Post your favorte McGyver moments..

[nitsuj]

There's a thread like this on a motorcycle forum I go to. It's a fun thread that goes on for pages and pages. I thought maybe some of the old salts here could entertain with similar stories related to boating. So post up your favorite boat related McGyver job. If you don't know who McGyver is, google it. But basically, we're talking about how you've used your cunning and creativity to jury rig something to get out of a tight spot.

 

[jdlough]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

Not exactly McGyver-worthy, but...

A while back my skiff's motor died, about a mile from the dock. Nanticoke River, MD.

Oarlock busted due to being installed years back with drywall screws.

Tried paddling with one oar for a while, then, INSPIRATION STRUCK!!

I got out, and walked, pulling the boat behind me. Nanticoke's pretty shallow.

 

[SeanT]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

LOL nice.

This is more meathead than clever - but I'm glad I was able to do this instead of the alternative. I was knee boarding behind my dad on his Sea Doo RXP when he started to really turn hard (bastard). He sort of flung me and I wiped it. As we were getting set to deep water start he starts up the SeaDoo and it stalls - sucks the rope up into the impeller. So we get a drag back - this is early in the long weekend, and my boat isn't with me, so were both pissed that there's no more skiing and boarding. We get back and put it on the lift, my Dad gets on the phone to see if anyone can look at it on a Saturday. I crawl underneath and have a look, I figure I can fix it.

So he gets the ratchet and sockets. We lock out the SeaDoo lift and I put my lifevest on, crawl underneath the lift with my head just and arms just out of the water. Laying on my back for 20 minutes doing surgery. The rope was just tangled on the impeller shaft. Got it all out, replaced the intake grates, and took it for a test run. Weekend saved! Though I did spend the rest of the day with a bit of a chill. Even though it was warm water, laying on your back for 30 minutes barely moving takes it out of you.

 

[26aftcab454]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

My brother had a old small 1970s front stick steer bass boat with 65hp Evinrude on back. we are few miles from the ramp when the steering cable breaks. no steering.
we took a 5ft long paddle and tied it to the side of the engine to use as a tiller. I steered the tiller and my brother operated the throttle . ran on plane all the way in.

 

[Cofe]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

One episode he welded something with a nickle in a set of jumper cables. "nickle weld" Like that would ever work...

My favorite was him setting on a short pier by a beautiful lake playing his cello.

Yep the harmony of the outdoors....

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

my buddies boat was taking on ALOT of water one day and the bilge pump quit, so I took my bilge pump out of my boat, rigged it up off his battery for the time being, and got the water out so we could tow it back safely. Now, i have a spare pump with jumper wires and alligator clips on board at all times.....ya never know. still, not Mcgyver worthy though lol.

 

[jdlough]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

Yo, I gotta ask...

Are you re-done4x4 or
red-one4x4 ???

My brain keeps pronouncing your screen name one or the other.

I keep thinking you either refurbed an old truck, or you have a red truck, or maybe both!

Jim

 

[coastalcruiser]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

Not a mechanic, didn't have much extra money when I was younger and just wanted to go boating...

asked my dad about a 7 year old Johnson 9.9 he had.
He said it just seized up and his mechanic said it would cost more than a replacement to fix.
I asked for it, he said sure.
Got home, dumped 1/2 can of Liquid wrench in each cylinder let it sit.
still seized.
Took a 4' long pipe and some "line" wrapped it around the flywheel. CRACK.
now it's turning!
oiled it and gave it one pull. Started!

Next thing I know, flying down the river!

Whoo hoo!

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

Yo, I gotta ask...

Are you re-done4x4 or
red-one4x4 ???

My brain keeps pronouncing your screen name one or the other.

I keep thinking you either refurbed an old truck, or you have a red truck, or maybe both!

Jim

aahahaa its both.....I had a red truck and came up with the name for a truck forum years ago. have a red mustache, so i got nicknamed red at one job i had. And, I changed a few things in my life at that point so its Red one for the truck, or redone for changing things around when my daughter was born and trying to make life better haha. this just came up in another forum im on last week too.

 

[dan t.]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

was out with a friend recently, while at anchor that night he decided to blow up his small baloney boat,well, no end for the foot pump, I used a 1/4 in drive deep socket taped to the end of the hose to work as the nozzle, worked good, 2 man job to blow it up,but we spelled off holding the hose and pumping

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

Coming home from dinner at a waterfront restaurant, pitch dark, boat is just on plane. I make a turn around a channel marker and when I tried to turn the wheel back, it wouldn't budge. I cut the engine and jiggle things back and forth a bit. The wheel will go to port, but stops just before center when trying to go back to starboard. Can't very well make it home by turning left the whole way, so I get my tools out and unhook the steering bar from the engine to free it from the Teleflex cable. I get my wife to operate the controls as we idle the rest of the way home with me seated in the motor well steering the motor by hand... Our dinner guests (brother-in-law and girlfriend) were quite impressed and we had a lovely slow cruise home...

Turned out one tooth had broken off the rack in my helm and that tooth had lodged between the rack and pinion, thus preventing full travel on the steering.

 

[mike64]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

When I started working on my outboard last year, I knew there was a way to jump it so the key didn't have to be turned to turn it over, but I was in a hurry to check the spark and didn't feel like looking it up. So I took the 12' pole from an apple picker, duct-taped a clamp to it, and used that to turn the ignition key while I'm at the back of the boat. Works so well I've never bothered to learn how to jump it

...also, I didn't want to spend a lot of money for a pressure tester for my lower unit, so I bought a $10 bicycle foot pump with a gauge, and rigged it with a connector for pumping lu oil and some plumbing parts. I didn't come up with the idea myself on that one though, an iboater recommended that one to me, I think High Trim.

 

[caver95]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

I drained the battery down on a sailboat so far that it would not turn the engine over, I little 2clinder diesel. I got line wrapped it around the crankshaft pully and hooked the other end to the boom and pull the sailout let the wind catch it and it pulled the line, did not start.
I got some starting fluid and released compression on one and let it go, and it got it started

 

[rbh]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

outboard died on our friends aluminum fish boat years back, had small tarp and two paddles, made a sail, worked great till wind died. paddle paddle paddle
rob

 

[JoLin]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

The waves were really rough one day and we were getting pounded something awful. Then I had a brainstorm

I took my collapsible stern light and some boat hooks/poles and made the frames of a pair of wings that I lashed to the port and starboard gunwales of the boat.

I then wrapped the frames in the canvas from my bimini top and camper back to make a pair of wings.

Then I hopped into the water with a couple of wrenches and some duct tape, and turned my outdrive upside down so the prop was sticking up above the transom...

Using the outdrive trim control to vary the angle of the prop, I was able to lift us off the water and fly us back to the dock at an altitude of about 10' !

(do I win?)

 

[indy440]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

(do I win?)

only if you did the whole job with only a leatherman tool...

 

[caver95]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

only if you did the whole job with only a leatherman tool...

A fake chinese knock off leatherman..

 

[bob johnson]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

A fake chinese knock off leatherman..

even better!!!!!!!!

I hate mCgyver...or what ever he was called.

like shows were 10,000 rounds of ammo goes off and no one gets shot!!!

 

[KC4YIN]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

A friend of mine had purchased a 33 ft steel hull houseboat on Lake Wylie NC years ago. The guy that sold it to him said a battery had turned over in the bottom and spilled out some acid. Rust set in later and one day after a morning ski run he went with a wire brush / paint scraper to clean out some rust. After a few minutes of scrape-scrape /bang -bang we heard a loud "AW SH**T. He had punctured a hole thru a thin spot of the rusted hull and developed a small guyser of water where there was no bilge pump. His wife grabbed a big wad of bubble gum and frantically began chewing. I told him to stuff the chewing gum into the hole till we could go to the nearby hardware store and get 2 rubber faucet washers and a small bolt. One washer on the bolt, run the bolt up thru the hull and put on the second washer and nut. Tighten up and problem solved/ weekend saved. And just think. He's an engineer.

 

[Bart Sr.]

Re: Post your favorte McGyver moments..

like shows were 10,000 rounds of ammo goes off and no one gets shot!!!

AND without RELOADING!!!!!