Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

[BugsBunnyBoater]

One of the reason I picked up boating is I gave up Motorcycles. I have had friends injured in accident that were totally not their fault. Many times its the person who has no clue that hits you.

My question is has anybody been in trouble or had close calles in their boat?
You know grounding, running out of gas on the water, bad weather sneaking up on you, getting lost, you name it.

As a child a family friend was almost killed when he stayed out late and on the run in hit the break water very hard. He was tossed though the windshield into the water. It was only luck that the CG saw it and fished him out and flew him to the ER

Under my other log in name a few years ago I did a post assking about life perserver use. Did your safety measures make you feel more confident?

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I got stuck once on a 42' boat off the coast of northern cal. The seas got up to about 18-20' and ripped the starboard bow open (old wood boat). Ended up getting escorted in by USCG and then drydocking at their facility for repairs. Then kept going to alaska in the same weather. That was the last ocean trip I had made.
I have had bad weather sneak up on me one time to where we were taking water over the bow and the bilge constantly running all the way back, but I wasn't alone on that one. I had my dad following behind with his much larger boat. we made it back okay and chalked that one up to a lesson learned. dont go across the lake with the possibility of bad weather.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I've had my fair share of incidents. In each case, disaster was averted through preparation.

My most recent was in hitting something underwater with my outboard. I made one mistake that day - I put my drain plug in from the outside of the transom. This is not something that I have been in the habit of doing, but I allowed myself to buy into someone's position that its OK to do.

When I hit whatever was under the surface (I never saw it), my swivel bracket sheared at the tilt bosses. The motor nearly fell off of the back of the boat, but was held partially in place by a steering bracket. When this happened, the midsection hit the drain plug and sheared it off. Because of this, the boat began to fill with water, through the open drain.

I was wearing a PFD at the time, as I always am when underway. I was nearly thrown out of the boat, because it immediately whipped into a 360+ degree turn. I was standing, but was in a braced position, with one hand gripping the windshield and the other gripping the steering wheel.

So, what things mitigated the situation? The first was that I was able to regain control of the boat. I like to pilot the boat from a standing position, but I never do so unless well braced. This includes a wide stance and both hands firmly gripping substantial structure. Through this stability, I was able to "throw" myself into a sitting position and grab the throttle. That, in turn, allowed me to pull the power back immediately.

Once the boat stopped, I did experience a brief period of being a bit disoriented, simply because I didn't immediately understand what happened. That said, I was back in "handle the situation mode" quickly. The first thing that I noticed was the motor hanging off of the back of the boat. The water had not yet begun to flood the deck, so I grabbed a paddle and paddled to the edge of the canal that I was in. My thought at the time was to get out of the waterway, so that someone didn't come along and hit me.

Very soon thereafter, it was obvious that the boat was sinking. That caused me to immediately turn on the bilge pump. With two large batteries and a 1,250 GPH bilge pump in an 18 foot boat, I knew I had a pretty good chance of keeping ahead of the flooding. It also gave me time to think about what might be going on. The transom drain was an obvious place to begin looking and, sure enough, that was the problem. At this point, the difference between disaster and rebound from a problem, was that I keep a couple of extra drain plugs on the boat at all times. So, all I had to do was to grab one and insert it.

Next on the list was to secure the hanging engine. I have cleats along the rails, "at the thirds." I also keep extra lines in a mesh "laundry bag" type basket along my interior port rail. These two things gave me an ability to run a heavy line from a forward point, behind the engine and back to another forward point on the opposite side of the boat. I did get some help from a passing boater in doing this and the engine was soon secured, and no longer in danger of dropping lower than it already was. From this point forward, I knew that I would not "dunk" my motor and would only have to repair the sheared swivel bracket.

The guy who helped me secure my motor was aboard a boat who's owner offered a tow. I had a kicker on the transom and could have gotten myself back to the ramp, but I accepted that offer. Frankly, I just needed to decompress a bit and not worry about driving the boat.


The preparation items that either helped keep things under control, or could have helped in this, were:

. A good four point brace position for steering in a standing position. While the wisdom of standing while driving is probably debateable, if your are going to do it, do it the right way.

. A PFD on me at the time of the incident. I didn't end up in the water, but if I had, it might have saved my life.

. A paddle in an easily retrieved place.

. Extra transom plugs.

. A bilge pump that some would consider to be larger than necessary.

. Large batteries (2)

. Extra cleats in strategic locations.

. Easily reached spare lines.

. A kicker engine to get home (not used).

. Communication (VHF, cell) and signalling gear (flares, etc) to summon help (not used).


I don't claim to have every single situation covered, but in preparing as well as might be reasonably expected, what could have been a pretty nasty situation, turned out OK. There is one item that I am still remiss on, however. That is a kill lanyard. My motor is a 1972 model and doesn't have one in the remote control system. I have talked about installing one before and this post makes me realize that I need to get it in gear and do so.

 

[Viking...]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Seems like every time I take the boat out, there's some minor disaster to overcome.
Yesterday while pulling the kids tubing, the engine died and would not restart.
I keep a full set of tools onboard, so I went to work trying to discover the issue.
Fuel, check. Switches, check. Spark...no spark.
Wiring, looks good. Re-tighten anyway, and remove/clean replace connections.
Distributor turns, ignition wires attached, coil wires attached, hmm...still no spark.

We threw out the anchor and the tubes (for the kids to swim/play on), then had lunch aboard and was considering waving down a passerby when it occured to me that I hadn't checked the fuse panel.

Eureka! Blown fuse, green wire. Better look that up when I get home (still need to do before next excursion).

Back to tubing, no more problems that day.

 

[Numlaar]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Sadly I have to say yes, and blame it on youth, inexperience, and the the fact that sometimes one thinks things never happen to them....

I'll start by saying, I live in FL, and have been around boats/boating all my life... been driving them since I was 8-9ish, and have had my own boat since I was 12... my grandfather and father taught me very good safe boating practices, including all of the basics like navigation, PFD's, etc.

That being said, when we hit our teenage years, we tend to throw everything we learned out the window hehe...

Anyway, I had just bought a 21' Wellcraft eclispe bowrider, had had the boat maybe a month... it was 10 years old when I got it, but seemed to be in decent shape overall... it was my first I/O and having been an automechanic thought it was a wise choice (i'll never own another I/O again, but thats another story).

Went through the basics, all fluids change (oil, lower unit, PTT, etc.), put in a new fresh dual battery system (had a single before), bought a marine radio and installed it with a new antenna, and decided to go on an "adventure"...

Basically, I bought a S. FL set of Nav charts, put my boat in, in Clearwater, FL, and decided to take it out on the open gulf to Key West for a week long vacation...

Hit the intercoastal, and travelled south, basically staying within the intercoastal where available, or in site of the shore ... no big deal really... about 4 hours into the trip, the alternator seized up, and snapped the belt... (did I mention it was 4th of july weekend?) ... long story short, stopped at the nearest marina, and since it was already about 9pm, stayed the night.. next day a really nice (I mean really nice) guy at the marina, drove the 15 miles or so to the nearest auto parts store that would work (and was open since it was the 4th that day), and bought me a new alternator and since I didnt know the belt size (being a boat), took my old one and came back with a few choices ... picked one that worked, put it all together, and gave the guy a nice tip, and was underway again...

Made it all the way south past naples to the "last known speck of civilization" known to mankind before the everglades, and stopped at Everglades City to top off the fuel (thankfully)... from there it should have been a relative straight shot SSW to hit Key west (Did I mention I was going by compass only without a GPS?)... based on my top safe traveling speed and distance we should make it in about 2 hours ish... with my boat being able to run 5.5 hours on a full tank, (plenty to spare right?). well about an hour after we left, (which would put us roughly 30 miles off shore), we had an unexpected "tropical depression" spring up... (Did i mention this is durring hurricane season?)... this storm was fierce and came up from the south, so I was basically fighting against it... also by my judgment we had passed the point of no return, so only thing to do was to continue onward, fighting against the storm... seas were roughly 6-8ft, and water was crashing over the bow.. I was having to run the bilge pumps full blast to keep ahead of the water... I had my buddy snap on the bow canvas , and closed the center window, which helped keep a lot of the water out, but I could not by any means run at my normal speed, in fact to keep the nose of the boat up, and as much water as possible out, I had to "plow" at about 1/4 throttle... which of course, sucks the gas like no tomorrow.... drove like this for over an hour and started to worry... I knew it would take longer now that we weren't travelling at my calculated 30mph, but I had no idea now what to do, or where we were... tried the radio, but got no response... guess we were too far from anyone anywhere... another hour goes by, so now we are at the 3hour ish mark, and still no sight of land... fuel was down to about 1/4 tank because we were sucking it down something fierce fighting the storm, and pardon the language, but at this point I was really shi**ing my pants... almost out of fuel, no sight of land, no clue where we were because the storm/wind/current was pushing against us, so I basically just kept going and prayed...

Well another hour (yep thats right, we are now 4 hours from Everglades city, and 2 hours PAST when we should have seen land)... goes by, and finally, we spot what we think are lights off in the distance... as we continue, we discover they are lights, and make a beeline for them just happy to have found land!!!

We ended up in a marina in Key Marathon... (which is about halfway down the band of keys) and pulled into the marina on fumes!!! Gas wasnt even reading on the gauge! Luckily for us, the storm came out of the SW so was actually pushing us inland instead of further out into open water... the marina we pulled into, had 4 boats sunk at the docks from the storm, lawn furniture in the trees, etc. was never a "named" storm, but was pretty severe... when we arrived, looking like ghosts, (because I am sure all the color drained from our faces), the dockmaster at the marina asked "where in the heck did you guys come from???" ... I said, "Everglades city (near naples)", and he said "in THAT!?@?! (pointing at my boat)", and I said "yep".. he said "your bleeping crazy!"...

So luck was on our side and got us home to port safely, I shudder to think what would have happened if it had whipped out from the S EAST instead of SW... I would probably have been lost at sea...

Sorry for the looong post, but the moral of the story is, (and hopefully a warning to "young" boaters)... THINK CAREFULLY about where you're going and what you are doing.... Weather is a tricky thing and can come up unexpectedly... Do NOT try to take on a trip that is more than your boat can handle (should have been more like a 30' plus for something like this)... and if you plan on travelling out of sight of shore, bring a GPS! (they were relatively new back then and super expensive, so I didn't see the need, boaters had been traveling without them for hundreds of years, so why should "I" need one... yeah right)

When I look back on this now... I wonder what the hell I was thinking back then!

 

[ziggy]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

i've been boating on lakes since i was a kid. certainly i've had my fair share of excitement...

lets see. when i was a kid. i was running at night w/o lights, so was someone else. we both turned to starboard at the very last moment... i was very lucky

got caught in high winds once. going into the wind i felt my boat blowing over backwards. it didn't but it felt that way. certainly caught a pocket of air underneath it..

fast fwd to more recently.

i near floated my trihull sideways into a green can buoy marker for lack of attention. saw it coming from a long distance away but couldn't believe with a whole width of river that i'd end up right on top of the marker.. and i was real close too... maybe a second to contact i figured..

got beached pretty bad when the river went down overnight one time. but got myself off ok by my self...

been caught in many storms.

most recent indecent was getting blowed up on the beach. was a calm night. beached for overnight at my favorite spot. high winds came up overnight and blew me up on the beach so bad i couldn't get off by myself. was the first time i had to call someone for help. took 4 adults to get her floating again...

all of my incidents were self inflicted. lack of planning, lack of reading the weathers forecast, inattention... i figure. if yer gonna do a lot of boating. you'll end up with trouble at one time or another. it's just gonna happen.. i've been lucky so far... and i'll take it..

 

[salty87]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

broken femur playing behind my boat...wakeboarding. i had a vest on at the time and it saved my life.

i used to let people decide for themselves if they wanted to wear a vest when wakeboarding behind my boat, not anymore...you board, you wear a vest.


i've also had the opportunity to help someone. he looked like he was about to succumb to hypothermia. he had fallen off his waverunner and couldn't get back on it. the water was in the low 60's and he had lost too much strength, was just holding onto the back with 1 hand.

we got him onto the swim platform to warm up for a fews mins. he then hopped on the waverunner and headed back in.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Yes but your definition of trouble (running aground, running out of gas) are minor and usually an inconvenience and not a threat, although other circumstances could make a minor problem into a major disaster. I've been on the water all my life and often go out in remote areas alone in the winter. My view on boating, even in the simplest activities and conditions, is never let your guard down.
Like this weekend, drift fishing in the bay, when out of nowhere comes 4 waves about 6', curling and spaced 20' apart, headed right astern. The freighter had passed long ago. Fired up the motor, whipped around and ran straight up #1, dove down the back to see 6' of green water inches from the bow light but I have a pretty good spoon and we went over that one with no water over the bow. But a quiet no-risk activity could have been bad (this is the same place I saw a 25' sink in about 3 minutes)
Closest call on fatality recently was canoeing a river in January, about 25 degrees, and swamped and rolled in a short rapid. That day we tested all our knowledge, skill and preparation for such an event, and obviously won. The key was that immdiately after, we both knew we had 20 minutes to get out. We stopped everything and stabilized, and planned, executed 2 different plans that failed and succeeded on the third to get the water out and us in, then went to shore for the fire (matches in baggie in pocket) thermos of soup and dry clothes in the dry bag, using the bailers and spare paddle tied in to the boat. Even saved the shotguns although they froze solid! That same day across the state, 2 duck hunters in a canoe died, a grim reminder. Who knows if they were unprepared, took a bad risk, or did everything right but got beat by nature.
In nature there are no rewards or punishments, only consequences.

 

[Bard1]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I was on my way back in from Lake Eire in Buffalo N.Y. when the outboard quit at the mouth of the Niagara River. The river, is a real fast swirling mess at the Peace Bridge going over to Canada. I had to sit on the bow with a paddle to guide the boat around the support pilers. All that was because an old fuel line collapsed.

 

[BWR1953]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I had an outdrive blow up on me in Tampa Bay back in 2000 and I was stuck under the Howard Frankland bridge while waiting for Sea Tow to arrive. A t-storm blew in and the wind and waves smashed my 25' Bayliner against the piling. Chewed it up pretty good, but fortunately I had insurance.

Back in 1984 I was fishing with 2 buddies in a 14' alumiinum v-hull in Washington state. The boat had a 7.5hp Honda and when a t-storm blew in over a mountain, we were stuck out there on the water for awhile. Got going okay and headed for shore, but it took a long time and there was no shelter for miles around, so we sat in the storm on the bank, but away from the water.

Neither experience was pleasurable.

 

[Corona Captain]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

We had three boats tied up in a swimming cove when a sudden storm came in. We hunkered down in the middle boat's cuddy to wait it out. Then my girlfriend asked, "are the trees supposed to be that close?" We had broken anchor and drifted to the shoreline. Three of us jumped out and were able to push the float away from shore (after maneuvering off of some downed tree trunks). She noticed just in time to save a disaster.

Normally one anchor is enough but we should have tossed in everyone's during the storm. Lesson learned.

 

[mphy98]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I was out in Tampa bay in my younger years, a 15' slickcraft with a 70hp chrysler ob on the back. (was rated for a 40hp I think) A huge rouge wave came at me, I did not know what to do, my dad was with and he had seen these things before and showed me how to ride it out. A wall of water 40' high is a scary thing when your down low.

 

[dontask]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Once when I was upside down in my hydro and I could hear the engine screaming/prop spinning while being thrown out & once (different boat) when I was coming back from Bimini 10 miles off shore and 40 miles to go--I spun a prop hub (it was rough water due to a weather front coming through). Try changing a prop in rough water, miles from shore in deep water.

 

[freezer41]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

we've run out of gas a couple of times. the latest was about 50 feet from the trailer as we were going home. good timing!

 

[BugsBunnyBoater]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I saw on the news a few months ago local boater was out at one of the near rigs and got in trouble and they managed to get on the rig before their boat sank. The news played their radio call to the Coast Guard and showed their rescue.

 

[WTR4FUN]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

I ran out of gas once, it was very uneventful. I was surprised at how many people did not recognize my distress flag, and just kept on going.

 

[southtexas]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

back in high school, head-on collision full throttle in broad daylight on wide-open space of water. Sea-doo vs. stand-up jet ski. EXTREMELY lucky none of us was hurt. (sea-doo won--it was totalled, but didn't instantly sink like a rock like the jet ski did).

Goes to show you that you never know what the other guy is going to do.

Then there was the sinking of the Nissan Pathfinder 4x4, but that's a different kind of trouble (there was a boat involved, though, so it almost fits in this thread)

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

No, at least not yet.

Newbie boater with new boat last year. Have over 40 launches/loadings under my belt. Have a standard routine. Wear PFD when boating alone. Have certificates from Power Squadron and MN DNR safe boating courses.

Take responsibility very seriously since I'm captain of the vessel.

So far, so good (knocking on wood).

 

[cadunkle]

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Never really been in trouble on the water. Worst was when my last engine pumped the crankcase full of river water. That motor was dead, 2 cyls full of water and rankcase so full my engine bay and bilge were full of nasty milkshake.

No paddling against the tide pulling me out but fortunately many miles of river before the ocean. I paddled closer to the shore and maintained position about 150'-200' out. Plan was to stay near shore and let the current take me south to the next ramp (mile or two away), then paddle in, find a ride to my truck (about 45 mins away) and come get the boat. Before I came to that plan I was a bit nervous about being on the river with no power, but it was a calm day. I tried flagging down several boats, and must have been passed by maybe 15-20 boats, two of which came in pretty close, came off plane. When was signalng distress and waving them over they got back on plane and left.

Eventually about 1/4 mile from the ramp the coasties came by. Apparently someone at one of the refineries saw me drifting and called them. I could have called but didn't see a need for it in calm water when I had my plan together. They tied up to me and towed me in to the dock, which was nice... Easier than trying to gracefully paddle in. Got my truck and got back to the ramp at exactly low tide... Backed my trailer into under a foot of water! Had to wait almost two hours until I had enough water to get the boat on the trailer.

So that's my worst day on the water. Really not a big deal though since I was being pulled in calm waters and had a few options for ramps and marinas.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Have you ever been in trouble on the water in your boat?

Many of these stories demonstrate that a properly rigged anchor is your most important safety equipment. It can keep an inconvenience from becoming a tragedy. For example the guy hanging on to the bridge could have anchored safely away from it. When something bad happens you usually want to stay put.