Thread: B-O-A-T....What it actually stands for!!

Got to Crescent Tuesday night and was up and on the lake at day break Wednesday morning. (Anchor Man wimped out and decided not to go out that day...Smart guy!!) Anyway the weather was horrible. You'd think by now that I would be used to that on Crescent. The wind was blowing like crazy and it rained off and on all morning!!!



We managed to boat a few keeper fish and 1 pretty good one. This one was about 2 1/4 lbs:



Around lunch time, we had taken all we could stand and headed back in. Unfortunately, we had to go back into the winds and 6-7 mph was all we could do. Water was splashing all over the windshield and it was almost impossible to see. That was probably he roughest 4 mile ride on water I have ever made. We finally made it back to the landing and I getting ready to load the boat on the trailer. As soon as the front end of the boat went up on the trailer, my motor quit. I couldn't get it to crank again so we winched it up on the trailer and went back to the house. I checked all the obvious things with no luck. Anchor Man put me in touch with a mechanic and off we went. Long story short, the ECU (Engine Control Unit) went bad. None of the local Mercury Dealers could even look at it for the next 2 weeks, so I was boatless for the next 2 days.

Anchor Man took us out on Thursday afternoon and we caught a few fish. On Friday, I fished with SlowRideStu and my buddy Tim fished with Anchor man. Boat boats got a few quality fish and a good time was had by all.

Now, back to what B-O-A-T stands for......I priced ECU's from different places and it will cost around $1,000 +/- just for the ECU....WOW!!! The other side of the coin is I have to take it to a dealer to diagnose and confirm that is actually the problem so there is probably another $100 or so.
Bring Out Another Thousand
The good part is that the motor crapped out a the boat landing instead of out on the lake. Today, I had a friend to call his friend (who happens to be the Service Manager at a Mercury Dealer) and it looks like I can take it to them on Monday and ready to fish again by Wednesday. I'm just thankful it turned out the way it did. It sure could have been a lot worse!!!

Thx again to Stu and Vic for taking us out fishing and to Quick for the use of the tools...Crappie.com folks are the best!!!

That the bad, bad thing about Mercury's - those ECU units give you absoultey no
notice that something is about to quit...........Have gone through it 2 times in
past 30 yrs...............
First time Kentucky Lake - just unloaded boat and tied it off at dock to go park truck.
Nothing - dead - sip - nata..........Load it up take to repair shop - $980.00 later
and 1 week fishng delay - also tow of 450 mi each way (Ranger boat)

Second time: Convinced "Wife" to go Shellcrackering with me on Kissimmee -
Winds came up - rain - high waves - real rough water (Wife really scared)
made 12 mi back to Camp Mack. Tied off at ramp - put trailer in water to load -
Nothing - zip - nata - zeero (dodged bullet again) This was procraft
Still a mercury engine -and $1,150.00 - but added thrill of engine when she went
also took out Oil Injection electrical and fried couple other items total bill $1450.00
give or take.
It is scarey - know how you felt Tim..............JUST VERY VERY THANKFUL YOU
WERE AT DOCK AND NOT ON CRESCENT'S WONDERFUL WATERS STRANDED..........