery. No that is one heck of an impact any way you look at it. They wound up sending the boat back to Ranger at Rangers request. They sent the boat off and paid to have an MRI and CT scan done of the entire boat. After a complete inspection inside and out they replaced all of the equipment and sent it back into service. They said that the Ranger Boat did not have as much as a stress crack anywhere in the boat or transome area at all. Now say what you want but I will say this Ranger does build a very strong and sturdy boat. That Yamaha is still down in Davy Jones Locker here on Old Hickory Lake unless some else has salvaged it in the last 5 months case you could pass over it and see it on depth finder. I know a few guys that have send cameras down to see if any parts might be worth going after. I am sure someone may have did a little diving and salvages some stuff off of it like Prop and a few other things but I think the bulk of it is still down there.......
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