ok , im an idiot
 

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 :rolleyes: 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. :rolleyes: 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. :confused: man , something is very wrong. then it hits me :eek: 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:o

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 :o

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. :mad:

'Foul

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

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.:mad: Count me in as a member of the idiot club too.

Guilty:D :D 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.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Craig

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.

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!!!:crazy:

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

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.

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.:)

never had that prob yet but I do keep a spare plug and 5/8 wrench duct taped to the underside of my dash just in case it ever happens:fish:

yes.... nuff said hehe

Sounds like somebody was thinking with the "Little Head" and not the big one.:D :D :D
Did it once with my first boat. 1977 Slickcraft 17.5 ft. I was out too far to head back to shore. So I dived head first into the engine compartment( single engine) And put in a spare plug. Figured the best thing to do was to plug that hole. It was a close call.

Only once.... the second time I ever launched a boat.... It was around 1986 had my mom's 20 ft mini daycruiser (west coast type boat) at the Parker strip (below Havasu) .. backed her in at the loaunch ramp at Buckskin .... headed down river and noticed a bunch of steam coming up all around me .... hmmmm... looked back and there was around a foot and a half of water rushing towards me! AAHHHHHH ..... looked over in the cupholder and saw the plug... I just ran it up on the beach and jumped out even before it stopped.. dove in and put the plug in ... whewwww..

Later that day I dove in the river and forgot to remove my wallet from my pants... It sucked because it was my 21st birthday... and NO ID!!! ARRRGHHH!!

Damn, You peeps are lucky!! I'm going to keep my mouth shut.:D

Hey Havasuparty...
 

...don't sweat it!

I'm sure there's worse to come (I'm a half-full kind of guy). Has the ice thawed at all on LOTO?

For about $20 (and some wiring) and auto-bilge pump switch is a nice feature...

PS- Half way done on the Crown.

Been there, Done that. Once. It leaves a lasting impression.;)

Splashed the new boat a couple of years ago on our way home from picking it up, in a hurry, hmmmmmm, won't plane for sh*t!:eek: Same thing, dove in the water, screwed plug in a few turns, then loaded on trailer and waited 20 minutes for the water to drain.

Like I said. Once.

Hey LOTOparty.
What lake were you at? I saw a 28 Sunsation On K-10 Sat. Was that you?

I myself just got back from LOTO and BOY WAS THAT GREAT WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way to handle the situation. Talk L8er

Did it once and luckily for me I noticed the auto bilge light on the switch was on and saw the water coming out the side dump befor eI ever unhooked the boat from the trailor.

Never did the plug trick. Last year, first splash, I had my son with me. We idled out of the marina, headed down river to the first no wake zone (bout a mile), as I was idling past a guy on a dock yells to me,"got your plug in?". I got the son the take the wheel, while I checked out the engine compartment. I had forgotten to install the drain plugs in the manifolds. The bilge pump was kickin azz!!! Luckily, I had the plugs in the boat.
My girlfriend is my insurance policy against not putting the plug in. She starts asking if I have the plug in long before the boat hits the water. :)

I was gonna try to get that boat off Lotoparty in a year or two
but it looks like it will be on Boatwrecks.com before I can get it away from him :D :D

Never did that yet! YET!

My god man are you going to date this woman much longer?
Do You need the OSO board to explain to you about the birds n the bee's? :D :p :crazy:

Not so far. I keep the boat on a lift so the plug is only out occasionally. Whenever I pull the plug I put it and the wrench on the throttles so I will be sure to see if when getting ready to start the engines.

Never done it yet. Did she take her life jacket off the rest of the day?

Lotoparty
 

This is commonly called thinking with the little head and not the big one. :)

If you had made one of these mistakes you would have passed the idiot contest. Because of the drain plug and the straps you qualify as an idiot.

I hope the rest of us can where the idiot hat tooand look as good as you do.

;)

Idiot to be, aka

Wannabe

Only once. (So far...)
 

Here's a handy tip: If the water is not so high that the boat won't plane off - get moving at a slow planing speed with the bow as high as you can get it (trimmed up). Eventually, the water will all drain out the same hole it came in. Once it is dry - stop, turn off the engine, jump in and put the plug in. The bilge pump will handle the little bit of water that does run back in. If your bilge pump ever dies, replace it with a much bigger one. (I have a 1250 gph unit on my 28'.) High water alarms are a great idea, too - wire a horn to a float switch mounted about 5" higher than the bilge pump switch.

You DO carry a hand pump and a spare drain plug, don't you? :eek:

Number
 

Can I have her phone number???:D

I dont kiss and tell;)

What Warpaint....about your 2 600HP bilge pumps!!!:p

Nope, haven't done it.........yet.

Like Troutly's, ours has three plugs also.
Prior to launching the wife always asks me if all the plugs are in. Since it's her job to remove all the tiedown straps I'll always ask if they are all removed.
We always double check each other.

I have never made it to the water without the plug. I keep the wrench that fits the drain plug attached to my separate keychain that has the key to fit the trailer hitch lock. (Also has key to hitch-pin lock, and spare tire cable lock.) Everytime I go to unlock the trailer and hitch it to the truck, I grab that wrench/keychain and stick the plug in at the same time. (I also never loose those keys with that 12" wrench attached.) The plug always stays in a zippered pouch in truck with the removeable faceplate for the stereo, boat keys, drive lock key. One time, I was backing down the ramp, and realized I had not inserted the plug, as I was letting the bildge drain from a scrubbing on the way to the launch ramp. I never hit the water, but was about 50 feet away when I realized.

or worse. I keep my boat on a lift. I had taken the motors out in the fall to have the new ones built. I towed the boat over to the neighbors house to use his davit to drop in the first of the new motors. Over the winter I had spent some time cleaning up the bilge. Anyway I had left one of the valves open for the raw water intake. I towed the boat over lifted the hatch to find it filling with water, fast. Well there were not batteries in the boat yet so I towed it back to the lift so I could pull the plug.

Holy chit, that takes skill just trying to imaging lowering in a motor with a davit while the boat is IN THE WATER!! One false move and 3'x4' hole in boat!!

No one believes me when I say this...But we have NEVER forgotten a plug...We did have it fall out at the beach one day, which made it sink when it was at the dock and we were at home :)

Worse than leaving plug out....I had (and I use the past tense on purpose) an employee who parked my 357 outdoors with cover off and the plug IN. Big rainstorm happens. Leaves blow into boat, clog drain holes. Boat fill to alternators. Replace alternators. Idiot does it AGAIN! Fire idiot. Replace alternators.

/hangs head...still can't believe it

Doc

Well your from LOTO so you will appreciate this.
We had a 34 foot Scarab, We are waiting at the public ramp at the state park to get in. Well Darel and his 2 other brothers Darrel
have a pontoon boat dead in the middle of the ramp(Water Side)
Well we waited for over 1/2 hour while Darrel and Darrel tried to keep starting it, DAAAAAA it wont start. fin ally i told them to pull it to the dock, DAAAAA. So you gotta understand me and the Misses have been doing this for 20 years, She drives the boat great. So we whip in( Sorry PUDER not Whip it out) And were done in 30 seconds.
So i take the Boys to the condo( UPHILL OF COURSE) She comes around the bend Scarab bilging water like a mother. I freak out.
Run (UPHILL) to get Plug out of Truck. ( We have Spares every were now). Let the Oldest boy get in to save the day
( Because i am out of Breath) So no harm done good thing for killer bilge pump water never got over 10 inches in the bilge.

Oh Yea I told Oldest Boy not to drop the plug as he put it in, that was not a smart move.

Not in my current boat, but in a 20 ft SeaCraft center console. I'll try to keep this short.
The boat has a transom well in front of the outboard <brand-new 140 Johnson, not even broken in yet> with 2 drain plugs. I had been working on the bilge pump, through the access plate in the transom well and didn't screw it back down.
Left a waterfront bar at about midnight with about 7 friends <plenty of PFD's>.
We were rafted off to a friends boat, standing around laughin' and drinkin. I had my feet up on the transom well and failed to notice that my guests were ankle-deep in seawater. What had happened was the weight of the guests lowered the transom far enough that the water came in thru the drainholes and straight in thru the bilge pump access plate. Thinking that the water had entered thru the thru-deck scuppers, I disengaged from the raft-up and went to drain the water back thru the scuppers by planing off. UNFORTUNATELY- the boat was full to the gunwales, and when the boat moved forward, the water shifted backwards, the transom went under, and the boat ROLLED OVER . . . All hands were safely recovered. Next day with scuba gear recovering the contents of purses, car keys, everything in the boat that wasn't bolted down. I am SO much wiser now . . .

Never forgot plug ( I leave it in , only pull it to check for water)
BUT , I did do the rear tiedown trick:o Had people on the dock pulling on the rope. Somebody on the tongue of the trailer pushing. And I even pulled up a bit ...backed up fast and hit the brakes. At that point I knew something else was wrong:rolleyes:

It happened only once...

But to make a long story short, it left me in the water at the rear of the boat with my finger in the plug hole awaiting the plug and a wrench to arrive.......Of course in front of a full ramp of aggravated yet amused people....:cool:

Not Me.......
 

Have seen it happen several times, even watched my Dad do it........My Grandfather had a saying that I use every time at the ramp;
"Plug In-Plug Out"
That means put the plug in the boat, and unplug the trailer harness. It means the opposite when trailering.

The biggest problem I had with my first boat was forgetting to raise the drive when trailering. It had a low trailer and the scag would drag the ground as I pulled it out of the water. It happened quite a few times.......Oh well, it entertained a few people as well as kept the leading edge of the scag well rounded. :D