Broken Tower (2012 230)

[Ziplock]

Have any of you ever come across anything like this? This is my old boat that i traded in on May 7th. Costumer picked up the boat on the 15th or so and apparently it broke while surfing the first time on the water. I rode the Sunday before I took it in with no issues at all. The boat had the NSS installed and lake tested as well after i dropped it off. I only took pictures of the Port side but it cracked in the same places on the other side as well.

What do you guys think?

[TxJole]

Wow, that's a new one.

[s_kelley2000]

Wow that is a bummer. Hopefully warranty will take care of him quickly. Seems hard to fathom how it could happen without an impact but maybe there was a week spot and once one side let go the other followed. What are those towers made of?

[nyryan2001]

Freeze damage?

Problem with some Nautique towers. Some lack the ability to self drain. The tower tubes fill up with water from rain and stay filled during cold weather. It expands and hairline stress cracks the towers. I have never seen it only heard about it.

Any chance he hit something towing or tried to go under a low bridge out on the water?

[TxJole]

Freeze damage?

Problem with some Nautique towers. Some lack the ability to self drain. The tower tubes fill up with water from rain and stay filled during cold weather. It expands and hairline stress cracks the towers. I have never seen it only heard about it.

Any chance he hit something towing or tried to go under a low bridge out on the water?

freeze damage is known at the base, never hear of it at the top.

[iamcdn]

something seems fishy

[CradGen2]

There is way more to this story IMO. I would struggle to think freeze issue based on the location.

[jsta281]

Ya no way that tower went from "perfect" to falling apart in a 2 weeks. What are the white markings on both sides of where it is coming apart? Is it the powder coat/ paint chiping?

[Ziplock]

I will agree with the "more to the story" thinking. I just stopped by to check out my new boat as it had just arrived, and seen that my old boat was parked out front. You can cross out the freeze theory. The boat had be kept indoors with climate control all winter. Never even winterized it.

Other then the cracks there dose not appear to be any other type of damage, as if it were to have hit something.

I am baffled by the whole situation.

[TxJole]

Only one clear cut answer, swamp logging!

[rsess]

Well i can help you. I had the same thing happen to my 2012 230 on the first day it was delivered last june. cracks at weld. both sides. Boat delivered friday afternoon. cracked saturday morning. picked up by dealer monday am. Replaced with piece from another new boat. returned thursday. No problem since. I was told nautique was having trouble with supplier. 2013's are made by somebody else.

[hondaprlud]

They had to hit something.

[super01]

It appears from those pictures that the welds had little to no penetration into the base material on one side of the joint. Nice clean separation of the joint and you can see the machined end of the tube is almost perfect.

Of course even bad welds don't fail on their own, there needs to be a load applied.

[jonsquatch]

Doesn't look like they hit anything as the damage would have been from front to back and whats forward of the damaged area looks fine (looks fine behind it as well for that matter). I thought maybe the hooked the rope on something, maybe the dock, but that would probably show damage in other places as well... Did they try to lift the boat from above using the tower? Any way you look at it that eerie.

[Sac Surfer]

I have only see freeze damage at the base of the FCT3 tower, you noticed they change the mounting on the FCT4/5's

Correct Craft/Nautique does not make the towers. They were made by Roswell Wake I believe.

For the top of the tower to split like that in the 1st image, the boat was either incorrectly lifted from the tower, stress fracture/poor weld/cast, or hit / towing something incorrectly.