To all with BIG BOATS!??

tphinney said:
I ran aground in the entrance to my own channel going into my neighborhood on my 220SD. I didn't realize that we where in an extreme low tide and before I knew it I was stuck hard "At Night".
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year before last, at the Caladesi MM Customer Appreciation event, 2 480DB's were coming in at night. the lead boat missed the channel, and the following boat followed him onto the hard. it was an outgoing tide, and they had to spend the night grounded, waiting for the tide to come back in.

in their situation, they had no generator, which means no a/c or electricity. must have been a crappy night out there.
 
yeah, they had them, but they were on the beach. rode up on the sandbar on an outgoing tide, and ended up high and dry for a long part of the night.
 
ylwjacket;

I assume you didn't make it this year cause someone did it agian this year, but way worse. I think it was either a 42 or 48DA. he was no where near the channel in high tied and ran it hard on. I think it was Friday afternoon/night when they got stuck. then the winds kicked up and pushed them even harder a ground. SeaTow spent the next 2 days trying to get them off. needless to say they never made it; by the time I left out on sunday for my long trip home they had finally gotten the boat off the hard.

I feel sorry for the folks when I see someone a ground like that; but on the flip side you have to wonder what the heck where tey thinking...
 
I failed to account for high vs low tide differential readings on my SRN chart and ran my new to me 420DA about 100 meters through water that was about 41 inches deep last year. I draw 40". Fortunately I was churning soft river mud. Put a beautiful shine on my props. I have Frank W on speed dial, so I called him as soon as my Cummins were done struggling to turn the props through the mud, and he recommended idling for a mile or more to clean all the mud and silt out of the dripless shaft seals.
I did that, and save for some embarrassment, suffered no ill effects from my temporary stupidity. My folks were aboard and my Dad still reminds me of this little screw up.

regards
Skip
 
Another item to check are the strainers. We ran in some VERY shallow water when I first got ImpulseIII and sucked up some mud that actually clogged the strainers. Luckily, I noticed one engine running a bit hot and did some investigation. Cleared them out and viola........back to normal. If only every problem was that simple!!

Another thing to pay attention to when in shallow water is churning up the bottom to a point where sand gets into the cooling system. The rubber impellers in the raw water pumps and sand do not mix and premature failure of the impeller is almost a sure thing!
 
ImpulseIII said:
Another item to check are the strainers. We ran in some VERY shallow water when I first got ImpulseIII and sucked up some mud that actually clogged the strainers. Luckily, I noticed one engine running a bit hot and did some investigation. Cleared them out and viola........back to normal. If only every problem was that simple!!

Another thing to pay attention to when in shallow water is churning up the bottom to a point where sand gets into the cooling system. The rubber impellers in the raw water pumps and sand do not mix and premature failure of the impeller is almost a sure thing!
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dont all that sand flush out when you fush your engin when your done for the day? and i dont have a strainer to clean right?
 
cr0ck1 said:
ImpulseIII said:
Another item to check are the strainers. We ran in some VERY shallow water when I first got ImpulseIII and sucked up some mud that actually clogged the strainers. Luckily, I noticed one engine running a bit hot and did some investigation. Cleared them out and viola........back to normal. If only every problem was that simple!!

Another thing to pay attention to when in shallow water is churning up the bottom to a point where sand gets into the cooling system. The rubber impellers in the raw water pumps and sand do not mix and premature failure of the impeller is almost a sure thing!
Click to expand...

dont all that sand flush out when you fush your engin when your done for the day? and i dont have a strainer to clean right?
Click to expand...

Crock1
They are little bit bigger boat than yours. Kind of hard to pull and flush the engines :lol: You are right you do not have a strainer :thumbsup:
 
Inboards, like I/Os and outboards, pull raw water from the river/lake/bay through the cooling system to maintain optimal engine temperature. In bigger boats, the raw water intake seacock (s) (a through hull fitting with ball valve) is connected to a sea strainer, which catches any debris that comes in through the raw water intake grate on the bottom of the boat. Once the water passes through the strainer it continues through a heat exchanger, which in the case of my Cummins pulls heat from the coolant before exiting via the engine exhaust. This is sort of the cliff notes version but you get the idea.

Cleaning strainers is part of routine maintenance, and Frank makes a great point... If you ground your boat you have to clean every system that might have pulled silt or sand through it.

The Perko brand strainers in my boat have clear bodies so you can observe the amount of "stuff" you have. AC and generator strainers are smaller, and since these systems operate more hours per trip (in my case) than the main engines they tend to get fouled more quickly.

My first Sea Ray was a 2002 260DA with 6.2 and BIII drive. The only strainer I had to clean was for my A/C unit, as the boat did not have a gen set and the IO does not have a strainer.

And no, there are no dumb questions when it comes to learning about your boat and how to operate her safely, and maintain her properly.
Keep 'em coming. That is what this board is for.

regards
Skip
 
Watch out for the sand it is one of the major reasons for failure of the impeller.
 
Pretty much any boat engine you will encounter will have one of these:
W-89840-Mercruiser-water-pump-impeller.jpg


It pumps water from the ocean/lake into your boat to cool your engine. It is usually in the out drive itself or in a pump attached to the engine.

These things are rubber and wear out pretty quick, maybe in three or four seasons. If you stir up the bottom, the water will have sand in it and wear out the impeller faster. Flushing the engine doesn't really help this problem.
 
In our area where your in salt water and going into surf or shallow areas where the sand get stired up by the waves and currents you should look at change these out every season or every 50 hours which ever comes first.

the salt and sand wear these out.

It's also a good idea to have one standing by just in case. I carry one on board along with a bottle of gear lube.

and like what was mentioned before flushing will also wear on the impeller. since the water pressure is less than when your running in normal conditions the impeller will tend to heat up and not last as long as a fresh water boats will. this is where you need to keep an eye on youre running tempurate. if you start to run hot, go check your impeller to make sure it's not trashed.
 
tphinney said:
in our area where your in salt water and going into surf or shallow areas where the sand get stired up by the waves and currents you should look at change these out every season or every 50 hours which ever comes first.

It's also a good idea to have one standing by just in case. I carry one on board along with a bottle of gear lube.
Click to expand...

so your telling me that if yours goes bad.. your jumping out, unscrewing your outdrive, and fixing it right there?
 
Nope my impeller is in the water pump mouted on the front of the engine. all I have to do is unbolt the water pump and loosen the belt. replace the impeller. put it all back. with the right tools it should not take long.

I don't know about an impeller on the drive unit. thats a new one on me.
 
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