Craziest thing that's ever happened on your boat?

Every year it's the same argument and with the same players. The OP has been following right along and acknowledged our pros and cons so I believe he truly is seeking and answer and not just stirring the pot.

Some yes some no, then the back sided personal attacks and finally the stand off. Well we have reached the final stage. MM has the beer, Mike has the popcorn, I'll stick the reruns of I Love Lucy in the player.

It's drama time baby.
 
Sticking with the "I almost blew myself to bits" theme.

I used to trailer my 290 Sundancer. On one particular day I backed down the ramp to launch. Once at the helm I tried to start but got nothing. Turned the key on and off several times .....nothing. Checked that I was in neutral..... again nothing.

I pulled the engine hatch and had my son turn the key a few times. I could hear the starter click but something didn't seem right. I pulled the trailer and boat back out and headed home to troubleshoot.

The battery checked out fine. What I discovered was my engine cylinders were full of gasoline!. A needle valve was stuck open in the carburetor allowing fuel to flow freely into the engine. The incline of the ramp perhaps made the situation worse. A new Edelbrock carburetor, anti siphon valve, and all was well.

It still scares me to think of what could've happened that day.
 
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A few years ago, a local lawyer pulled his 390EC up to the fuel dock at our marina, which is a Sea Ray dealer. One engine was back firing. Since he was in the way of fuel sales, the marina dispatched the shop foreman to diagnose and fix the problem or move the boat to a more appropriate spot. It seems there was a minor ignition problem and the mechanic left the boat to go get the parts he needed. The mechanic left the fuel dock attendant on the boat to be sure that no one stumbled into the open engine bay. For those of you who have never seen the engine hatches on a 390EC, there are 3 about 4 ft long and 2 ft wide extending across the entire beam of the boat. The lawyers wife, who chose to sleep in, that morning came stumbling out of the cabin and before she could understand why not to proceed, took one step, and then took a header into the engine bay, which, on the 390EC is about a 5 ft fall on top of the battery boxes. It was a serious injury......first responders, ambulance, life flight, several days in ICU, several weeks in the hospital and about $200K in plastic and oral surgery, and she was back to normal. After the lawsuit, the marina changed their policy on fuel dock attendants........they won't get on your boat; you pump your own fuel.

So skip ahead about 2 years........We are idling around waiting to get to the fuel dock and I notice the old 390EC tied up getting fuel. I'm partial to 390's, so we were enjoying the view.....but, it was taking f o r e v e r. Finally, the dockmaster calls on the VHF and suggests that we come back on our way out in the morning because it will take them several hours to get the 390 off the fuel dock. I went to my slip and tied up, washed the boat and decided to walk down to the fuel dock and see what is going on. Turns out this was the same lawyer and the same 390 involved in the law suit accident. Since the marina no longer allows the fuel attendant to do anything more than hand you the fuel nozzle, thanks to the lawyer now shouting at everyone within ear shot of the fuel dock, the owner took the fuel hose, handed it to his wife who now looks 15 years younger, thanks to her header into the engine bay, and takes a call on his cell phone. It seems her job is more that looking good than thinking. She shoved the nozzle into a rod holder and filled the boat up with gasoline. At 450 gal. they realized something was amiss.
 
Stumbled across this video last night, happened near the end of last season, curious if the owner was part of the CSR boards. I am not sure if I would be happy or upset if my buddy called me and said the police sunk my boat that I let him borrow. I think I would be happy so I could get a bigger boat courtesy of the police department. Little more searching and I found out that the officer was re-assigned away from harbor duty this past April after they concluded their investigation

[video=youtube_share;j_eH229fMfM]http://youtu.be/j_eH229fMfM[/video]
 
Not mine, but my BIL was out boating on his 19 foot Striper at night with a friend of his (who is disabled) and they were enjoying several liquid refreshments together. He let's his friend take the helm, as he had never driven a boat before. At 3/4 throttle they run up onto a sand island in Barnegat Bay and end up 20+ feet from the water.
No way he could get it wet again, so they decide to sleep it off in the cabin.
Next morning, SeaTow shows up, without even being called, and ties a line to his bow, turns him around and drags him back into the drink, and off they go!
No harm, no foul, no damage, no arrests.
 
On my boat, my buddy was driving and making a wake too close to shore in Barnegat Bay and gets pulled over by two Marine Police on Jet Skis, he figures...he's screwed. The cop gets off of jet ski and tries to get on my swim platform, loses his balance and goes in. All we see is a hand holding a radio up out of the water. When the cop comes up for air, we thought we were dead meat as he was PISSED!! But he sees his partner laughing hysterically and starts to smile, too. He climbs on board, we hand him a towel, and he tells us his ticket book is all wet, se he is gonna give us a safety inspection. No problem. He then asks us if we were inebriated after seeing several beer cans around. NO SIR! we tell him and he says "Good, have a nice day!" As he gets back on his ski, the whole crowd at the Yacht club we were in front of, stands up and applauds!
 
islandhopper00 said:
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!!
Click to expand...

be glad the girl did not ask you what you are doing there ... :smt043
 
Not our boat, but I remember a couple of good ones when I was a kid; both were boating buddies of our family. In the '60's, one guy bought a little aluminum runabout with what I think my dad said had a 65hp transom limit. He installed a 100hp Mercury outboard on it - I think the biggest available at that time (?). Brand new boat, just splashed in the water for the first time; he idles out to the no wake buoy and hits the throttle. The bow goes straight skyward vertical, water rushes into the stern, and it backed neatly down under the water. As a boy, that was quite interesting to watch.

I didn't see this next one but heard dad and his friends talking about it. It seems another friend was sitting on top of his helm seat when he hit a bad wake. The boat bounced hard: he flips backward off the seat and out of the boat that just went out from under him, and treaded water as he helplessly watched his boat cruise off onto the rock dam.
 
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OldSkool said:
Every year it's the same argument and with the same players. The OP has been following right along and acknowledged our pros and cons so I believe he truly is seeking and answer and not just stirring the pot.

Some yes some no, then the back sided personal attacks and finally the stand off. Well we have reached the final stage. MM has the beer, Mike has the popcorn, I'll stick the reruns of I Love Lucy in the player.

It's drama time baby.
Click to expand...

Old School you got sum splanin to Dooo!!
 
islandhopper00 said:
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......
Click to expand...

Islandhopper's tale reminded me of another time. I had a 20' bowrider and a different girlfriend, this one from Florida. Every time she came to WA (about 2-3 times a year) all she wanted to do was get on the boat and do the horizontal dance. We were anchored on the Columbia one sunny day, up in the bow seating area doing the deed.

Well, you know when long distance swimmers practice for a triathalon they often tow a bright colored, inflatable behind them so they don't get run over by a boat.

So we're up in the bow having fun and I happen to hear something and look off the stbd side of the boat and here's this bright pink inflatable ducky being towed, about 15' from the boat. Only after I saw it did I realize what was going on and I started laughing. Well, the girlfriend wondered what was making me laugh and when I pointed out the inflatable ducky and the swimmer, she started laughing too. I don't know the lady towing the ducky heard or saw anything, but I bet she knew what was happening on board.
 
this stuff is better than Penthouse Forum.....just remember....no pics....never happened...its just words on a page :grin:
 
This summer I was working in the bilge of my boat, had the satellite radio on and was not really paying attention to much else when I noticed somebody hollering my name and yelling that someone was sinking.
We are on a river and the current was high all year. I climbed out of the bilge and looked over at the guy hollering at me from the next dock over. I finally realized he was saying that somebody on a jets was sinking and was drifting past me boat.
I quickly pulled out an emergency line that I have prepared and got it ready to heave to him as he went by me. I knew I only had one chance and as he went by I heaved the rope over his head.
He was close to going down, the river water being very cold but he grabbed the rope. I wrapped it around a rear cleat and started pulling him in. I told him to let go of the jet ski, that it would not sink and that it was more important to save himself and we could always go out and recover the jet ski.
He would not do it, so I continued to pull them both in close to my swim platform. He would not let go of the jet ski even though he was beginning to go under. I finally grabbed the bow line on the jet ski and he then allowed me to pull him aboard.
When I saw him later up on the deck of the club he did not even offer to buy me a drink even though I brought up his wallet that he had left on the dock after getting out of the water.
 
I had my 30 express and was going out right after my divorce. I started port engine and heard a huge explossion like a shotgun going off!!!! I ducked and looked around thinking of my ex lol

I than pulled my engine hatch and found pieces of my battery all over the place
 
The craziest thing that has happened, was self induced! I was wrapping up the boat for the weekend, I just returned from topping off my tanks and a pump out. I wanted to fill my water tank to be ready for an early weekend trip we were planning. We would be coming up late on Thursday and it would be dark. So, I just wanted to be ready to go.

I opened up the filler lid and stuck the hose in. I was walking on my dock aft, and all of a sudden, I hear water coming out and running down the side of the boat. I knew immediately what I had done, since the tank should have been empty! I didn’t open the water fill, but the fuel fill! Maybe 45 seconds of water were now in with 125 gallons of fuel....

It may not be a crazy moment (maybe more of boneheaded moment), but I look back on it now and think it was crazy! Live and learn.... and $235 later.... LOL, boneheaded.

Matt
 
Got caught on Raystown lake in a bad thunder storm with high winds in a 19.6 ft. close bow imperial was the first time and last time and I hope to see fire balls the size of basketballs bouncing across the lake from lighting strikes on the water. Would of got off the lake before the storm put we helped tow a small boat that was broke down to the far end of the lake from the state park where are motor home was parked.
 
By far the craziest thing I've ever heard is when my buddy was returning to the marina he actually hit and killed a deer! Yes, he hit a deer in his boat, the deer was swimming to an island to eat the berries.


Sent from my crappy iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My personal biggest goof came from my desire to be nice for other boaters, and resulted in the craziest thing on my boat. When I was a teenager I had taken some friends out to ski in our little 15ft aluminum runabout. I could see a bad storm starting to form and decided to quickly head toward the boat ramp. We were the first to arrive; other boaters had waited until the storm actually started before realizing they needed to get off the water. By the time we had the boat on the trailer the storm had turned into a very heavy thunderstorm with intermittent hail, and there I was on the ramp with a dozen boaters stuck out on the water waiting for me to get out of the way so they could ramp their boats. We winched our boat on the trailer, and instead of going through a complete ramping procedure, I made the decision to go ahead and pull up and out of the way to open the ramp up for the next person. The boat was only tied on with the winch strap and not with the secondary safety straps. The winch strap broke and the boat slid off the trailer onto the road. It took a long time and a lot of work but we manhandled the boat back up on the trailer using the winch.

After that, the boat mysteriously was not completely waterproof anymore and had a slow leak that would cycle on the bilge pump every once in awhile. My dad stayed puzzled about the new leak because I never admitted to him what I had done. I plan to confess to him someday when I join him in the hereafter.
 
I was on the boat at our dock doing some cleanup and maintenance when I heard a guy loading up his 23' Bayliner at the next dock over. He had a whole crew on board, with some fairly hot women in tow. He was doing a lot of bragging of how nice his boat was, and how easy it was to drive. SO he backed out of the slip, and was immediately having trouble maneuvering around. I grabbed a boat hook, and went out on the swim platform in case he got too close. I could see he was having trouble with the throttle, and the girls were complaining, so he jammed it forward, and the boat TOOK OFF FULL SPEED IN REVERSE.

Luckily, his wheel was turned and instead of hitting any other boats, he slammed into his own slip, breaking the end of the dock, and somehow missing everything else.

Turns out his throttle cables somehow broke, and both directions were reverse. Lucky only his boat was damaged.

Those girls went home *angry*
 
Not quite as exciting as some of you "frisky" boaters, but this is one I posted over the summer (http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/67647-Mistakes-serving-as-a-warning-to-others):

Here's mine: July 4 2014 - Mackinac trip with family, new boat. Leave Port Huron, check the oil in the morning and must have not put the dipstick in all the way. 2 hours in, the Coast guard boards me for a safety inspection (thank god) and when I looked in the bilge the engine had leaked more than a gallon of oil under the engine. It was like a black miserable pool. What a mess. Seated the dipstick added more oil and continued (oil never got below the fill line). Felt like I was driving with a turd in my diaper.

In Port Austin I found a hardware store and bought a turkey baster and filled a gallon water jug with oil. Then I went through a whole roll of paper towels cleaning the remaining mess. If the coast guard had not stopped me I'd have gone another 2 hours and had real problems.

Thanks for letting me bare my soul. Feel much better.

Scott
 
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