World shocked by three deaths in a week at Key West Super Boat World Championships – Boating News
In the past week, three boat racers have lost their lives in tragic accidents. On Wednesday, November 9, 2011, the boat racing pair of Bob Morgan and Jeffery Tillman died when their forty-six foot long boat went flying high and
came down with a thunderous crash upside down. The impact was disastrous, as the two racers could not survive the cruel water beneath.
Both racers were veterans in their sport where Robert Morgan was 74 years old while Jeffery Tillman was 47 years old. They were competing on the opening day of the Key West Super Boat World Championships in Florida.
With twelve hundred horsepower under their boat’s engine, the slight jump on uneven waters gave a huge leverage, as their multi-hulled boat was catapulted into the air and rotating in mid air before slamming upside down.
In the past, Robert Morgan was the winner of the 1998 and 2011 races held at the Key West Super Power Boat competition.
Morgan has had accidents in the past as well, when his boat was crashed in 1999 and in the year 2004 his boat was burned down after a fire. Morgan survived these two incidents but his career and life came to a crashing halt on
Wednesday.
The pair of Morgan and Tillman, riding in their boat named Big Thunder, were in the third lap of the 6.1 mile race.
In another incident on Friday, November 11, 2011, Joey Gratton veteran boat racer and champion at the offshore racing division lost his life when his thirty-eight foot powerboat went airborne and rotated twice in the air and crashed
down.
Gratton was going into the last turn of the 7th lap race at the Key West Super Boat World Championships in Florida when the disaster occurred.
The deaths were a shock for the entire boating sport but the event went on without any delay. John Carbonell, CEO of the Key West Super Boat World Championship, devastated by the deaths of his racers, said, "I'm not twisting
anybody's arm. If somebody's concerned or scared, they shouldn't go out there. They know when they come to a race the potential of accidents to themselves and other people."
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