While we are waiting.....

[Island Girl]

While we are waiting for ice-in or ice-out.... here is some interesting reading on why boats sink!

http://www.boatus.com/news/releases/...nuary/sink.asp

Enjoy!
IG

[SIKSUKR]

Thanks IG.Unfortunatly,I fell into one the catagories for almost sinking.Replacing the drain plugs after winter storage.Duh!

[codeman671]

I think that most people who have many years of boating under their belts will admit to dropping their boat in with no drainplug at least once...

Mine was at the Wolfeboro town docks on a busy Saturday afternoon. My friend backed me down, I slid off and started to back up while he took off with the truck and trailer. I immediately realized that I was going down and started screaming for him to come back. Luckily someone flagged him down and I made full throttle trailering manuever that I am still surprised to this day did not end me up in the back of the truck!

[LIforrelaxin]

There is absolutely no way we forgot the drain plug on Lake Washington when my brother felt his feet getting wet while he was putting the engine down (no power trim on the old boat)....

And I know there is now way the drain plug was forgoten the day dad shoved me off the trailer and my feet got wet while I was paddling back to the dock because I wasn't stong enough yet to put the motor down, at Wallowa Lake in Oregon.....

There is just no way these things happen because I was young and I am sure I am just not remembering things correctly......

[Waterbaby]

Thanks IG - I was astounded to read about the bellows........ makes me wonder how many marinas (including my own), when de-winterizing our boats, check the bellows? I was also surprised to see the drainplug not being inserted so far down on the list..... fortunately that's never happened to me, only because I know so many people it has happened to that I'm always very cautious about it -- check it every time before Bear hits the water!!!!!!!!

[TomC]

Originally Posted by Waterbaby

Thanks IG - I was astounded to read about the bellows........ makes me wonder how many marinas (including my own), when de-winterizing our boats, check the bellows? I was also surprised to see the drainplug not being inserted so far down on the list..... fortunately that's never happened to me, only because I know so many people it has happened to that I'm always very cautious about it -- check it every time before Bear hits the water!!!!!!!!

Mine went this summer (drive bellows - the Merc Alpha I has 3 of them, the drive bellows, one for the exhaust and one for the shift cable). A steady stream of lake water was pouring into the bilge which I heard as a trickle (like a faucet left on). This was on a Saturday morning and the leak must have happened sometime during the prior week. The flow was only moderate and luckily the bilge pump had been keeping up. I had to make immediate arrangements to get the boat out of the water.

The bellows was the original on a 9 year old boat and it failed without warning. These bellows are in very tight spaces and it is pretty much impossible to inspect them thoroughly to the degree that you could say with certainty that they'll make it another season. A quick peek and maybe a poke to feel if the rubber is 'punky' is all a marina or DIYer is really going to be able to do (which I had done last spring about 6 weeks before mine failed).

The bellow system is a real disadvantage in an I/O compared to an outboard as that piece of rubber is all that is keeping the lake outside your boat... the only safe play is to periodically replace the 3 bellows on a schedule you're comfortable with. Around every 5 years will do it (a marina charged me $500 for the job). My boat was out of service for half the summer because of this - no such thing as same day marina service in July - so I paid in lost enjoyment for trying to stretch out the bellows replacement on my boat. it could have been worse - if I had been gone 2 weeks instead of 1, i could have found a submarine when I got back to the lake....

[Dave R]

TomC, If you remove the drive, a shockingly easy thing to do, the bellows are very easy to inspect. It's a great time to check the gimbal bearing, remove some excess grease, and check the engine alignment, as well.

I would not sweat a bad exhaust bellows, that won't sink the boat. My Bravo 3 does not even have an exhaust bellows, just an open-ended boot.

[trfour]

My brother and his wife came up during the week to use the boat a few summers back and stopped at (Happy Landing) to run up to the store to get some things for their picnic lunch to take on the boat with them.

We had had a lot of rain earlier that year and the currant through the channel was running at about 7mph so it was a little tricky docking.

Coming into the dock when he put it into reverse to stop the boat the transmission cable snapped, it was still in forward gear, the shifter was in reverse and the boat was'nt stopping and he gave it more throttle, ended up hitting a parked boat and then climbing up on the dock with the bow up when he finally thought to turn off the ignition. The boat was at quite an angle, slid backwards back into the water, hit bottom with the Stearn and of course bent the prop all up, and took on some water over the transom but the bilge pump was able the keep it from sinking.
Thank God no one was injured!

So, you want to check your transmission cable from time to time, make sure that it is fastened to the carb linkage tightly, and replace it every once in a while.

I got home from work and went to help get the boat home, and my brother said " Happy Landing my donkey "

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by codeman671

I think that most people who have many years of boating under their belts will admit to dropping their boat in with no drainplug at least once...

Nope, I'll never admit it happened once


.

[Island Girl]

That's how we used to bail our little SeaRay 500.... get the boat going straight with the bow in the air... go and pull the plug.... then drive in wide circles until all the water was out... and plug her up again!

IG

[Silver Duck]

Yep, that's how my Dad used to bail out our 16 ft. Thompson (one time because he never put the plug in in the first place!)

Silver Duck

[Kevin C]

Originally Posted by codeman671
"I think that most people who have many years of boating under their belts will admit to dropping their boat in with no drainplug at least once"

No, that was not me at the launch ramp in Lynn circa 1971 running back to my car to get the trailer down the ramp quickly so that our green center console wouldn't sink.... Just someone who looked like me!

[Resident 2B]

Kevin,

Was that the ramp near the Nahant traffic circle behind the Little League field or was it the ramp off the Lynnway near what was Champion Lamp? I saw drain plug 'emergencies' at both locations that year and I was wondering which one was you.

I messed up in Swampscott that year. Thank God for shallow ocean beaches in that area. Thurston's handles the boat now, so I cannot mess up these days!

R2B

[Island Girl]

I have replaced three in the last seven years... two different boats.

Last summer I noticed a lot of water in the bilge... the pump mostly kept up... then kept sticking in the on position and burned out.

My friend and I leaving the Weirs Docks and noticed the carpet getting very wet as we hit waves... upon inspection... we had a LOT of water and it was pouring in the back... I knew it was the bellows... should have known a a week or two earlier having had the two earlier experiences.

We got up on plane and headed for Minge Cove .... calling our marina to get ready to pull me out as soon as I got there...

We had to speed down the marina channel, upsetting the boaters there (I don't blame them) ... and on to the trailer waiting on the ramp for us... a rather scary event. I was fortunate enough that they could fix me up right away and two hours later I was back in the water.

The moral of the story is... if you are taking on water... check out the bellows.

IG

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

...... and plug her up again!...

The key step .... sometimes forgotten