tinkicker0
Well-Known Member
And all down to my ongoing ineptitude.
Aye last year it was as a newbie with a newly minted ICC forgetting his training and heading down a blind fairway in a gusting 30 knot from astern wind.
Then expecting to turn a single sterndrive boat 90 degrees into its finger berth.
As can be expected I found myself blown into the partly filled in old boatlift structure at the end of the fairway with the prop chewing the bottom and only judicious use of the boathook as a punt and ramrod saved the day.
I found out that day that boats travelling sideways have no brakes, no matter how hard you press on the bulkhead with your foot.
Took me a week to get the courage up to take her out of the berth again. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
This year after replacing the bellows and rebuilding the driveshaft assy on the drive, boat was arranged to go in the water sometime this week and marina was going to text when it went in. Important for the nerves that since I have a particular paranoia about poorly fitted bellows sinking the boat.
At the same time as the bellows, I changed the plugs, HT leads, dist cap and rotor.
No problem as hey, I bin a automotive engineer for over 25 years.
Started her on sunday on the muffs before she went splash to much shrieking and blue smoke, plus non spinning alternator.
Freed the alternator off and she was running again and sounding like she was imitating a rap artist firing a hand cannon.
She smoothed out (a little) and bad fuel in the carb was diagnosed. "Soon burn off" said mr overconfident on my right shoulder.
Tuesday, nice evening and out of work early, decided to go to the marina to finish recaulking the rubbing strip I started sunday before she hit the water.
Arrived at marina, no boat, just the chocks, looked at the slipway pontoon and there she is bobbing about in the wet stuff.
On board, engine cover up to check bilge for water and yep must've been a foot deep or so it seemed.
No idea if this was the result of 1 hour or 48 hours in the water and paranoia cranked to maximum.
Decided to get her to the berth and investigate there.
Started her up, rough as a piano dropping down a flight of stairs, told SWMBO to cast off from the pontoon and meet me at the berth. About 3 feet out, pah the motor stopped and failed to restart, only SWMBO's cleat lassoo skills saved the day.
Plugs out (broke one) number 2 and 3 cyls not firing. Put old plugs back in. Engine started and seemed a little smoother.
Cast off again, turned around and headed for the berth at the other side of the pontoon.
Straight ahead is the marina entrance on to the river and I have to make a sharp turn to port, to pass the end of the pontoon and my berth is literally six feet away from our starting point - on the other side.
So bow pointing straight at the river exit, not more than 30 feet away, bloody motor goes Pah again and I have no brakes and very little steering.
I resolved to hit the bank rather than glide out into the river and drift downstream.
Luckily the engine restarted at once and I made it to the berth with shaking legs.
No sign of the water rising further in the bilge and no sign of water leaking in, so SWMBO and I "enjoyed" a melancholy cuppa whilst my overtaxed brain tried to think of ways to stop the bloody thing sinking.
Thought of tying her up with all the rope we had so she would only sink a little, so open the anchor locker in the forward bilge to get the big mutha ropes out and to our surprise they were sopping wet. Evidence of bilge being quite full too. Mmm how'd that happen?
Light bulb flashes on in the head. She had a slight bow down attitude on the chocks, now the weight of the engine makes her stern heavy.....Solution bail out the bilge and see if any more water comes in. Bilge duly bailed out and wiped dry and my "foot" of water measured out into plastic cup totalled about one and a half litres /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
The water I drained out of the block and manifolds after winterising her had to go somewhere and it was not out the transom plug hole apparently.
Moral of thar particular tale: a little water in the bilge added to huge paranoia inflates the amount of water present by a factor of a thousand. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
As for the misfire, being a ford trained techie and used to old style distributors turning counterclockwise Mmm. If number one plug lead is at 5 oclock, number 3 is at 1 oclock, number 4 is at 10 oclock and number 2 is at 7 oclock.
Wrong, this particular distributor of satan turns clockwise!
Moral of the tale: Don't substitute experience for a good read of the workshop manual before tackiling a job.
As for the alternator...thought about changing the beearings but not taking any chances now /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Brand new one just arrived.
Now all I need is a nice electrical fire and boat burned down to the waterline to have collected the full set.
Where's my manual!!!!
I am paranoid and extremely protective of my boat, treat it like a baby and have these snags every year, yet others leave them in the water, fail to winterise the engine, lock the door and walk away till next year, then about now, walk aboard, start the engine and go on their merry way whistling a happy tune.
Ignorance is bliss on their part or are the fates just having a laugh at my expense?
Any one else have splash day disasters or is it just me?
/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Aye last year it was as a newbie with a newly minted ICC forgetting his training and heading down a blind fairway in a gusting 30 knot from astern wind.
Then expecting to turn a single sterndrive boat 90 degrees into its finger berth.
As can be expected I found myself blown into the partly filled in old boatlift structure at the end of the fairway with the prop chewing the bottom and only judicious use of the boathook as a punt and ramrod saved the day.
I found out that day that boats travelling sideways have no brakes, no matter how hard you press on the bulkhead with your foot.
Took me a week to get the courage up to take her out of the berth again. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
This year after replacing the bellows and rebuilding the driveshaft assy on the drive, boat was arranged to go in the water sometime this week and marina was going to text when it went in. Important for the nerves that since I have a particular paranoia about poorly fitted bellows sinking the boat.
At the same time as the bellows, I changed the plugs, HT leads, dist cap and rotor.
No problem as hey, I bin a automotive engineer for over 25 years.
Started her on sunday on the muffs before she went splash to much shrieking and blue smoke, plus non spinning alternator.
Freed the alternator off and she was running again and sounding like she was imitating a rap artist firing a hand cannon.
She smoothed out (a little) and bad fuel in the carb was diagnosed. "Soon burn off" said mr overconfident on my right shoulder.
Tuesday, nice evening and out of work early, decided to go to the marina to finish recaulking the rubbing strip I started sunday before she hit the water.
Arrived at marina, no boat, just the chocks, looked at the slipway pontoon and there she is bobbing about in the wet stuff.
On board, engine cover up to check bilge for water and yep must've been a foot deep or so it seemed.
No idea if this was the result of 1 hour or 48 hours in the water and paranoia cranked to maximum.
Decided to get her to the berth and investigate there.
Started her up, rough as a piano dropping down a flight of stairs, told SWMBO to cast off from the pontoon and meet me at the berth. About 3 feet out, pah the motor stopped and failed to restart, only SWMBO's cleat lassoo skills saved the day.
Plugs out (broke one) number 2 and 3 cyls not firing. Put old plugs back in. Engine started and seemed a little smoother.
Cast off again, turned around and headed for the berth at the other side of the pontoon.
Straight ahead is the marina entrance on to the river and I have to make a sharp turn to port, to pass the end of the pontoon and my berth is literally six feet away from our starting point - on the other side.
So bow pointing straight at the river exit, not more than 30 feet away, bloody motor goes Pah again and I have no brakes and very little steering.
I resolved to hit the bank rather than glide out into the river and drift downstream.
Luckily the engine restarted at once and I made it to the berth with shaking legs.
No sign of the water rising further in the bilge and no sign of water leaking in, so SWMBO and I "enjoyed" a melancholy cuppa whilst my overtaxed brain tried to think of ways to stop the bloody thing sinking.
Thought of tying her up with all the rope we had so she would only sink a little, so open the anchor locker in the forward bilge to get the big mutha ropes out and to our surprise they were sopping wet. Evidence of bilge being quite full too. Mmm how'd that happen?
Light bulb flashes on in the head. She had a slight bow down attitude on the chocks, now the weight of the engine makes her stern heavy.....Solution bail out the bilge and see if any more water comes in. Bilge duly bailed out and wiped dry and my "foot" of water measured out into plastic cup totalled about one and a half litres /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
The water I drained out of the block and manifolds after winterising her had to go somewhere and it was not out the transom plug hole apparently.
Moral of thar particular tale: a little water in the bilge added to huge paranoia inflates the amount of water present by a factor of a thousand. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
As for the misfire, being a ford trained techie and used to old style distributors turning counterclockwise Mmm. If number one plug lead is at 5 oclock, number 3 is at 1 oclock, number 4 is at 10 oclock and number 2 is at 7 oclock.
Wrong, this particular distributor of satan turns clockwise!
Moral of the tale: Don't substitute experience for a good read of the workshop manual before tackiling a job.
As for the alternator...thought about changing the beearings but not taking any chances now /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Brand new one just arrived.
Now all I need is a nice electrical fire and boat burned down to the waterline to have collected the full set.
Where's my manual!!!!
I am paranoid and extremely protective of my boat, treat it like a baby and have these snags every year, yet others leave them in the water, fail to winterise the engine, lock the door and walk away till next year, then about now, walk aboard, start the engine and go on their merry way whistling a happy tune.
Ignorance is bliss on their part or are the fates just having a laugh at my expense?
Any one else have splash day disasters or is it just me?
/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
