Nautiques can't sink

[nautiques4life]

...or at least that's what I was told by a dealer MANY years ago.
I'm guessing it was late 90's-early 2000s, definitely after ballast became available in 98; anyways this salesperson told me they couldn't sink, you could cut them in half and they'd still float, etc... Crediting it to their industry leading foam, or amount of foam they put in their boats- something like that. Anyways not sure if it's social media- and not that I ever believed any boat was unsinkable; but I've definitely been seeing lots more submarine nautiques lately. More ballast, subfloor ballast, more boats, less experienced ops, what gives? And also curious if anyone else had ever heard that or if it just is (was) this guy's line.

[scottb7]

That was bs from day 1...in my opinion.

[t.franscioni]

I cut my 2002 super air in half and can say there is a lot of foam in these older boats.... lol.... enough to keep it from sinking? It might reach neutral buoyancy about 10-15ft under the water.... they will certainly sink enough to total them so not sure what kind of selling point they were pitching back then.

[Dandy21]

Any chance your dealer sells Nautiques and Whalers? That is the exact marketing that Boston Whaler has been using for decades. Maybe he got his training mixed up.

[Blamey]

I thought all boats were designed this way.

I have never seen and example of a sunk inboard. I've seen plenty with water up to the windshield but never anything sitting on the bottom of the lake.

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[charlesml3]

Well, this one certainly didn't sink and it had every opportunity to do so: https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...e-g21-capsizes

[jharris]

If you read the attached article it says that the boat was sitting at the bottom of the lake and had to be retrieved by the rescue team. The question always is if the boat has addition no neutral buoyant ballast such as lead. That's going to be a killer if it starts to go down.


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[nautiques4life]

No connection to whaler that I know of... Exclusively correct craft back then, but possible.
A team of divers + air ballast is in my mind sinking (your neighbor was one of the recent occurrences that made me think of it).

[swc5150]

When was selling MC's in college, the factory rep said this about their boats too. I have seen, with my own eyes, 2 Prostars submerged to gunwales, and neither sank. Both were pulled from the water immediately, so perhaps they would've sank given more time? A buddy's Century was also filled to the gunwales, and it sunk like a stone. Maybe there's some truth to this?

[Blamey]

If you read the attached article it says that the boat was sitting at the bottom of the lake and had to be retrieved by the rescue team. The question always is if the boat has addition no neutral buoyant ballast such as lead. That's going to be a killer if it starts to go down.


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Well "sitting on the bottom of the lake" sounds better than "submerged to the gunwales", so this could be lazy journalism.

Used to happen all the time when I skydived. The news always reported 'parachute didn't open' when that was rarely what actually happened.

[SJ30]

I have heard the same unsinkable claim. I spoke with he lady that lost the 210 in St George Ut last week and she said the boat went to the bottom (40 feet) about a minute after it capsized. She had been surfing with full ballast and had taken one big wave over the front and two more over the back that killed the engine. She abandoned ship just before it rolled and sank.

[Sailfun]

I wonder how much lead they had in the boat in addition to water ballast?

[SJ30]

Stock ballast only, no fat sacks or lead.

[kmarine]

I remember something like that in the movie titanic. pulled a lot of soaked foam from under boat decks over the years. ranger had adds with a side of the hull cut out. Put enough weight in any boat and it and it will sink.