Who has had a boat sink?

[Powerstroke]

We were staying at my gramma's place on Lake Traverse on the western border of the state.

Last night we docked the boat securely and came in for dinner. When we came back out the winds had whipped up over 25mph. The forecast said winds wouldn't come till today (monday) and we planned on landing the boat at night on sunday. Instead we ended up running the bilge every hour to keep water out of the boat. It made it all night without taking on much water, but in the morning the winds got much worse.

Sometime between 10am and noon the boat went from empty to the back of the boat on the bottom in 4 feet of water. The boat was resting on the lower unit of the motor or it would've been completely under.

After a lot of work in crashing waves we lifted the rear of the boat high enough to start bailing and bilgeing. When I left for home the boat was still supported but empty.

Has anyone ever sunk a boat and lived to use it again? How much would this hurt a guy. The boat is a 30yr old fiberglass with a motor that hasn't run right in the last year. Do you save it or try to salvage some sort of money by selling it as a salvage?

Help

[cheesehead]

The boat itself should be fine, the wiring may or may not need to be replaced depending on what type of wire is used and how the boat is wired.
However from your story this boat has no floatation in it and would completly sink if it gets swamped again. Consider youself lucky that this happend at the dock in 4 feet of water and not on he lake in 60 feet of water. I would consider sending the boat to the salvage yard just for this reason alone. Your life is worth to much to ake a chance on drowning.
The motor should be salvagable but would need most of the electronics replaced, all the fluids changed, and completly dried out.

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Say cheese

[Valv]

If motor didn't sink, you should be ok, just let everything dry very well.
If motor went under, it's gone bye, bye. Water and sand gets into bearings, and it won't last more than 10 minutes.
Best procedure to try to fix it is to flush (fill all cylinders) it with diesel, but it has to be run almost immediately, otherwise even if you didn't get any sand bearings, rings etc. will rus very fast.

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Val Vignati

www.kvesurplus.com
[email protected]

[fishermn]

Been there done that... Almost the same story, except our boat was in about 16 ft of water parked at a dock on Eagle Lake Ontario... Came out at 5:30 to get a jump on the fishing, only to find the boat holding on to the dock by the mooring ropes... As we moved the boat toward the shore, it flipped and submerged the motor for 15 - 20 minutes... To make a long story short, we did recover it, and were able to use it again after the engine was cleaned up. (Wasnt my boat so I am not sure what all he had to do to get in back in serviceable condition... I know it wasnt a real expensive process. ) I think it was pretty much in line with the process Valv mentioned in his post.. However, the bigger issue might be the floatation... I certainly wouldnt want to keep a boat that I knew didnt have adequate floation.

I would say that what you decide to do really depends on how much you like this boat and how much you want (or can afford) a new one.

Good Luck,
D

[This message has been edited by fishermn (edited 09-07-2004).]

[The Grebe]

My bud and I sunk a small Aluminum, with a 6 HP Johnson on it, out on Medicine Lake.

I was on the helm and made to sharp of a turn in rough seas and down we went! To complicate matters, we were on our way in and it was getting dark.

The water poured over the transom in an instant, I bet we went down in about 3 seconds!

You don't just sit there quietly, there is pandomonium and we somehow flipped the boat.

No life jackets on, both of us are excellent swimmers, but it happened so fast,
it could have been desasterous!

The boat had floatation so it did'nt go to Davey Jones Locker. We stayed with the boat, got it righted, swam it to shore and through a lot of work and a million skeeter bites later, we got it out and loaded.

I took the motor to the shop, told them what happened and they got it running, no problem.

Once the water gets the upper hand on you, you are a goner!

[can-man]

Sunk a boat in 96 once I got it out took the motor to shop they cleaned th carbs out and fog the motor. Replaced the starter and Elect fitting. May of done more than needed put it still running today

[Powerstroke]

Well, the boat was recovered and landed without another swamping.
I don't think the boat has a lack of flotation if you saw how much water was in it, I can imagine that it was overloaded and the pounding waves would've kept any boat under. We've had this old boat in the family for several years and recently handled such weather on Leech Lake with much better results. I know why it was taken over so easily, but I won't blame my dad.....

[jigeye]

I had an aluminum runabout get swamped once near shore. The water was level with the gunnels plus there was about 2 inches of silt in it. The motor was just above though. My insurance payed for the entire fix. I brought it to a place at the Flying Cloud Airport where they fix up planes. They replaced everything. Trolling motor, radio, wiring, two graphs, steering cables and carpet. They also took off all the vinyl from the seats to dry the pads out. I had the boat for 6 more years without any problems. If you have insurance on it you should make a claim.

[morpho]

nosed her in eh ?

[Powerstroke]

The boat was facing shore with the waves coming over the transom where there is the least amount of protection from oncoming waves and it was quite shallow so the boat had little room to "roll with the punches".

It was tied to the docks and had little slack for rebound. I'm sure it only took a couple waves ot do it. The way it took on water while we were bailing, I thought it would sink again.

[early007]

I've had a couple of my rental boats go down in bad weather. If you get everything drained it will run again but it is wise to replace all of the cables. Because sooner or later they will rust and seize up.

Jason Erlandson

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Dave's Sportland Bait and Tackle
Sportland Guide Service Hwy 371 & Cty Rd 13
Nisswa MN

218-963-2401

[email protected]

[Joe Harty]

Say Grebe,

Glad no one drowned or was hurt but I gotta say that I have heard that story before. How about a few more details ? Where on the lake and what were the conditions, and when did that happen ?

lakeman

[The Grebe]

Joe Harty...Hi, how you doing? Do you, or one of your relatives still rent boats on the east side of the lake?

I hav'nt fished Medicine since the kids were little, we rented boats from you a couple of times. It's been a long while as I don't believe that there was a park on the north side of the lake?

We were on the west side, down in the area of the beach, I can't recall if the bait shop was still there? I caught a 12 pound Northern off that ladies dock...won a fillet knife in a fishing contest where I used to work and use it to this day!

I do know that there was a house on shore ( Thats gone also) and the fella that lived there asked if we needed help and we told him we were okay, sure has changed around there!

[hydro]

Been there myself as well as been a spectator to the "deck side down" syndrome . As long as the motor does not inhale water while running, you can usually dry it out with compressed air and by spinning it with the plugs out. Start it up as soon as the water's out and they run fine!