I was out fishing with a buddy yesterday and there was a lot of boat traffic - BIG boats- in the intercoastal waterway - everyone out for an Easter cruise I guess. We were following the parade of boats and went to cross one of the BIG boat's wake and the instant the boat impacted the wake (we all know how gently these old hulls like to cut through waves - this was about a 4+ footer), the windsheild disintegrated into a million peices. My buddy and I just looked at each other in shock as we had glass in our laps and all over the boat around the console.
The only thing I can think caused this was that the light
attached to the top of the frame has a little movement in it and it came down and smacked the glass hard enough to make it explode - luckily it was safety glass. Took us a good 20 minutes to clean all the glass out of the boat - all we had was a couple old tide charts to use as scoops. Little tiny shards were cutting us up. Still feel some in my fingers.
After this happened, we continued to fish and cruised all over the place with my new "clear" windsheild. I did learn a few things though after the incident: 1) you really appreciate the windsheild when crossing some wakes that throw water up and the windsheild usually blocks it - we got wet a few times
2) that the boat goes no faster without glass in the frame - go figure
I always thought it was taking away a couple mph. Must be an enhancement to the aerodynamics?
Oh well, time to call a glass company. This time I'll put a little rubber bumper where the light touches it.
