You never think it could happen to you

Very sorry to hear this, I hope she isn't a total loss and you can get her back to Bristol fashion. Stories like this are why I don't leave my AC on when away from the boat for very long. My wife thinks I'm anal about my weekly close out checklist but I shut off everything except the battery charger on the AC side and I shut off all my DC at the battery switches. Only the bilge pumps are left on the DC side. I close all my seacocks also. Just last weekend, I found the AC inlet line (about one foot long) had split and was sucking air. It was on my winter to do list, but got moved to the top of the priority list and was replaced on the spot.

Best of luck and let us know how you make out with the insurance.
 
That is truly horrific! Hope everything turns out well.
I leave my boat in the "dehumidify" mode when not at the boat. I believe it runs the fan on high and the AC compressor for 10 minutes every hour. However, this has got me a bit concerned. It appears there were 2 failures that resulted in this tragedy. First, the AC converter breaker trip (probably not that uncommon) and second the discharge hose broke somewhere (hopefully not that common). On my boat, large sections of that hose are not visible. I'd be interested to understand where that hose failed. It seems cutting the AC pump when bilge float is tripped or when AC converter breaker is tripped or when battery voltage drops too low would be prudent.
 
Makes you wonder why there would not be an AC powered bilge pump as a redundancy to the DC ones. At least that would work in the very limited situations described.
 
trit21 said:
HEre is one way to HELP in the this scenario. Install a Siren alarm. It has a bunch of inputs for detecting bilge pump activiity, battery volatge, incoming AC power etc and will alert your iphone in case of a problem. http://sirenmarine.com/
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea.....could lower insurance rates!
 
kaguilar said:
...On my boat, large sections of that hose are not visible. I'd be interested to understand where that hose failed. It seems cutting the AC pump when bilge float is tripped or when AC converter breaker is tripped or when battery voltage drops too low would be prudent.
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First as I have said this this an terrible thing to happen, and my only interest here is on what I need to check on my boat. (I have to admit I am negligent on checking the A/C systems input and output connections through to the through hull output from the boat)

This is why my interest is in obtaining more information about this, I have no problems with checking my line from the seacock, strainer,, pump input and output, but from there it gets a bit more involved. On my boat there is the shower sump, which in this case is not the issue, but located right behind the shower sump box is another pump which is connected to an alarm, then in the bilge there are my pumps which are also connected to alarms.
All I can figure is that a pump line whether going to the A/C or out must have broke. (I have two A/C units and they are under the stateroom bed and under the salon sofa, and not readily visible. I know currently as all is configured I can leave both the A/C and pump breakers on the power distribution panel to on, and turn off the A/C units from their individual control panels and the pump stops.

So a power surge interruption which leaves the A/C unit off but the pump running is of an interest. I am on shore power and again I have not looked to see actually what may be using battery power and what is using A/C, control circuit wise.

I hope you have no hassles with the insurance.
 
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I wouldn't rule out the possibility that they weren't independent failures: a boat can take on hundreds of gallons of water even with operational pumps and converter, so water could reach electrical systems, trip a circuit, and then it's all "down hill". :(

My first impression of the siren was "ALL boats should have one." (I hadn't seen the price yet!)
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles :(

2 months ago almost the same happened to a sailboat here. But there it was the inlet pipe to the A/C that broke. The dock guys here noticed it fast - but the water was already above the floor boards. The reason the inlet broke - I would guess - was due to it had no ground bonding at all (IMHO) and shore power installation was of questionable quality. (Very well known European brand sail boat). So the inlet had a 90 deg. bend - and it just snapped right at the bend from corrosion. And that was about 1 week after the owner went on a 2 month vacation - so his boss had to handle everything :)
 
I was always concerned that something could run when docked and I was not there. I always turned off all my circuits (except battery charger) when I left my boat for the day.
 
I thought all Searays had a high water alarm. I know all my previous boats did.

I'm sorry for what happened. SO sucks


Rob
 
tbirdvet said:
I was always concerned that something could run when docked and I was not there. I always turned off all my circuits (except battery charger) when I left my boat for the day.
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The only thing I leave running is the fridge, every thing else is off, main battery switches are off. Us folks farther north can get away with that and don't have the humidity/heat problems to deal with like others who have to leave their AC units on all the time.
 
Sorry guys had a lot going on lately and been meaning to check in here. So I am still unclear on why some breakers tripped except the AC breaker. No one has told me this yet. Also, to clarify, It was the forward discharge line out the side. Looks like the fitting broke and instead of pumping out it was pumping in. I never leave my ac on when I am not there. The only reason I did is I had a friend in town for the week and we were out sunday on the other boat. We had made plans to meet down at the dock on Tuesday. Unfortunately plans changed so I never gave it another thought. I am very anal about things being left on and have never ever had this type of issue before. The one time I do it and boom....sucks to have my luck. We have had some power surges or loss of power at the marina the past several months but this still doesn't make any since. Why would one breaker trip and not the others? Anyway the water pump continued on the AC unit until there was a short from being submerged. After that it quit pumping water. It did sink the boat past the bildge thru hulls and then she began to take on water again. Luckily I found it when I did. Shop has the boat. It's all taken apart and might I add very hard to look at. The quote is still being put together but last I saw on saturday it was a page and a half. I am in fresh water but the marina has no flow to it. Very nasty water waste silt and such. All that in my boat. I have her insured well with Boat U.S. but I am still curious how they will depreciate it. Since all mechanicals were '05. I hope to know soon what they are going to do. This is my first claim in my lid=fe so I really have no idea what to expect here. I will update as soon as I know more. Thanks for all the replies as well!
 
Yes sir! I looked at it from the ground and it looks fine. But somehow I guess overtime it just decided to give up on life. Now I understand why so many have replaced them with the newer ones.
 
Dustin
Real sorry about what happened - I feel your pain b/c my old girl died in Hurricane Sandy. Sunk in 3' of water after floating off her blocks with the garboard drain plug out. Sounds like we had similar levels of water damage. Based on the value of these older boats, you may be staring down the barrel of your insurance company totaling your boat, which is precisely what happened to me. It was devastating. They say boats are meant to get wet, but not inside. The cost to rehab the boat could greatly exceed the value. And you may be left chasing down electrical gremlins for years to come. I don't mean to be a "downer" but this may be a problem that you don't want to have to deal with. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!
 
Yea that is my main concern now. You can flush engines and dry out stuff but what problems will I face later and will they fix them due to the fact it sank. I really wonder how much depreciation I am facing with a 23 yr old boat with 05 repower. Luckily everything is documented that was replaced in 05. Not sure how much that is going to help me though.
 
Probably won't help you. They will give you value on the boat (if it's totaled). If it's a fine specimen, you get top end of value. But they aren't going to pay you for the 2005 repower. The will pay you for any accessories or equipment that went down with the ship though.


Now, if you are OVERinsured, they will give you what you insured the boat for. So if you're paying to insure the boat for $85000, you'll get that. If you are paying to insure the boat for $45000, that's what you'll get.
 
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So here is the question. Where do we stop with upgrades to the boat? On the one hand you rebuild knowing what may happen to your investment if she goes to Davy Jone's locker or you buy a newer boat that better matches your deductible and total loss payout. Once my calculated expenses on Old Skool exceeds my perception of benefit she will be permanently dry docked.

So is it worth carrying full coverage once the boat is paid for? Or should I ask, how long is a piece of rope?:huh:
 
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