Rough First Day On The Boat
 

Well, we rushed to get the boat cleaned up, packed up the truck, and headed south for the 2 hour drive south to Kentucky Lake (Buzzard Rock) on Saturday.

Wifey backed me down the ramp, and with the drives in the water - I was starting to feel the emotional rush that we were actually going to get back on the water!

Turned the key on the starboard motor, and it fired right up! ...then I hear water splashing. Look in the bilge, and water is pouring in. In my haste, I put one of the block drain plugs in the wrong hole. Easy fix, done. (ramp wasn't busy)

I then notice the blue drain plug for the cool fuel unit is dripping water - I tell wifey to pull us back out. Go to the marina and the guys were quick to throw me an o-ring (at no charge - thanks guys). I get that installed - and I see the drain plug for the circulating pump hose/pipe, and I give it a twist to ensure its tight, and the dam fitting broke off in my hand!! Yes, it broke off from the cooling pipe elbow.

PIC OF COOLING PIPE/ELBOW (ON GOOD ENGINE)
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psfbnjwd6k.jpg

After further examination, someone broke this thing at some point in the past and put it back together with black RTV. Not sure why it didn't break over the last 2 years during winterizing, but it didn't.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...pseljktwpl.jpg

Glad this didn't happen on the water, or I'd guess we'd be sunk! ...literally

So I ordered a new one last night - but why do people do stupid $hit repairs like this for a $50 dollar part??

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...psyjzy4k29.jpg

That's what shakedown runs are for! At least you didn't lose a holiday weekend or poker run. You didn't have to limp home or fabricate a MacGyver type fix in the middle of no where. That's not so bad, just frustrating with time lost; and you got to spend a solid 6 hours of time with the wife. :drink:

Sorry to hear that you had so much trouble. I heard that Barkley was pretty trashy. You may have saved yourself some real damage by being sidelined this weekend. Hopefully we will have many nice weekends to come.

You lost me at "wifey backed me down the ramp". That happens?! I started a gofundme page for spousal re-education immediately after reading that sentence.

Yes wifey handles the truck/trailer once we get to the ramp - she's a trooper!

I have found that it is much easier to teach them to load/unload the boat. A lot less broken tail lights in the parking lot that way and you can usually keep the boat off the dock as well.

Well the guy at the marina said, "we can use some epoxy to try and fix it so you don't lose your weekend". I said, "I appreciate that, but you know what - somebody's telling me not to go on the water today, so we're heading back home".

Fortunately, we were planning to stay at Bdon's so we only lost $100 in diesel and most of the day. Not the end of the world.

She wasn't real thrilled to be around me about that time. haha!!

But you're right - that was our intention just to confirm things. Eddie had the boat from Sept ~ Dec to do the top end work, so I hadn't even started the motors since I got it back.

That sux Terry. Glad it happened when it did and didn't happen when I was test running the boat.lol
If it had been repaired with RTV and was winterized, maybe the antifreeze attacked the RTV, especially if it was cheap RTV.
You should have called me. I'm pretty sure that I have one. They are a common item that gets broken. I've actually had to replace one that I broke in the past. They aren't very strong to begin with and with some age, they really get brittle. Let me know if you need anything.
Eddie

I always run huge. Bilge pumps... my dad taught me that... he hit a reef in a sportfish or rather his captain did, he got towed 70 miles with beach towels stuffed into a football sized hole in the hull, his big azz bilge pumps kept up! It was brutal, cleaned the props, struts, blew both trannies,like a 250k repair...