Wow, I just checked out this build. Nice work! Especially on squaring up the hull and tunnel. =D>
Also, an excellent idea on the complete removal of the center strake, those cause cavitation. I cut the center strake off my boat, about 2 foot forward of the jet intake, and fish-plated that area with a strip of 3" X 1/4" aluminum flat stock. But if I had it to do over again, I'd remove the entire center strake, and fish plate the whole thing with the 1/4" x 3" plate. It serves the same purpose as the angle/gutter, tying the 2 halves of the boat's hull together, but with a little added strength when compared to the .100" angle or gutter, or in the case of my boat, a piece of 2" x 3/16" aluminum angle serving as a keel to replace the original one that corrosion destroyed.
Sorry to hear about the hull damage to your boat, though, that's a bummer. Glad no one was hurt, and the boat was easily recoverable.
But, one good thing your horror story, it gave me a wake-up call, as I had been considering taking my jetboat to the fall line of the PeeDee River at Cheraw, SC, where the navigable river ends, and it meets a fall line, with rocks, boulders, and swift water.... as it goes toward the Blewitt Falls dam at Rockingham, NC.
As my jetboat is ALSO a 15 year old hull made of .100" material, as well as being a little weaker from slight corrosion pitting from marine use....something tells me I'd better stay my ass off that particular stretch of river, or I might be writing a similar story to yours. I've got 4 bilge pumps aboard my boat, with a combined GPH of about 2,800, as well as flotation foam in between the outer and inner hull. But I don't want to test it and find out!
I think I'll just stick to the lowcountry rivers, with logs and sandbars, they don't inflict instantaneous catastrophic damage like boulders or sharp rocks.