Probably a leaking bellow. I almost sunk one overnight a couple years ago. I had never left it in the water to notice the bellows was leaking. Two more inches, and the water would have been coming in the bilge pump outlet hole, then it would have been game over.

[QUOTE=cuda;2250601]Probably a leaking bellow. QUOTE]


Agreed

Another opportunity for everyone to learn from someone else's misfortune...

Do you have more than one bilge pump? Do they work?

Do you have a shore-power connection AND a cord?

I rarely leave a boat in the water unattended let alone overnight. The things a regular docker does automaticallly often don't even occur to me.

The article said it was a triple-engine boat. 3 BBC's in a Lightning- I'll bet that transom was pretty low in the water to start with. It wouldn't have taken much.

I was thinking the same thing!

I always check to see if my boat is taking on water before I leave it for the night, and I would never leave it knowing it was taking on water and assume the bilge pumps would keep up.

This is the way storing a boat long term >

I semi-dunked one once thinking the bilge pumps would take care of it. They did- the batteries conked out though. Those big cranking batteries gave up quick. Too bad deep-cycles won't crank the motors. Now, every boat gets a marine charger and an alarm.

I was not there and my pants remained on at all times last weekend.

The 42 Fountain that is in the picture was tied up next to us Friday at the docks at PB2 in the state park with a motor that was not running. They had multiple mechanics working on it when the first big rain storm hit. Do not know if it was related but same boat. We of course ducked under cover with the slips and tried not to melt when the rain hit. Hammer

I'm going to install a valve [ sea-cock ] between the transom assembly and the seawater pump for my Merc 377's . It should have been done by Mercruiser IMHO ! No boat should sink if the bellows rip with the water pushing through the gimball bearing only , if you have some high capacity bilge pumps in good working order . The boat being in the water would have a waterline above the seawater pump supply hose and it will sink a boat if it become loose . Another weak spot is the fitting on the transom assy itself that merc replaced with a plastic one . They claim the metal ones corroded prematurely , but I'm not a big fan of cheap plastic for such a vital part !