Dunking Outboards

[Guest]

Have to admit to doing it on more than one occasion.

I think my best effort was getting the tender stuck under pontoons in a marina. The buoyancy was incredible ! Had to leave it there for the night and it took THREE of us to get it out !

Would be interested to hear stories of others who have dunked outboards.

Bad luck or just a failure to take precautions ?

 

[Johnjo]

Only did it once , left it on the Avon tied to stern overnight.
Heard a few gusts of wind during the night.
In the morning dingy inverted, Propellor pointing to the sky.
Engine full of water,Only an old seagull,They don't seem to mind
odd ducking,
MIKE

 

[kingfisher]

Suggestion ?

I would have let the air out of the dingy ?

Picture a wonderfull sailing day on the Westerscheld. Suddenly we become aware of a constant thump against the hull. Worried faces of crew first look at each other, and then start to wander around to localize the source of the sound. Untill skipper looks over the transom, and sees the outboard waterskiing behind the boat, only attached to the safety cable. Lesson learned: you should regularly tighten the attachement screws, because an engine vibrates. Ahum.

Group of people on the pontoon: skipper is the one with the toolbox.
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[Twister_Ken]

Mea Culpa

Yamaha 2hp don't float.

The dinghy pontoon was very crowded, and I could only get the bows onto the pontoon.

I tried to pass the engine up onto the pontoon but it looked dodgy, so I put it back on the transom and thought I pull the entire dinghy out, engine and all.

Sound idea, except that I'd neglected to retighten the clamps. It went down into about two meters of water. Borrowed a grapnel and fished it out after about 15 minutes immersion. Ran a fresh water hose all over it, and the inside bits I could get at without tools. Put it in the outboard tank and pulled it over, but no sign of life. Stashed it in the car boot and delivered it a London outboard place next day. Got it back three days later (and £70 lighter). They'd basically stripped it, rinsed, dried and oiled, changed the spark plug, replaced the fuel and fired it up.

"Does it happen often?"

"We generally get one or two a week. Always the little ones, because people swing them around."

 

[pandroid]

Happened to me too, only I left the oars in the dinghy as well...dont do that no more...
Once I got the water out of the motor, it started more or less straight away and has been fine since (Mariner 2.5)

 

[Guest]

Pity that my Hand-held radio didn't survive the dunking ... chucked it into bucket of fresh water immediately !!!

But another radio I had later ---- same make ---- got dunked similarly, fresh water and same no work ..... friend gave me a no -working radio same type and I swapped batterys etc. and ended up with 2 working radios from his and my dunked one ...... still I don't know how today !!!!