Thread: Boat Almost Sunk

Originally Posted by Darin115

Kinda reminds me of when I brought the old jon boat out of retirement so I could start crappie fishing. We took the 40 horse off and put the 25 horse back on. Rewired the entire boat. Added seats and replaced pretty much everything that needed to be replaced. Took about 2 weeks from start to finish. Me, my father-in-law, my 12 year old and my 6 year old all worked on the boat at one time or another. Well we put her in Harris one evening. About an hour after we put in I noticed some water. The longer we fished the more water was in the boat. Not enough to sink us but enough to scare the kids. I turned on the pump and headed up lake and drained the water. I figured it was the rubber of the old drain plug had dry rotted. The next day I got a drain plug and put the boat up. The next week we went to Reese. Dang thing still took on water. I was stumped. Maybe a rivit loose? I looked and looked but could not figure it out. Back to the house. Decided it may be the water splashing up when running off plane. Went to Harris the next weekend. Put the boat in the water and immediately saw water in the back of the boat. I just happened to move the gas tank and noticed a hole in the boat. I looked for something to shove in the hole but had nothing. We went fishing anyway. When I got home I got a closer look. Looked just about the size of the drill bit that I had used to drill pilot holes when fixing up the boat. My 6 year old decided that he wanted to drill a hole like me and drilled one in the bottom of the boat. It was a easy fix. To this day he will not admit to drilling that hole.

Darin

Thats a good one... Maybe some day he'll own up to it. With my old boat the rubber washers would rot out at the transom and water would seap in from time to time.. I'd just bail it out and keep fishing.. My partner in the front of the boat would get kinda uncomfortable when I'd not say anything and just start bailing water out :p

Some of you may remember the old 1978 Mackie bass boat I used to have. Almost sunk that boat a couple of times. You could'nt leave it in the water over night or it would be full of water the next morning. Like you Tony, every hour or two, I would have to turn on the bilge and pump out the water and it would take several minutes. It made a lot of fishing partners nervous! :D

Redboat, I am just shaking my head in disbelief over your cool head in such a situation. My boat would almost certainly be at the bottom of Jordan if I had been in your spot. Glad everything worked out, but most especially you are safe. Take care and here's hoping that's the worst event you'll ever have on the water.

Yeh I did the same stupid thing but I still had the boat on the trailer. Your right i have never forgot the plug since then.

I put the plug in before I leave the house. Although I did forget to take the strap off one time and back down the ramp. Flooded the entire back end of the boat and I kept backing up and hitting the breaks to make the boat come off the trailer. People was looking at me like I was crazy. And there was a long line at the ramp. I finally realized what I had done and tried to pull up. The back was so heavy it pulled the front up until the motor touched the ground. I had to let the water drain while everyone waited. There was some pissed off people at Harris that evening.

Darin

People can be kind of impatient these days.

me and my uncle we waiting for a downpour to stop and we launched the 17' polarcraft aluminum boat that i had and headed out-we were trolling and were marking a lot of fish after going 1000 yds from the ramp--the rain started back with a vengance which forced me to put up an umbrella in the center of the boat-we both huddled under the umbrella and were content fishing right along when we noticed there was 6 or 8 inches of water in the boat! There was no bilge pump in the boat either. i got up to check the plug and when i shifted my weight all the water went with it and just about turned us over-my uncle just about panicked-he was looking for a life jacket frantically--he said "What in the world are we going to do?" now remember it was raining like someone was pouring it out of a bucket while all this is going on. i told him we had no choice, we had to pull the plug and head back in. He proceeded to tell me under no terms was i going to pull the plug!!!!!! As i looked down the fuel tank was floating around and we were going to sink quickly if we did not do something. We had nothing to bail water with anywhere in the boat. i cranked the motor and turned around and pulled the plug--he was letting me have it and i told him i have heard that this would work from some other folks and we had to get back because we were sinking. i steered the boat around with all the rods still out and when i gave it gas all the water moved toward the rear of the boat and the front was straight up in the air. We were poking along maybe 5 mph. The farther we went the bow of the boat went down, the motor rpm's increased, the boat sped up, and consequently the water level came down. It took forever to get back to the ramp but by the time we made it-you guessed it--it stopped raining--i put the plug in and turned around and away we went. My uncle still talks about that day. Everyone knows that sinking is a bad thing but what i learned from that is when you move if you are taking on water the water tends to follow your movements and THAT can sink you before you know it folks--take it from me--hope this never happens to you. Then there is the time blabbermouth took his boat between the two sticks that were sticking up!!!!!!! Maybe later!! Tell CBNC to go fishing if you see him on here!

When i bought my boat i asked to take it out for a test ride as the guy i bought it from lives on high rock lake. We launched it i asked if the boat had any leaks he said nothing thats going to sink the boat as we took off just idling chatting about the boat on our way to the main lake. We got to the main lake and the guy said he had forgot to put life vests in the boat and that we should turn back in case we got checked. about half way back i noticed i heard something banging around in the back... yup like you said the gas tank was floating i never owning a boat before i started freaking and yelled at the guy said i thought it didnt leak he said ummmm it doesnt i must have forgot the plug so ankle deep in water we flipped the bilge on and we made our way back to the ramp and back the truck in the water and pull the boat up drain the water get the vests he says good thing i didnt sink the boat before you could buy it. needless to say i learned then to always put the plug in before i leave the house.