Steve_H

hope everyone gets a kick out of this. pulled a darwin today. decided to take the new girlfriend boating today. yaaa , ill impress her with my pretty boat and of course my extensive boating skills she is very new to boating and has never helped launch one so i was slightly nervous about the whole deal anyway but thought hey WE CAN DO THIS! keep in mind she has never driven anything with a trailer attached. my biggest fear was her turning to sharp and running into something while parking the truck/trailer.

first dumb thing i do is back the boat in , unhook the bow , climb in. lower the drive , start her up. hmmmmmm she's not moving. woops , forgot the rear straps. sooooo , i jump back out , rehook the bow up and pull forward to unhook the rear straps. no big deal right? she parks the truck/trailer perfectly and off we go. idle out for 3 mintues or so. wont come up on plane. man , something is very wrong. then it hits me didnt put the plug in. i head back to the ramp as fast as possible , engine missing , images of sinking racing thru my brain. she jumps on the bow and off onto the dock and runs a block to get the truck , meanwhile im driving around in circles hoping the engine doesnt die. finally get it back on the trailer with darwin award tattoed on my forehead

on the bright side , she likes me even more because of how i handled the scarey situation arent women wonderfull sometimes

ok , so how many of you guys have left the plug out? no need to admit it unless you want to let me know im not alone

Waterfoul

I can honestly say I have never forgotten to put the plug in. BUT, I did forget to put the water intake hose back on the drive (inside the transom) once. Putting new raw water pump, bearings, and oil pump in soon because of it. Water and oil don't mix.

'Foul

florida gator

Never, but I have seen it done and, no offense, laughed my ass off every time.

cuda

Yup, last year I was changing trailers. Backed it in, took it off the old trailer, and backed in the new trailer and put the boat on it. As I was pulling it out, I thought, "damn this boat feels heavy". The engine compartment was full and it was up on the deck. Thank goodness I didn't have to do any adjusting on the new trailer before putting the boat on. I got home and found a plug in the front cover that was never put in and the engine is now full of water. Count me in as a member of the idiot club too.

OldSchool

Guilty It happens to the best of us and believe me, It will never happen to me again. If it ever happens to you again, just jump in the water (with the engine off) and put it in and run the bilge pump.

About 10 years ago, my girl (now my wife) and I left work early on a 100+ degree day to go out on the boat. I dumped the boat in the water while she was in the girls room and parked the truck. We both turned the corner at the same time and saw the azz end of the boat looking real low in the water. I jumped in the water and put the plug in and she got the trailer....Luckily, nobody was at the Marina to see this.

Craig

Mr. Demeanor

Did it but my bilge will pump faster than the water will come in. You know, they make ones that have one way valves in them now for folks like us. Idiot proof I believe is the term.

Shorgasm

Did my thru-hull exhaust on my own......all went well and took her out to the Glen for a trial run...not a good idea......hour boat ride and lots of idling zones....No biggie had I thought to cover the stock y-pipe ....DOH!!!!

Moored the boat and sat around for awhile...heard what sounded like a garden hose.....Oh NO it's just the water funneling into the engine compartment......got moving real fast then....all pumps on stupid stamped on my forehead!!!

Audiofn

Have not done it with this boat but with my hydrostream I had one of those Duck bill deals you get from Land and Sea. The bill fell off. I used to check it but got comfortable that it was always there and put the boat in and was heading out the river and noticed the water over the floor boards (does not take long in a hydrostream). Luckily I had a normal one in the boat. I pushed out the Land and Sea one and slid the normal one in from the inside and off we went.

Jon

fatdaddy

Lat summer me & the Mrs. decided to play hookie from, brought a cousin along for the fun. Launched the boat and a hurry to get going so I for got trailer was behind the truck and took out some fencing. Jumped in the boat idled out and one of the engines died, decided to come back to the ramp on one and wound up hitting the dock. Fired them up again and went out for a nice cruise to only ground it on a soft sand bar. Luckily, only doing about 5 mph. Tow boat, I don't need no fr4iggin' towboat, I jump in w/ my sospenders PFD, poof, filled right up, still looking for a replacement co2 cartridge. Ok, lunch time but gee it's getting cloudy. So what, right? No, fog, idled back to ramp for approx. 2hrs. I would have been better off at work.

cuda

A freind told me of a time he was out in something like a 42 Fountain, and something came loose or knocke a hole in the transom assembly. He said he was paicking because the water was coming in so fast. The owner of the boat took the tops off the seastrainers and the engine pumped the water out though the exhaust. Sounds like a good back up bilge pump.