1 it’s hard to find where your taking water on when the boat is already full of water. 2 sea cocks stick and are insanely hard to free when in the open ocean. 3 your bildge pump is never big enough 4 it all happens so fast you don’t react like you think you would 5 every boat should have a high water alarm. 6 a Pon Pon gets some attention from everyone except the container ship putting up a nice wake for a boat that is full of water to deal with.
Heard you on the radio,glad it all worked out…
Yeah, we passed you guys when you were catching bait. It shook me up pretty good, it was pretty tense until we got the valve closed. The livewell pump broke off at the hose connection and pumped it full before we ever knew anything. After it gets soo low in the water, it comes in amazingly fast even with the pump off. If the boat wasn’t foam filled we would’ve been swiming for sure.
Mayhem
Pioneer 197
Details? Everyone can learn from others experiences.
Glad you are safe.
You ain’t drunk, till you’re Tickle drunk
23 Sea Hunt “My Last Boat V”
Well, stopped a few miles short on some fishy looking water. Opened the livewell, pump musta quit on the way out only half full of water. Hit the breaker, flipped the switch, never looked in the bildge at the pump just assumed the pump was bad. Fished for 20 min or so, decided to head on, thottled up boat won’t go passed 3000 rpms and won’t plane. Fiddle with the controls a min. Light bulb goes off, hey man pop the bildge hatch and take a look. Well popped the hatch and it’s full. Check the bildge pump, yep running full bore. Take few minutes fiddling around in the bildge, can’t see where the water is coming from but it’s full and coming up farther. Tried to shut the seacock and it was stuck. At this point I’m thinking let’s get as close as we can and get on the radio before we have to get in the water. Put my buddy on bailing with a poweraide bottle (what a joke) and seeing if he can figure out where the water is coming from. Radio the coast guard our situation and coordinates and point the bow towards the rocks making 8 kts wide open. Dig out the life jackets and chatter on the radio about my phone number and no the bildge isn’t keeping up and changing channels a few times(seemed kinda trivial to me but hey I’m glad to be talking to somebody.) While I’m doing that my buddy is hard at work in the bildge, Ends up beating the valve closed with a downrigger ball. Water is finally starting to go down. Got about half of the water pumped out and along comes SS Giant Container ship at what seemed like 30 knots. Huge wake, never even slowed down for me, typical 3 five foot waves. By the time we hit sullivans the water was pumped out, at that point we had the sherrifs dept, fire dept in tow. Almost felt like telling them thanks I’m good but I’m sure they would not have accepted that.
Long story short, I was at west marine pricing pumps, and alarms within the hour. Extra bildge pump rigged up on a hose would have been nice too.
Mayhem
Pioneer 197
Thanks for telling the story. i know lots of people “know” what they would do in this situation. But until it happens you just don’t know.
I have been thinking of adding some sort of alarm to the auto bilge switch, so I will know when it turns on.
You ain’t drunk, till you’re Tickle drunk
23 Sea Hunt “My Last Boat V”
I run over it in my head and second guess everything. Should I have spent more time trying to close it in the first place, would it have been better to not move was I forcing water in the boat by running. What if the wx would have been bad when that happened… Just a ton of what if’s to go over. Did I wait too long to call the CG, did I call too soon? It’s funny the things you forget too. Just working the gps to get the coordinates becomes a challenge when it’s all happening soo fast.
Mayhem
Pioneer 197
High water alarm should be standard equipment,just like brakes on a car,i mean you are putting it in the water?they would only add 100.00 to the price if the boat…
TTKarl,you stayed pretty calm threw the whole conversation,talking to the CG is so frustrating,itnink they asked 2 or 3 times about the pump keeping up,you said no,they asked again,you said no,i wanted to grab the mic and say he said ****in NO!!!i think the only way to get them to react quicker is if you have kids on board,the few times i have heard of emergencies invovling children they had help coming really quick,every other time its a bizzilion questions over and over.
Seriously you did a good job,had your cordinates ready from the start headed to the rocks,the only thing is check those seacocks once a month to make sure they work,since i leave my boat in the water they are turned off after every trip.also a nerf ball makes a great plug if you have a hole…
Had a very similar thing memorial weekend. Posted about it on here. Ours was the raw water wash down hose that had come loose. What saved us was a back up pump with a 10 ft hose we clipped to battery till we could figure out what was going on. Had just bought the day before. Boat at Seels now getting high water alarm and new pumps and switches. Apparently one of my pumps had jarred loose so switch was not kicking pump on properly. Glad you guys are safe. It is scary but in some ways nice to know what you would do now in an emergency and what you would do differently. 1) never trust that a dealership has secured everything. Put your hands on every hose and connection you can night before go. 2) life jackets in retrospect were not as accessible as they should have been. They were in cabin in front hatch. If boat had suddenly turned would have been difficult if not dangerous to get to. 3) get high water alarm installed which is already being done.
Thanks TtCarl
Question for all please,
Is there any place to purchase damage control plugs? Wooden spherical plugs that can be hammered into the opening to plug it. Something that might be useful to play ‘little dutch boy’ and at least stop the flooding to enable the boat to get to shore.
Sea Hunt BX22 Br
WS Tarpon 140
I have seen conical wooden plugs online at several sites. If you know anyone with a lathe, they could turn you some out of your favorite wood.
Best wood would be something soft that would peel back as it is hammered into the opening. I have thought about them, but have not attempted to try and shop them yet.
Sea Hunt BX22 Br
WS Tarpon 140
I carry a gallon bag of toliet bowl wax ring from lowes to use in case of a seacock stuck open or a hose breaking. You can even spread it in a gash or cut in the hull it you hit something. Theres a company I got the idea from named stay-a-float i think that sells it in 14oz-28oz containers. I just happen to have a couple of those rings around the house and have them in my tool box. Better to have it then not have anything.
2503 Trophy
W/ Merc 115s
quote:
Originally posted by jczc2414Question for all please,
Is there any place to purchase damage control plugs? Wooden spherical plugs that can be hammered into the opening to plug it. Something that might be useful to play ‘little dutch boy’ and at least stop the flooding to enable the boat to get to shore.
Sea Hunt BX22 Br
WS Tarpon 140
West Marine has them,i bought a set yrs ago,i actually keep them in the cooler on the boat that way evryone can get to them quickly
That stay afloat stuff looks pretty cool, def could have used that stuff!
Mayhem
Pioneer 197
good for the emergency bag…
http://www.foreandaftmarine.com/EMERGENCY%20PLUGS.htm
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NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
a piece of swimming pool “noodle” makes an excellent temporary plug, and can be reshaped with your bare hands
we use them regularly when doing salvage.
very light weight and don’t take up much space
and I agree all boats should have a high water alarm
glad you didn’t NEED our services
Inspect the seacocks every couple of trips for corrosion and free operation. Spray corrosion block ever couple of trips on brass fitting. If the boat doesn’t have double clamps on those hoses, head to WM and pick up some more clamps, those things are cheap. Along with the water alarm, I don’t understand why all builders don’t double clamp their hoses.
Mark
Pioneer 222 Sportfish Yamaha F300
Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.
“Life’s tough…It’s even tougher if you’re stupid” John Wayne
Sure glad that worked out!
I carry tapered wood plugs to fit every hole in the boat, as well as a pool noodle. Hard to beat a pool noodle and nerf football for plugging holes.
I can tell you though, when water is rushing in and you don’t can’t shut the valve or have an easy plug, just grab a piece of heavy plastic, ice bag or something, and jump overboard. Stick that plastic ice bag over the intake and the water pressure will suck it on there and stop the leak right now. Much easier than trying to keep up with a gatorade bottle:smiley: If you aren’t sure where it’s coming from, swim around and cover each thru hull with your hand and you’ll find it quick.
I like Marelon sea cocks rather than bronze, they are stronger and won’t corrode. They still need to be exercised regularly but don’t require as much maintenance. And as Salty said, double clamp everything.
But remember, when the water is rushing in, if you plug it from the outside, physics will work with you to seal the hole. Trying to plug it from the inside against many pounds of water pressure is a lot more difficult.
Always good to have a thought out plan to the what-ifs, before they occur. Then little problems just become a nuisance rather than dangerous.
2 questions I always hated to hear…
Capt, is the cabin supposed to be flooded with water? [:0]
Capt, is all this smoke in the cabin normal? [:0]
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose