Craziest thing that's ever happened on your boat?

christo15

christo15

New Member
Oct 15, 2013
275
Stamford, CT "Ponus Yacht Club"
Boat Info
2002 320 DA Sea Ray, Garmin 741xs
Engines
350 Mercruisers V-drives
Figured I'd start a thread on the crazy moments of our fellow ClubSeaRay members out on the water.

For me, the list is a mile long. On our previous boat, we had it for an entire season and started to realize a gas odor. After brushing it off just as fumes from the engine, we came back to the boat the next week to realize that bilge was strangely full, and the gas odor strong as ever. After immediately contacting our mechanic that we were taking it in to get checked, we rushed the boat over there. (30 minutes on the water.) Once arriving at the shop, we found out our bilge was 100% full of gas and could have exploded at any moment on our ride over there.

Turns out our previous owner had hooked up our battery grounding wire to the wrong location and it had corroded our gas tanks completely. We all learn from our mistakes!! 10k later the boat was all fixed. To this day I swear someone was looking out for us!
 
You sir, are very lucky it didn't blow up as soon as you turned the starter!

I have friend that put gas in his water tank and never realized till the next day when he went to start it and it blew the hatch off the bilge! Either he already had a leak in his water tank or the gas had ate through it overnight and leaked into the bilge. Fortunately no one was hurt.
 
This is going to be an interesting thread. I don't have any good stories to tell, besides the usual stuff, but I am looking forward to reading some good yarns.
 
Last season, nothing went wrong on our boat and there were no repairs. Weird, strange, border-line x-files stuff right there.
 
The craziest thing that happened to me was when my now X-wife told me she'd rather play tennis than hang out on the boat :grin: Sorry, I just had to do that:smt021
 
I spend the night on my 280SS and enjoy having AC/Microwave/battery chargers/coffee maker/etc, all powered by a portable Honda generator strapped to the swim platform. Crazy thing is that I haven't died from CO poisoning, electrocution, or some random explosion yet. :grin:
 
qflyer said:
I spend the night on my 280SS and enjoy having AC/Microwave/battery chargers/coffee maker/etc, all powered by a portable Honda generator strapped to the swim platform. Crazy thing is that I haven't died from CO poisoning, electrocution, or some random explosion yet. :grin:
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Oh no!!! I will get the popcorn and beer!!
 
Having two girls show up at the same time could be more dangerous than any CO emitting generator, portable or not! You are lucky my friend. I had that happen when I was admitted to the hospital years ago. Strangely, I was too weak to talk.
 
First launch of the season a couple years ago Old Skool had a dead battery at the dock. Having a second loose battery in the utility compartment I told my son, all of 16, to jump the batteries with my cables while I parked the truck. When I got back to the dock everyone was running around Old Skool. Seems the boy hooked the battery up backwards and started the cables on fire.

Luck would have it that another boater had just docked and he and his fishing partner jumped in Old Skool and doused the fire and unhooked the cables. The cable fire caused minimal damage and for some reason the engine started right up.

I think God has a dumb boaters angel he dispatches from time to time.
 
Can't blame this on the dock hand as I had a friend behind me coming to the main dock for fuel as well. I suggested the dock hand give him a hand since the wind was blowing and I was tied up. Two pumps side by side and another pump further down the dock which was gas only which is what he needed.

This is a test, can you determined what happened next !! Lets just say, 175 gallons got given away, then 350 gallons worth of fuel tanks got polished and then another 175 gallons of diesel got purchased. Fortunately it was caught before both sides got filled. Seeing how I can run on either tank, both tanks or what not, we went back to our slip and then cleanup got done during the following week and no trip got canceled.

Oh, and the test question is, do you have any idea what the total cost for this education was ? A little hint would be the cost of a new tender with a small OB !

My wife taught be years ago that "Sh-t happens" and you hope you don't step in it too often! Best part and only part that really counted, NO ONE GOT HURT which is always the most important part. Cheers !
 
Before the Sea Ray we had a18' open bow bayliner. It was a rainy day. My wife got home from work and it stopped raining. So she wanted to go out for dinner, by boat. During dinner
It started to rain again. Harder now. Half way across the lake it started raining sideways. Couldn't see the bow lights, couldn't see shore . The next day the news said a tornado touched down less than a mile north of us when in the middle of the lake. Luckily we just got very wet.
"Sh-t does happen"
 
We were hanging out at the marina, partying with some friends, having a good time. It started getting late, and my girlfriend decided she wanted to stay on the boat and play around. So, we excused ourselves, jumped in the cabin, and proceded to get frisky. Real frisky. When out of nowhere, a little girl (about 5yo) is standing in the cabin crying and wanting her momma!! It scared the crap out of me. My girlfriend went into mother mode and calmed the little girl down, and asked her where her mother was......

Well, my buddy put his daughter in my mid cabin without my knowlege, while we were all drinking and having a good time. I didn't know, he didn't know, we didn't know! Poor little girl will never be the same. lol
 
Way back when I was a single guy with a 330 Sundancer (Wow, was that boat ever an aphrodisiac!!) I had a girlfriend who was going to spend the weekend on the boat with me. I was getting the boat ready and she filled the water tank. Oops, she filled one of the gas tanks with water! It didn't take long after that before she became an ex-girlfriend.

Getting rid of the water in the gas tank was easier than getting rid of her, but both were worth it!
 
qflyer said:
I spend the night on my 280SS and enjoy having AC/Microwave/battery chargers/coffee maker/etc, all powered by a portable Honda generator strapped to the swim platform. Crazy thing is that I haven't died from CO poisoning, electrocution, or some random explosion yet. :grin:
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Not everyone that plays Russian Roulette dies, but the risks are high...

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and personal practices on this issue, but it is absurd to promote this dangerous practice in a public forum.

MM
 
MonacoMike said:
Not everyone that plays Russian Roulette dies, but the risks are high...

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and personal practices on this issue, but it is absurd to promote this dangerous practice in a public forum.

MM
Click to expand...
Awww come on, you're harping on this ad nauseam. Read this report on boating accident statistics. http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/workflow_staging/Page/705.PDF If you're really are all about safety you'd sell your boat and boycott CSR for promoting boating itself. The report is pretty thorough,...CO is by far one of the smallest causes of death for boaters, and how many of them are actually from generators let alone portables is not clear.

You continuously get sanctimonious over this issue yet take your family on a boat....a practice in itself that has greater risks to life regardless of a generator being present or not.

qflyer made an obvious attempt at humor, lighten up MM
View attachment 38056
 
Woody - I like your US Coast Guard Data post.

Way back: Teenagers out water skiing in my buddies 17 Sea Ray with an 85 Mercury. I am the observer while another friend is sitting in front of the outboard on the edge of the slash well.
Skier goes down and my buddy driver decides to use the torque of the motor to make his turn by loosening his grip on the wheel. Spoke hits his hand hard and he completely looses grip as we go into a hard spin. I watch my friend in the back slide across the splash well and flip over the side (no life jacket). Thank god the driver got the boat back under control and stopped immediately and the friend that went over the side was not injured or hit by the prop and could still swim. One of those extremely detailed, slow motion moments embedded in my memory that we can now laugh about.

Jeez, I just thought about the racing days, soooo many. I would have to say the craziest thing there was my Driver (I ran throttles and trim) coming into a turn behind a surface driven boat throwing a huge rooster tail. Instead of cutting across it and taking the turn wide he holds a line right in the tail as we get thousands of gallons of water thrown on us for about 300 yards, coming out to see a turn buoy right in front of us as he just misses the turn boat itself. Of course having the option i did not pull the throttles back during this whole event. That was the one racing moment that shook me up a bit.
 
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