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Cedar Point : Shoot the Rapids removal?

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
They posted on twitter that it's too cold to go on a Water Ride(on WiFi that blocks Twitter, but it showed the tweet at the bottom of CP website), and they moved Webcam 3 to just be outside of the STR view. A little suspicious I'd say.
 

Intricks

Strata Poster
I dont know, the moving of a construction cam wouldnt be done for a tear down imo, but maybe they are dealing with Intamin to get new boats to allow for a full car again and maybe some form of upgrade to the ride itself in the form of themeing.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVznerpOkTI[/youtube]

The sooner it comes down, the better. This ride has never operated at full capacity since the accident, and sits on prime real-estate within the park. To the best of most knowledge, Cedar Point tried to retrofit and rectify the problem of the ride safety systems, but was never able to find it with the help of Intamin.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Oh, I really liked it.

If this gets torn down this may be the biggest fail ride type for a long time.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
I think if they do remove it, they can fit a nice GCI there that can interact with MF. That'd be neat.

Sent from my VS820 using Tapatalk
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
It only opened in 2010 didn't it?
I think this confirms that Cedar Fair have washed their hands with Intamins. That's a shame as they have made some truly great rides but as a company they don't have the best track record at all.
 

Snoo

The Legend
^This ride was sort of doomed from the beginning tbh. It NEVER really worked right. Plus that accident was enormous in not only the demise of the ride but in the relationship with Intamin IMO.
 

Temleh

Mega Poster
Snoo said:
^This ride was sort of doomed from the beginning tbh. It NEVER really worked right. Plus that accident was enormous in not only the demise of the ride but in the relationship with Intamin IMO.

How on Earth did the accident even happen? Did the boat not engage on to the lift hill properly? Were the anti-rollbacks insufficient?
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
The anti-rollback never engaged on the lift hill. What is at the heart of the problem is the boats float through a traditional flume, and then ascend a tubular steel track lift hill. The transition from flume to track meant the anti-rollback did not properly engaged. The boats also did not have a traditional upstop wheel design, which would have kept the boat on the track rather than flipping.

From the article:

On July 19, 2013, seven guests were on a Shoot the Rapids boat that malfunctioned while ascending a lift hill. Inspectors determined the boat went down the hill backward about 187 feet, then traveled another 41 feet until it struck the edge of a concrete flume. The force of the collision damaged about 7 feet of concrete. The boat then continued in the flume an additional 58 feet, striking the flume wall several more times and hitting another boat before overturning, the guests still inside. The inspection revealed two safety features never engaged: one designed to prevent boats from coming off the track, the other to prevent boats from rolling backward.
 

Shirofukurou

Mega Poster
Hyde said:
The anti-rollback never engaged on the lift hill. What is at the heart of the problem is the boats float through a traditional flume, and then ascend a tubular steel track lift hill. The transition from flume to track meant the anti-rollback did not properly engaged. The boats also did not have a traditional upstop wheel design, which would have kept the boat on the track rather than flipping.

From the article:

On July 19, 2013, seven guests were on a Shoot the Rapids boat that malfunctioned while ascending a lift hill. Inspectors determined the boat went down the hill backward about 187 feet, then traveled another 41 feet until it struck the edge of a concrete flume. The force of the collision damaged about 7 feet of concrete. The boat then continued in the flume an additional 58 feet, striking the flume wall several more times and hitting another boat before overturning, the guests still inside. The inspection revealed two safety features never engaged: one designed to prevent boats from coming off the track, the other to prevent boats from rolling backward.
Wow. Whoever was responsible for designing that needs to go back to engineering school, that's two HUGE oversights that got through...

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
_koppen said:
So scrapping or relocation with refurbishing?
That would be pretty tough, as you would still need a lot of site prep for laying concrete for troughs, water systems, etc.

I know it sounds overstated on the Cedar Point admin hatred towards the ride, but the ride has seriously not seen full capacity operation since the accident. Sporadically long durations of closure throughout the season with no reasoning, and when the ride is open the trains are front-loaded. If not the biggest Intamin ride fail, it certainly merits a top 5 finish.

I braved the cold over the weekend to try to see if there was any visual deconstruction of Shoot the Rapids. You can still see the first lift hill standing amidst the trees, so nothing progressive yet.

12716303_10153317645433639_2889980595881642010_o.jpg
 

Shirofukurou

Mega Poster
If I'm not mistaken the park already has another large flume (Snake River Falls) so it's not like they're removing a key attraction.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
^ That is correct. Snake River Falls is a Shoot the Chutes-style splash boat ride, and Thunder Canyon is another neighboring River Rapids ride. The water ride void that Shoot the Rapids filled (and will now create) is a traditional log flume ride. Cedar Point has had a number of log flume rides in its past, the Mill Race, which opened in 1963 and was removed for Raptor in 1993; the original Shoot the Rapids, which opened with Frontier Town in 1967 and was replaced by the larger White Water Landing in 1983, which was then torn down to make room for Maverick in 2005. So now the park will be back to 2 water rides... maybe Cedar Fair will turn up with an old Arrow log flume on their old ride rummage sale hunt? :razz:
 

TommyAlex

Mega Poster
CP should wait another couple of years then fill the space with a Mack water coaster. Everyone's happy then; it's a coaster, it's a big family coaster, and it's a water ride.
 

Shirofukurou

Mega Poster
A Mack water coaster would be perfect. It's baffling they never added one during the "drought" between Maverick and Gatekeeper.
 
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