06/09/2024
Update: First I would like to thank everyone for the calls, texts, and messages. Cody and I are safe and sound but the boat suffered a major hit from debris in the water. It appears something hit under the throttle seat near the end of the first step and the bottom continued to peal towards the bow. I could feel the drag after the first impact but was hopeful it would remain intact. A minute or two after the first hit we crossed a small set of waves when a hole broke through and the boat immediately started taking in water. As you can hear from the live stream video I instructed Cody to turn around and head towards Florida. After the initial assessment we pulled the life raft because we would soon lose the boat taking in that amount of water. We were approximately 32 miles from Florida at the time. I did put out a distress call through the Raymarine USA raymic but the boat lost all power soon after. By a stroke of luck the turbomeca turbines stayed running because the were above the water that was sunk by the boat. About five minutes after we lost power the port engine began to surge and eventually shut itself off. At that point the coast guard was now hovering above us asking if we needed the hoist. I gave them a thumbs up because we were still under power with the starboard engine. By a second stroke of luck we noticed the driveshaft was spinning the water up to the exhaust and the exhaust was pushing out the water boat as fast as the hole was letting it in, so I realized we might be able to save the boat from sinking if the engine would stay running. The entire time Nikole was hovering over us in our helicopter and helped us navigate towards Florida using hand signals. We had no way to communicate with anyone but both of us had hope we would make it back to land. The first plan of action was to beach it on peanut Island to prevent losing the boat. When we finally got close enough for cell service I began texting Nikole and the team about our plan. The teams quick response got the trailer to the ramp and the police fire and EMS shut down the ramp to dedicate for our arrival and gave us the option to shoot for the trailer instead of beaching on a public beach. About a mile away from the inlet the starboard engine started surging and losing power but luckily sea tow had begun to stay parallel in case we lost power. Seconds after the engine shut down they had secured us to a tow rope and threw us pumps to keep the water pumping out of the boat. Sea tow got us through the inlet and landed us on our awaiting trailer. As our crew chief (Torey Dorell) pulled the boat out, the full extent of the damage revealed itself and the entire starboard side bottom was missing. It will take weeks to fully assess the damage and determine what the next step is. I would like to personally thank everyone for all of the support and this is only another chapter in our life of racing. I hope to see you all soon. Nikole and I are on the way to the airport to head back to OKC but I will connect with you all soon. Thank you.
Andy Copeland
