What boating mistakes have you made?

[Turn-n-Burn]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

First gaffe of the year!! Pulled the boat out of storage to de-winterize last Thursday.

Hooked all hoses up and put all the engine plugs in. Check!

DVM the batteries, 12.7v each. Check!

All oils clean and full. Check!

Put the muffs and water hose on outdrive, turned on water, no leaks or drips. Check!

2 throttle pumps, turn key, 2nd revolution and we have ignition and idling great! No leaks and let her warm up a bit. Awesome!!

Shut her down and gave her a good bath. Time was getting short (had to go to work) so I buttoned her up. Check the weather for Friday while at work, 80* and sunshine all day, decided I'll play hooky!! Friday morning hooked up the boat and headed to the river, a sheet of glass! Boat ran great, all gauges in the normal reading and enjoyed a 4 hour shake down cruise!

Saturday comes and decided to go out for a couple of hours, this is where I noticed I might have a problem. putting the plug in I see the muffs still on the outdrive but not covering the water passages. :facepalm: O'boy!!! Put the boat in, started it up and idled to warm up. So far so good, took a few 3/4 throttle runs and temps are steady around 140/150*. Idled down no wake zone speed and after about 15 minutes my temps climbed to 170/175*. New impeller last year and never went above 160*.

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

First gaffe of the year!! Pulled the boat out of storage to de-winterize last Thursday.

Hooked all hoses up and put all the engine plugs in. Check!

DVM the batteries, 12.7v each. Check!

All oils clean and full. Check!

Put the muffs and water hose on outdrive, turned on water, no leaks or drips. Check!

2 throttle pumps, turn key, 2nd revolution and we have ignition and idling great! No leaks and let her warm up a bit. Awesome!!

Shut her down and gave her a good bath. Time was getting short (had to go to work) so I buttoned her up. Check the weather for Friday while at work, 80* and sunshine all day, decided I'll play hooky!! Friday morning hooked up the boat and headed to the river, a sheet of glass! Boat ran great, all gauges in the normal reading and enjoyed a 4 hour shake down cruise!

Saturday comes and decided to go out for a couple of hours, this is where I noticed I might have a problem. putting the plug in I see the muffs still on the outdrive but not covering the water passages. :facepalm: O'boy!!! Put the boat in, started it up and idled to warm up. So far so good, took a few 3/4 throttle runs and temps are steady around 140/150*. Idled down no wake zone speed and after about 15 minutes my temps climbed to 170/175*. New impeller last year and never went above 160*.

Sadly I did the same thing a few years ago, I couldn't believe it didn't overheat or fall off.

LK

 

[sutor623]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

So wait are you guys saying you ran the motors in muffs with no water? I'm confused

 

[Turn-n-Burn]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

So wait are you guys saying you ran the motors in muffs with no water? I'm confused

almost, kind of........still had water at idle going through the hole that the hose attaches, I surmise that by the time it was warmed up and I got on plane, the muffs moved ahead off of the lower unit water jackets. But you can bet the water impeller will be replaced before the next outing.:thumb:

 

[EL-BATO]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

First boating season ever for me and the Fiance last summer. '88 16.5ft Thundercraft.

We've lost an anchor and dragged the skeg through thick mud & up the gravel ramp. Thankfully the gravel was soft so we didn't bend anything.

Worst mistake I did was mis-diagnose why our trim stopped working and it caused a long chain-reaction of issues costing $500+ in miscellaneous electrical parts plus MANY wasted hours not using the boat! Problem ended up being a large fuse on the trim circuit that was pooched. Had I simply checked fuses first it would have been a $10, 10 min. job! At least it was a tremedous learning experience and i'll know for next time. The lesson for me: Sometimes the problem is VERY SIMPLE and VERY CHEAP to fix and it's staring you right in the face but you're too busy looking for a complicated cause!

Crossing my fingers for a problem free summer! Safe boating to all!



M

 

[mano]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?



I installed a new floor in my Wellcraft American 190 today...Luckily i noticed the screws through the hull before the new carpet went in...and luckily I own a gelcoat repair kit. I guess it was my lucky Monday. :lol:

 

[agallant80]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Being in a rush causes about 95% of my mistakes. Here are some examples
Wanting to get gas real fast and not putting the fendors out to save time results in scuff on boat,
Rushing to pickup boat and I forget to put the drive up
Rushing to put boat on trailer I go on too fast and mess up my pin strip
Rushing to put the LED lights on the inside now they have to come off and be repositioned
Rushing to get back to the dock and forget to pull the anchor up

 

[zealer]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Took boat out last week, first time, first 'real' boat.
Dropped in water, tied to dock, no issues. Run blower, lower drive. Go to start it - not enough juice... even after letting it charge for half the day prior to the outing (see, I did think beforehand). Turn it overall several times hoping it will catch. It doesn't. I wait a few minutes for the battery to recoup. During this break period, I notice the deadman switch was off. I must have knocked it. Flicked switch, try starting one last time. Engine catches, is running for 15 seconds, but I am too slow to give it a bit more throttle to keep running. Engine stalls, battery WAY dead to start again. Load boat back onto trailer and head home, as shore fisherman watch and most likely laugh.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Some times its just getting out of bed.

 

[In Deep]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

It looks like the screws went in straight!!

 

[gdeangel]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Forgot anchor was down while fishing, started up and wrapped line on drive and killed engine.

What's worse, had a guy tow me all the way back to shore with the anchor still dragging bottom before I realized the problem. Still have than anchor.

 

[OK Toon]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Just bought our first "new to us" pontoon last year. First time to tow it to the lake, left the table set up on the boat and just happened to look in my side mirror as we are going 60 on the highway -- and I see our table top bouncing down the turnpike. I was going to blow it off till I remembered those things aren't cheap. By the time I got stopped on the side of the highway, I was a good mile and half down the road -- time for a nice jog back to the table top.

2nd time out on the boat, the wife and I decide to just anchor out in the cove as the sun set. Went to turn on the nav lights only to have the reset trip on the dash. I reset it and flipped the switch again -- and again it trips the reset. Finally realized the wire for the nav light on the bimini was not routed correctly through the bimini frame which allowed two end pieces to rub on the wires and eventually rub through and into the wire. I was grounding out the system when I tried to turn on the nav lights. No big deal, right -- wrong. It also took out the regulator/rectifier on the motor but we didn't find this out for a few more trips out on the boat -- that's when I saw the warning on the Depth Finder about high voltage. Our first year was a learning year for sure. But that's why I bought a used boat so I could learn without breaking the bank.

 

[achris]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Left the bung out. First day out. :facepalm:.
Drove home with the drive down. Last inch of the skeg gone. :facepalm:
Fired up the engine with the drive still up.
Second trip out with the new engine (2006) hit a shallow reef and took a nice big chunk out of a brand new drive skeg...
Went for a walk along the side one time to set the anchor.... got back on board via the boarding ladder at the back...

 

[Dam2009]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

While on the ramp attempting to unload the boat, I put it in reverse as always, however, it would not slide off the trailer. Then decided to manually push it off the trailer while tens of spectators were watching...

While breaking sweat with 3 other guys.. my wife who was watching from the deck says... honey you forgot to take the transom straps off..

 

[achris]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

While on the ramp attempting to unload the boat, I put it in reverse as always, however, it would not slide off the trailer. Then decided to manually push it off the trailer while tens of spectators were watching...

While breaking sweat with 3 other guys.. my wife who was watching from the deck says... honey you forgot to take the transom straps off..

Yep, seen that.... Then there's the story of the guy who complained that his boat was too slow... Turned out he didn't know that the boat actually comes off the trailer. He just unhooked the trailer from the car. There the boat was, complete with the trailer still strapped under it... :facepalm:... True or urban myth? who knows, but it does make a good story...

 

[Slide]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Not me, but I should have taken a picture or a video.

I was out on the Ohio River on my buddy's Sea Ray last night and we see an older Bayliner cuddy with a bunch of 20something folks on it getting towed back to the ramp. Two of them are standing up on the bow while it's getting powered onto the trailer. They get it out and pull the plug and a torrent of water starts coming out. I think, "man, lots of water in that boat." 5 minutes later... still pouring out like a hose. They pull away and one of the trailer wheels is toed out really bad, looks like a bent axle. Water still gushing out of the plug hole. We are wrapped up and leave the ramp about 20 minutes later... water STILL torrenting out of the hole! Amazed that boat didn't sink during its half hour tow, and I kinda regret not informing the guy that his boat is certainly really dangerous.

 

[91 Sprint]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Well I broke my yoke on my trolling motor when docking, I left my boat keys on the bumper of my truck from unlocking my trailer to hook up before taking the boat to get fueled up and lost them somewhere on the road, glad I had anothe set! but had to cut the lock off the trailer to get it off my truck. sucked up so much silt and clogged my motor to where the alarm went off. when I got it home you could see the silt clogging the intake screen. got it taken care of. those Evinrude 88 SPL's are tough

 

[*mtrbtr*]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Last year I bought a beautiful Used Nautique ski boat. It had seen some abuse so I had to do a lot of cleaning and fixing on it but now its a very nice craft. I took it to the ramp one of the first times out and ran it to warm up the oil then pulled it back out to change the oil. I was using one of those oil pumps you put down the dipstick to pump the oil out. This pump was designed to be powered by a cordless drill. So I have the floors covered next to the motor box and my oil pan there and everything going along nicely when all of the sudden the hose comes off the end of the pump outlet. Now I stopped the drill pretty quick but it still made a couple of revolutions before it came to a stop spraying oil all over the carpet, vinyl, glass etc. Made me sick. Got it cleaned up, and glad noone was around.

I also started a fire in my first boat by jumping it with my truck battery and then unhooking one side of the cables and throwing them on the floor....not realizing they were touching. Went up front to check my guages and turned around to see flames. Had to bail water into the boat to put it out. (People were watching this one).

Other things,
-Left the plug out,
-Dragged anchors in the wind.
-Future wife wrapped ski rope around her leg and I thought she missed the rope so took off to go back around and drug her under the water giving her a nice rope burn. (She still married me and goes to the lake with me)
-Wrapped the ski rope around the prop shaft.
-Let a girl drive my boat who ruined the out drive buy revving the motor in neutral and slamming it into gear. (thank God I didnt marry that chick)
-Went tubing

 

[TyroneShoelaces]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

This thread is great, almost a therapy session to air out past sins.

Was in Hopetown in the Bahamas with a friends big boat. Motored around the harbor in the dingy and noticed really nice cabin cruiser from same town as us. Motored over and was chatting with the owner a few feet away. They asked me to come aboard so went to switch hands with the tiller to my left hand and stand up to grab the rail. The throttle was really sticky and somehow went to bump it into neutral/reverse but probably got confused cause I was working with my opposite hand and things went very wrong. (Always have and always will hate tillers) Dingy went full ahead, threw me to the back on the floor. I was reaching for the tiller and was going in circles wot. But right as I climbed up off the floor and got it into neutral I managed to come to a stop between their dingy and transom rather abruptly. No damage done except crushed ego and underwear that needed a change. I passed on the visit with them and hung my head in shame then motored out of the harbor.

 

[emilsr]

Re: What boating mistakes have you made?

Last November, on our last lake trip of the season:

After a nice boat ride we pull into a cove to relax and enjoy the nice desert weather. Light and variable winds so I just positioned myself roughly in the middle of the cove in 20' of water, dumped my handy dandy box anchor and 60' of brand new anchor line out, tied off, then got in the cuddy and took a nice hour long nap. After I woke up, I notice the variable winds were moving us around roughly in a circle but didn't think anything about it....until.....

We got ready to leave and I started pulling up the anchor, only to find the combination of variable wind direction and a floating anchor line had neatly wrapped the line around the drive roughly fiftyeleven times. Even with the drive trailered I couldn't quite reach far enough to untangle the line so I had to get all the way in the water to get it loose. What's the problem you say? Water temp was about 60 degrees. I've since added "keep the anchor line taught" to my cold water boating checklist.

Memorial Day weekend.....

We skipped boating Saturday so as to avoid all the once a year boaters. Bless their hearts for trying, but it's definitely amateur hour so we thought we would avoid the worst of it by waiting 'till Sunday.....they key word being "thought".

Sunday morning we get to the ramp. Busy, but not too crowded. The Coast Guard auxiliary folks were there helping to direct traffic (and assisting new boaters) so we waited our turn, then backed most of the way in (so I wouldn't have to wade in the cold water). Wifey got the boat fired up, did a "pre-flight", all was well so I unhooked the boat and started backing the rest of the way in. Unbeknownst to me, some guy was trying to paddle his bowrider across the ramp and to the courtesy dock.....and I backed right in front of him. He started to fend off our boat with his paddle (until my wife said something to him.....God only knows what THAT was :facepalm, but he was going slow enough that after bouncing off the side of my boat (no damage) he was able to make his way around us. The guy from the auxiliary came tearing back down to where I was at the bottom of the ramp....probably thought I was going to go off on the guy for running into us, but I just felt sorry for him thinking his Force outboard wasn't running (turns out it was, but for some reason he was trying to paddle an 18' boat in 20mph winds). I let it go, but the wife was angry that the guy didn't even apologize. Amateur weekend; probably should have stayed home.

The lesson here is look both ways before you back into the water.