hull vents?

[bridgeman]

I was going out Lake Erie on Saturday morning running north-east into a following sea that was about 4' and typical of Erie very steep and tight together. Numerous times on the run out I noticed water splashing through the vents and on to the floor, it didn't look like it was very much so it didn't really bother me. After about 3 hours of trolling I noticed that the stern looked like it was riding too low and when I pulled the hatch in front of the splash well it was full of water, bilged about half of it out until the pump got filled with sand that must have been up front and washed back during this ordeal. I made it back to the ramp and put it on the trailer and after about 30-45 minutes had it drained out no damage to the boat but it took about 20 years off my life. Somethings not adding up here to me, is there that much room up front between the stringers, I was amazed at how much water came out of it. Is it possible to take on that much water through the vents? As the water was draining I checked all of the through hull fittings and they weren't leaking any ideas on where else to look? Not really eager to get her back out on the lake again until I'm sure this is resolved, it took a good bit of gruntin for the old merc's to get up on plane..really scared the chit otta me

[Wildman]

Sounds like you might have a broken valve or line in your wash down or live well systems. Back it into the water after its dry (leave it floating just above the trailer) and open all the hatches, figure out which end of the boat its coming from. That will give you a start.

Its the worst feeling in the world to be on a boat thats taking water.

[Fr. Frank]

Its the worst feeling in the world to be on a boat thats taking water.

No, the worst feeling is when your 17' center console is sinking because you spun a hub on the prop, and the prop spun forward and wedged in the gear housing, then you dropped the non-floating prop wrench, your anchor is not holding the bottom and you've already dragged the anchor through the outer of three breaks off Delray Beach, there's over 50 King mackerel on the deck, it's two a.m., the USCG won't come rescue you because they think the call is a prank/hoax, you've got a cast from foot to above the knee, every incoming wave deposit water in the boat faster than the little 360 gph bilge pump can keep up with, your fishing buddy has decided to swim for shore to call for help since the USCG won't come, and you're alone on the sinking boat in breaking waves.

THAT"S the worst feeling in the world on a small boat. And yes, with a few details omitted, that DID happen to me.

And yes, I did get rescued. I was the guy with the cast on my leg from near the hip down. I had resigned myself to riding the hull all the way to the beach, but a USCG 41' arrived after I had dragged the anchor through the 2nd break. My buddy got a hold of a policeman, who came, looked out and saw the boat 300 yards off the beach, and called the Coasties himself.

The final irony is that the OOD that night at CG Station Lake Worth who didn't believe my initial radio report was the Exec off the Cape Shoalwater, and my 1st cousin. He didn't know it was me, and they had been averaging more than 4 prank calls a week for some time.

[Wildman]

Yea I didnt feel like typing out my whole ordeal...

The puddle pirates didnt come out to help us for the same reason, thought it was a hoax.
Its a 10 min (or less at speed) ride from their pier to where we beached the sinking boat. THEN they wouldnt come to the beach to hand us the pump so we could re-float the POS and get it to the bulkhead.

[NoBones]

re-float the POS and get it to the bulkhead.

Was this a SeaCraft ?
Just curious...

See ya, Ken

[Wildman]

Was this a SeaCraft ?
Just curious...

See ya, Ken

Nope 22ft Mako. The hull gave up after 40+ years of service. The structure of the boat is wet and allowed the hull to flex for a LONG time. Just happend we were 150yds off the beach doing 10mph with 4 guys on board when the hull gave up!
The day before we were 3+miles off shore....

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Hi Fr. Frank:

No, the worst feeling is when your 17' center console is sinking because you spun a hub on the prop, and the prop spun forward and wedged in the gear housing, then you dropped the non-floating prop wrench, your anchor is not holding the bottom and you've already dragged the anchor through the outer of three breaks off Delray Beach, there's over 50 King mackerel on the deck, it's two a.m., the USCG won't come rescue you because they think the call is a prank/hoax, you've got a cast from foot to above the knee, every incoming wave deposit water in the boat faster than the little 360 gph bilge pump can keep up with, your fishing buddy has decided to swim for shore to call for help since the USCG won't come, and you're alone on the sinking boat in breaking waves.

THAT"S the worst feeling in the world on a small boat. And yes, with a few details omitted, that DID happen to me.


For all that to happen to you in just one trip you must have got God or the Devil really mad at you.

Were you Fishing on Sunday??? Or did you just get back from some mission trip to Africa???


FellowShip

………………………….

Just for the Grins

Official 23’ SF Antique Classic SeaCraft Owner

[Fr. Frank]

Hi Fr. Frank:

For all that to happen to you in just one trip you must have got God or the Devil really mad at you.

Were you Fishing on Sunday??? Or did you just get back from some mission trip to Africa???


FellowShip

It was back in early-mid '84, when I was the Dockmaster for Waterway Marina in Palm Beach Gardens. The kingfish were running offshore, and I had a commercial fishing license so I could sell my catch to the fish market. Jeff, (one of my employees) and I went out just before dark to catch some fish to make a few extra bucks.

We took lots of frozen sardines for bait, four Penn 4/0 rod combo's and we went out in his 17' Cruise Boats center console powered by a '71 Evinrude Triumph 55 hp (3 cyl electric shift model)

We went out Boynton inlet, and then south to Boca Raton off the outer reef, where the kings were running in 90'-140' over the outer reef. The wind was blowing 20-30 mph constant out of the east, so we would drift westerly over the reef, then run back outside and do it again. It wasn't quite nasty outside, but certainly less than completely comfortable, especially in a boat that flexed like a soggy potato chip.

The kingfish were so hungry, we couldn't even get a bait down 30' without a hit, and most of the time, a catch, too. No big smokers, but no little snakes, either. For fuel economy, we had changed the 15' aluminum prop for a 17' SS raker. We were in the process of moving back out for another drift when we spun the hub on the prop.

Jeff went to change the prop, to put the aluminum back on, but couldn't get it to budge, it was wedged tightly into the gearcase. I tried banging on it with the prop wrench and in the process dropped the wrench into 100 feet of water. So we decided to just drift in closer to shore, while waiting on the Coast Guard for help.

We radio'd CG Station Lake Worth, and they didn't believe we had a real emergency. They asked us, "Are your lives in immediate danger?". I said, "no, not until we drift into the breakers", whereupon I was sternly advised that it was a crime to make a false distress report, and told to get off the frequency. At that point, the CG stopped answering our hails.

Being 23 years old, and fairly stupid, we decided we still had bait, beer, and Pepsi so we'd keep on fishing. We already had over 600 lbs of kingfish in the boat, completely covering the deck side to side and front to back. That was about 11:00 p.m. We continued to call the USCG, describing our position and our predicament. We really had no worries until we drifted in to the first break.

Oh Crap!! A 17' center console with the hull strength of a Pringles is a scary thing to ride through 4-6' seas with waves breaking up to 10' high, and we had no power. We tried to anchor outside of the break, but just dragged the anchor through the sandy bottom. It did keep the bow into the waves, however.

We probably lost more than half of our catch as wave after wave would break over the bow and run right down the deck and over the transom. At some point, the bilge inspection plate in the engine well was washed over the back, so we set the cooler over the hole and tied it in place using dock lines. A lot of water was going into the bilge, nontheless, and the pump while working, was a little 360 gph RuleMatic.

We began discussing at what point we would abandon the boat and begin swimming for shore, knowing I would be swimming with a 15 lb anchor attached to my leg in the form of a full leg-length plaster cast (broken kneecap in a MC accident).

We had 4 life preservers on board, three ski-vest types and one throw-able cushion. We used 100 lb mono leader to tie the flotation cushion to my leg at the knee to keep it afloat, and once we were well inside the outer, 3rd set of breakers, Jeff went over the side to swim to shore for help. I got out the Q-beam spotlight(remember those?) and began illuminating the apartments in the oceanfront condos to try to attract attention. And I kept drifting in.

Jeff flagged down a Delray Beach police officer who was called to investigate the lights shining into people's bedrooms from offshore. He looked out and saw me with the spotlight, and hearing Jeff's story, he called dispatch, who then called the USCG, who responded by sending a 41'.

Going through the 2nd, middle set of breakers, I thought I was going to have to swim. The anchor got so loose at one point, the boat turned nearly broadside, almost capsizing. And I was still 200 yards offshore.

After the boat and I survived the 2nd set of breakers, Jeff decided to swim back out to the boat, in case I needed help abandoning the boat and getting to shore. I think it took him almost 1/2 an hour to swim back out to the boat in those conditions. I can't begin to express how amazed I was that he would do this.

Shortly after he got back to the boat, the CG arrived, and floated a line back over 200' through the breakers to us, and told us to hook ourselves onto the line and abandon our boat, and they would then rescue us by pulling us to safety back out through the 2nd break and pulling us onboard their vessel.

Jeff promptly hooked the clip on the line to the tow eye of his boat, released his anchor line with the throw-able PFD attached to it, and demanded they pull the boat and us to safety, which they then did. We arrived at the CG station on Peanut Island at about 3:30 a.m.

9 days later Jeff got a bill for over $700 for "fuel and equipment costs" for the CG responding to a "non-life threatening situation". I convinced the owner of the marina where we worked to pay that bill, and we also sold over 200 lbs of gutted kingfish to the fish market at 85 cents per pound.

Nonetheless, I LOVE the USCG. It's just that some of them are idiots. My cousin, for example. He apologized.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY? Never go out in 4-6' seas on a 17' motorized potato chip. You need a real boat. You need a SeaCraft.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Hi Bridgeman:

Sorry you had a really, really bad day of it. I guess I will offer a few suggestions that I took after a bad day on the water in another boat I use to own.


1. Always install 2 bilge pumps one with a automatic float switch and both one size bigger then average size.

2. Check your through hull fittings like stated above or my personal choice is to splash the boat again and hang out for approx ½ hour then put the boat in gear at approx 1500 rpm and look in the bilge. You need to First make sure there is no water in the bow of the boat before you do the test by keeping the plug out back down into the ramp half way and make sure no water in bilge. On our variable dead rise boats some water will go up to the front of the boat when your boat is on your trailer even when you are on a flat surface.

3. If the vents are taking in water then you could seal them up by putting a thin piece of material between the vent and the hole in the hull.
I removed all 4 of my vents, but my reason was I didn’t like the looks.

Good luck you will figure it out.


FellowShip

………………………….

Just for the Grins

Official 23’ SF Antique Classic SeaCraft Owner

[Wildman]

Or maybe somebody put your vents on backwards like the PO did to mine! [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]