Stupid things you have done in boat repairs.

[Nostrodamus]

I am just wondering if someone can beat my "senior moment" when doing some servicing.

My bilge pump was not sounding so good so I took it out to check it. It is a Jabasco and is situated away from the bilge and in an awkward place.
Originally I took the bilge pipe off to see if it was blocked. Blew down it and indeed it was. Then i saw it had a joker type vale in it meaning it would stop anything going back.. (Senior moment 1). Checked the other end by blowing the other way and all was fine.

Took the housing to the impella off the pump and opened it up. The impella was broken...
Replaced and checked everything. Spent 2 hours upside down putting it all back where it should be. I didn't want the pump to run dry so I put water in the bilge for it to be sucked out.
Instead of sucking the water out the bilge pump was sucking in. I had put the impella housing back the wrong way round!!!!

I suppose we learn by our mistakes but what senior moments have you had.

 

[LadyInBed]

Used to do things like that but now I take pics at each stage, so I can now back track.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I suppose we learn by our mistakes but what senior moments have you had.

Dropped a nut down the back of the engine while replacing the head. Access is very, very limited, so I had to take the head off again to be able to get over the engine to find the nut which turned out to have rolled into the bilge sump under the engine from which it was easily retrievable from the cabin ...

 

[Poignard]

what senior moments have you had.

Too many to list. Usually the result of being in a hurry and failing to 'measure twice and cut once'.

 

[deuc02]

Used to do things like that but now I take pics at each stage, so I can now back track.

Used to take pics but lost the camera when the boat sank

 

[dancrane]

http://ow.ly/ux0jW

View attachment 40626

I refer the honourable gentleman to the idiotic accident detailed in the link above...

 

[dgadee]

For some reason the boat I bought had two depth sounders with two transducers (both working). I thought I would simplify and removed one dumping the one I didn't want. Found out later I had kept the transducer for one and display for the other. Lesson: keep everything till the refit is finished.

 

[nigelmercier]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the idiotic accident detailed in the link above...

And mine where I shower myself with hot Oxalic Acid. http://bit.ly/1iDJim3

The one thing I miss since buying out my boat partners is the ability to discuss procedures when tackling various jobs, hence the recent increase in my number of questions in the PBO forum. If it involves moving elections I'm fine, anything else I'm not so sure about.

 

[Nostrodamus]

I have enjoyed reading the replies to date and it goes to show we all have senior moments at one time or another... If you have not had one... it will come!

 

[Nostrodamus]

I think there was a advertisement somewhere which read

"Ladies, we will fix that appliance your husband tried to repair" or something similar

 

[prv]

http://ow.ly/ux0jW

<snip horrible picture>

Well, that was a certainly an appropriate choice of URL-shortener

Pete

 

[cliveshelton]

Several years ago I drilled a hole in our FULL fuel tank for a mikuni diesel heater supply. I neglected to chose the highest point on the top horizontal surface of the tank. I had to cover the hole with my thumb while I worked out the best way to summon help or sort it out myself. I was alone in a deserted marina on the hard and my phone was out of reach. What to do?

 

[Nostrodamus]

On a similar thread I crawled under the front bunk in the bows and bent myself around the bow thruster to get to the windlass control box which had problems. God it was tight but eventually I managed to get to it for the 10 second job of checking and cleaning it.
I then spent 4 hours trying to get out and found myself totally stuck without the phone and in small spaces no one can hear you scream.
I have now cut out a access hatch in the base of the bunk to reach it easily.

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Several years ago I drilled a hole in our FULL fuel tank for a mikuni diesel heater supply. I neglected to chose the highest point on the top horizontal surface of the tank. I had to cover the hole with my thumb while I worked out the best way to summon help or sort it out myself. I was alone in a deserted marina on the hard and my phone was out of reach. What to do?

That's nothing. One of my co-owners was refitting sole boards while afloat and in trying to drill around a broken bit of screw in the bearer managed to drill through the hull. After a moment of anxiety we realised that a 4mm hole in the hull would take at least a week to sink her, we stopped the ingress of water with a screw and some sealant, and dried her out a week later to make a permanent repair.

 

[NickRobinson]

That's nothing. One of my co-owners was refitting sole boards while afloat and in trying to drill around a broken bit of screw in the bearer managed to drill through the hull. After a moment of anxiety we realised that a 4mm hole in the hull would take at least a week to sink her, we stopped the ingress of water with a screw and some sealant, and dried her out a week later to make a permanent repair.

Ditto- In my case I thought I was drilling through the centre cockpit sole to allow rainwater to get to the bilge for pumping.. (Europa GRP canal boat) turned out the the moulding was resting on the hull at that point- 20 years later my kids still take the p*** about Dad's understanding of hydrostatics....

N

 

[DanTribe]

Wife and I were refastening our Stella. To avoid too much disturbance we were doing every third fastening working out from midships [seemed like a good idea at the time!]
I was cutting off the heads and driving the nails down, she was outside pulling out old nails and driving new ones in. Communication was difficult. I said " go three nails aft" she heard "3 nails forward"
That's where I was sitting. She really nailed my arse to the floor!

 

[Habebty]

Most of the above raise the question,
"Should we have lots of compulsory elfin safety to prevent scalding, laceration, blinding, poisoning, pollution?"

Or

"Should we be free to maim ourselves at our convenience?"

 

[mjcoon]

Wife and I were refastening our Stella. To avoid too much disturbance we were doing every third fastening working out from midships [seemed like a good idea at the time!]
I was cutting off the heads and driving the nails down, she was outside pulling out old nails and driving new ones in. Communication was difficult. I said " go three nails aft" she heard "3 nails forward"
That's where I was sitting. She really nailed my arse to the floor!

I think you should send that story to YM's "Confessional" - just because it is bound to attract the attention of the cartoonist!

Mike.

 

[Seajet]

I was walking through the dinghy park with my chum one day, when we noticed a chap installing a self bailer; facing forward...

We had a quick chat, ' shall we tell him, or should we wait for the ' Dive dive dive ' with a camera poised ?! '

We chickened out and told him, but I've always wondered what would have happened.

My mistakes are too many to list here, but here's a Top Tip; don't try frying Fray Bentos pies...

 

[Norman_E]

I stripped a masthead wind instrument to replace the bearings, taking photographs of the whole process to remind me how it was done.

A year later I had another one to try and fix because it was not working. I forgot about the photos and the dismantling instructions I had written and tried to dismantle it by unscrewing a part that should in fact just pull out, with the result that I damaged a coil. No problem I thought, just rewind the coil. I did so and replaced the bearings but all in vain, because afterwards I found the fault that had stopped it working, which was that the tiny printed circuit board has burned out tracks and is irreparable, so all my work on it was in vain.