Sunk 42' Fountain at LOTO
 

Anyone have the scoop on what happened here? Sad to see. Looks like it might have been at Parkview Bay?

http://www.lakesunleader.com/article...28/news/02.txt

Did somebody forget to put the plug in?????

That suks.:(
I have a million fountain jokes running through my head but will refrain.

Do people store go fast boats in the water for long periods of time at LOTO? I thought everyone used hydrohoists especially if they lived out of the area.

I woke up Sunday morning to see a film across the water behind the breakwall and knew a boat went down. The fountain was in the dock next to us. The drain plug was in. I spoke to someone who was slipped across from the Fountain. The story I heard was not a good one. The boat sank overnight. They had the boat floating by the time we left to watch Sundays runs.

The fuel left a nice film on my boat.....

What about the first part of the news story? Was that someone from OSO? " LAKE OF THE OZARKS - A group of spectators who had gathered along the race course for last weekend's Shootout were apparently not entertained by the antics of a boater who stripped off his clothes and exposed himself. By the time things had quieted down, a day at the races turned into an evening in jail.

According to the Missouri Water Patrol, the suspect apparently wasn't happy when the boat he was a passenger on was stopped near the mouth the cove at Shooter's 21 on Saturday afternoon.

The spectators who were offended by the suspect's behavior had provided a description. One of the officers working the race course spotted the boat and pulled it over. Although the suspect had put his clothes back on by that time, the officer still had a hard time convincing the man to cooperate."

The article says the owner had just trailered in from Ohio. That's a lousy way to start/end a vacation.

The beak does make them easier to spot when submerged...

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e123/CTS1489/02.jpg

Looks a lot like UFO

TANTRUM WASNT OUT THERE DROPPING HIS PANTS WAS HE !!!

what a terrible sight to see...

That water must be pretty deep at the docks

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!:D

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 >
http://www3.telus.net/spectrasonly/K...047%20Fountain

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 !

My boat has a small leak somewhere in the area of the extension box that I've been chasing for three freakin' years. I've replaced the bellows and siliconed everything I can get my hands on in there and still can't find it. Anyway, even though the float switch on my port side bilge kicks every 45 minutes or so (and I'm running with a constant puddle in my boat about 2 inches deep), I make sure I'm plugged in EVERYWHERE I go overnight...it helps me sleep. Oh, and I've got one cranking battery and one deep cycle...plus a jump pack.

I left my old boat in the water overnight every night I took it out. Check the bildge before I leave it. It helps to have a nice view of the boat and a pair of binoculars just to make sure every couple of hours.

IMO a good boat should be able to be left in the water overnight or over a couple of nights without any leaks or very minimul. It could be a $200-300K fountain or cig, but if she don't float overnight then its still a POS to me.........

Sommer , did you check the small bellows on the drive shift cable ? Before push it on the transom assy and tighten the clamp , you should put some contact cement around the fittting . Also the other end the crimping band needs to be checked or better , replaced with a s/s clamp . Two inches of water in the bilge is some serious leak !

I was going to post the link, but now I see MM beat me to it

A trip engine 42 Fountain does not need to take in a lot of water or weight in the stern before big problems start. That's a lot of weight in a somewhat shallow transom.

bobonthis (Matt) from here on OSO was on the boat this weekend with a buddy. Lamar was the owner's name.

He started a thread about it in the E-dock forum a day or two ago. You can get all the details you want there.

As for the speculation as to the cause, it's my understanding that the pumps were working correctly. Let's show some compassion.

Buck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buck183 (Post 2251276)

As for the speculation as to the cause, it's my understanding that the pumps were working correctly. Let's show some compassion.

Buck

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We had this boat sank during a freak storm ,taking water over the transom a few years ago . Now it sits on its lift all the time . You have compassion from me !

http://www3.telus.net/spectrasonly/S...n%20the%20lift

As you can see the boat is very low in the transom area even dry. As to what the cause is, we still don't know. We have checked the obvious as far as bellows, hoses off or lose, but without actually dipping it back in the water again we don't see anything that may have done this. Another thing that it may have been is taking on water where the rub rail is. These are things we cannot rule out until we get her back on the water. We have pickeled the motors done all the neccessary steps to salvage everything and the boat is ok. Everything else was in working order...bilge pumps...batteries etc....It is very possible that the batteries just lost their juice...the boat was in party cove all day and things were being used...and its not a very far trip back to the condo. I don't believe though that with the amount of water the boat apparently took in and with it being that heavy in the rear that the bilges would of kept up anyways. This we will not know. All we can do is upgrade the bilge pumps also or add. As soon as I find out what the problem is I will be sure to let everyone know so that this won't happen to anyone else and to just let everyone know. Also yes we did all of a sudden lose power in the port motor when we first dipped the boat and all that was, was the circuit breaker tripped on the ignition..

your bilge pump out exhausts are almost underwater in above pic.

Sad but atleast you all are ok! Keep us posted thanks

Just a note, I heard about this a while back: If anyone has issues of major water entering the boat and they have sea strainers, I heard you can remove the strainer lids and run the motors (cautiously) and the sea water pump will act as a bilge pump pumping the incoming water out while cooling the motors!

A somewhat well known fail safe is to isntall a valve on the inlet line for the seawater pump that will allow you to switch the intake to a hose that runs into the bilge. If you have a big problem, you can then use your seawater pump as a bilge pump. At the point that this would become necessary, though, i'm thinking that "cautiously" is out the window and the RPMs are going to come up until the boat stops sinking or the motor stops running.

Been a while since Ive seen the boat up close, does it have those beer can sized vents in the corners of the transom?

If so those vents have sank more than a few twin engine Fountains.

I have seen a lot of guys that get nervous about leaving their boat over night. If you are that nervous then they have special sump pumps for homes for when there is a power outage. You hook your city water up to it and it will pump water out of your sump when the power is out. May be easy to retro so that you can drop it in your bilge and hook up to the docks water so you can sleep better at night.

Jon

i was just wondering what was parked next to the boat,my marina closes at 5 o clock,if you come in after you have to raft up to another boat,and leave till morning,tied up to a friends 27 whaler,rained pretty hard and his bilge kicked all the water in my boat,shorted the batts and almost sank it,i got lucky ,almost a hard lesson.

I was looking for cashbar to be sitting on the bow of the boat while it was sticking up

I told ya where its comimg from !!!!!!!!!!!

My neighbor has one of those. It's a Rule bilge pump with a deep-cycle and a trickle charger. Our power went out the other day during a big rainstorm and their sump overflowed into the basement- their emergency backup failed! I had to run my generator up to them so they could stay dry.

Somedays, wearing a belt AND suspenders doesn't even work.

It does work. You have to have shutoffs on your water intakes though. Otherwise, you'll take on water from your thru-hulls as fast as you're bailing.


BOATING and some of the other cruiser magazines are full of articles with stuff like this. The performance boat community pretty much ignores these types of yachtsmanship skills. These cruiser guys have it together. I suppose part of that is the mentality that you're far out and help may be way off.

Just curious. Looking at the pic, is that dot near the transom at the water line the outlet of the bilge pump?
The wave action at the 19MM could probably slosh enough water back into the bilge pump outlet to overhelm it. Especially if it's that low and an adequate riser loop in the pump hose was not used.