MajBach
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
- Messages
- 564
I decided to post a little incident that occurred over the long weekend and was suprised to see something similiar happened to Anita here:<br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000363 <br /><br />Anyway, the story goes:<br /><br />A bunch of us were camping and fishing way up north and we had moored for the night. I had placed the bow of the boat on a gentle slope of flat rock with a piece of wood under the keel. The stern of the boat was past the rock shelf in about 5 feet of water. I inflated and air mattress on the floor and slept on the boat that night 
. I poured rain all night and occassionaly a small drip from the canopy would fall directly on my forehead and briefly wake me up. I eventually got used to this but when I awoke early next morning, I noticed my pillow to be very 'damp'. I figured in my dazed state that a bit of water leaked up front from above and travelled down the ribs in the air mattress to where my head was. I flipped the pillow to a dryer spot and rolled over to my other side and my arm landed in about 6 inches of water!!! Naturally, I sprung to life like a cat being electrocuted. The water was up to the base of the front seat (on an angle of course)when I hit the bilge and hopped out. I stood on shore, scratching my had and concluded there was a small leak somewhere and that there was no way this was rainwater. I walked to the campsite a hundred feet away to get a bucket to bilge with, wondering how water was getting in . I returned less than 2 minutes later and by this time the water was now up to the speakers and the bilge exhaust was 2 inches under water. In that short time, the transom fell at least 4 inches!!! Naturally, I was in a panic - and was now running! While simultaneously screaming for<br />help, I managed to swing the stern around to a shallow area of water a few feet away I hadn't noticed the night before and lowered the outboard so as to prevent any further 'sinking'. I spent the next several hours looking for leaks through live well fitting and screws etc. but found nothing. It wasn't until I once again propped the bow up on a piece of wood that I found the<br />problem. Turns out that water was resting on a few inches of the large black plastic access port cover right in front of the outboard. It got there<br />because of the two drain holes in the upper transom were partially submerged since the bow was raised. Looks like the o-ring of the plastic cover was cracked in several spots enough to let water in at a very slow rate. As the night progressed and water slowly filled the boat, the stern sat even deeper in the water until almost all of the plastic lid was submerged. The water<br />began filling at a constantly faster rate until the transom was just under (about the time I awoke). I reckon I had less than 5 minutes before the stern was gone completely. God knows what would have happened had I slept in a tent!<br />Other than a few charts and some rusty tools, no worse for wear. But I'll never forget that incident.<br /> <br /><br />MajBach
. I poured rain all night and occassionaly a small drip from the canopy would fall directly on my forehead and briefly wake me up. I eventually got used to this but when I awoke early next morning, I noticed my pillow to be very 'damp'. I figured in my dazed state that a bit of water leaked up front from above and travelled down the ribs in the air mattress to where my head was. I flipped the pillow to a dryer spot and rolled over to my other side and my arm landed in about 6 inches of water!!! Naturally, I sprung to life like a cat being electrocuted. The water was up to the base of the front seat (on an angle of course)when I hit the bilge and hopped out. I stood on shore, scratching my had and concluded there was a small leak somewhere and that there was no way this was rainwater. I walked to the campsite a hundred feet away to get a bucket to bilge with, wondering how water was getting in . I returned less than 2 minutes later and by this time the water was now up to the speakers and the bilge exhaust was 2 inches under water. In that short time, the transom fell at least 4 inches!!! Naturally, I was in a panic - and was now running! While simultaneously screaming for<br />help, I managed to swing the stern around to a shallow area of water a few feet away I hadn't noticed the night before and lowered the outboard so as to prevent any further 'sinking'. I spent the next several hours looking for leaks through live well fitting and screws etc. but found nothing. It wasn't until I once again propped the bow up on a piece of wood that I found the<br />problem. Turns out that water was resting on a few inches of the large black plastic access port cover right in front of the outboard. It got there<br />because of the two drain holes in the upper transom were partially submerged since the bow was raised. Looks like the o-ring of the plastic cover was cracked in several spots enough to let water in at a very slow rate. As the night progressed and water slowly filled the boat, the stern sat even deeper in the water until almost all of the plastic lid was submerged. The water<br />began filling at a constantly faster rate until the transom was just under (about the time I awoke). I reckon I had less than 5 minutes before the stern was gone completely. God knows what would have happened had I slept in a tent!<br />Other than a few charts and some rusty tools, no worse for wear. But I'll never forget that incident.<br /> <br /><br />MajBach