Early on after we had got our 47DB we went on a cruise down to the Keys. Felt reasonably comfortable with the boat, I had brought it from North Carolina to Florida.

Pulled into a marina, as I was back into a slip lost stern thruster first, then the bow thruster. Checked the breakers, all the switches, everything looked good. @Alex F was two slips up from us, he came over and double checked what I had, plus he was testing voltage. Looked like I had a bad battery or two. Continued on with the trip.

Then a couple of days later was at the helm, noticed a switch (at the helm) that was labeled something along the lines of charger (don't remember the exact label) was turn off. Flipped the switch back on - guess what - I now had thrusters again.

I had one of those scratching my head - that was a bone head experience. Part of boating and learning about a new boat.

 

Ha, I have those as well on the 380DA, and may have done something similar...they come in handing when playing the cockpit music loud and you don't want the same in the cabin.

I tried to replace one of the carbon monoxide detectors this winter.

I got it wired up though it's a new model so the bracket was different. I could not figure it out. I was on the boat Saturday for the first time since winterization, looked at it, fiddled with it, and in 5 minutes had it done. Notice in the video from 3 months ago I don't show the final install...

 

$9.00 for a plastic plate?!
Where did you purchase the detectors from? All three of mine need to be replaced.

 

It took me a while to learn (and a lot of money), but sometimes when Im doing things on the boat, the best thing is to walk way and let it sit. Forcing things usually leads to more broken expense crap. But if I let it sit, I usually find the right solution/tool/fix.

 

Mine has a nice stereo with those tiny chiclet buttons. No owners manual. Have no idea how to preset stations and other functions. Figured out how to put in a Chesney CD and let it continuously loop.
Dont matter much though, cant hear squat over that 454 roar.
I dont dare try to replace it with new. Its a rats nest back there running to speakers all over the boat.

 

Mine has a nice stereo with those tiny chiclet buttons. No owners manual.

Google is your friend, there's a manual "out there" somewhere. It was the same with my new to me radio.

 

Who among us hasn't troubleshot a non-starting engine while the shifter was in gear?

 

Not me...

4+ years ago I was boating home from a weekend trip in horrible seas, burying the bow in the water, spray, rocking and rolling, etc. Got into my creek, let out a big "Phew" and then ground the boat in the creek. It was usually 9'+ water, we were in 2'. Twin outdrives, both motors shut down. Wind was blowing me back out into the river. I could not get an engine started, panicked and called BoatUS for the first time ever. Their first question/comment "It's a nor'easter, why are you out?" They would not come out, their boats were on ground, no water. They said call the coast guard, so I did. Called, got ridiculed again for being out. After about 5 mins on the phone they helped me realize it was the shifter. The other engine would never start, later found out I had picked up a crab pot with the outdrive. They also told me to drop my anchor to keep from blowing out into the river with no engines, duh...I was about 20 years from a pilon trying to figure out how to get a line around it, but the wind kept blowing me out.

I had no idea the creeks had emptied out of water, first time for me.

With V-Drive boats I have lost track how many times the engine would not turn over, me getting mad thinking "great another boat issue" and realizing I bumped the shifter with my leg.

 

You've just joined a club that 95% of CSR members have been in for a long time.

I do most on my own mechanical work on the boats, cars and bikes but I have no patience so I work through it by walking away for a while. I work on an old car I own at a friend of mine's shop that I have the key to. He jokingly tells everyone that he knows I've been there when he comes in Monday morning and has to pull all his tools out of the sheetrock.

 

While you're checking to make sure the shifters are in neutral take a quick look to see your throttles are in idle. Twice my boat cleaning service, mostly performed by high-school kids, have moved my throttle to wide open while cleaning. It's pretty shocking when you press the go button on a quite morning and suddenly you're in full-on launch mode.

 

I had one of those moments in a 260 sundeck…. Anchored for the afternoon…. Getting ready to go back home and the damn boat won’t start….. no power at all…. I rip that god damn thing apart trying to figure out what’s going on….. after a whole lot of swear words my wife says is it in gear?…….. shit

 

At a restaurant 10 PM, I thought we would need our first tow job. Was thinking about asking if we could stay the nigh...Then the wife touched the sifter to hear click...

 

When we first got the 310 I was so happy everything was working as it should. The last thing on the list was the anchor winch. On a early spring day we went over to Cedar Point beach . The winch worked perfect Ruth wanted to move in closer to the beach. I was happy to pull the anchor to use the winch again . First time having one. So I jumped up to the bow this time of the year Lake Erie is really clear. I watched the line pull in up until the chain and the minute the chain hit the roller I watched it go back to the bottom. Being a steel chain the rope was rotted . Oh well that's what a spare anchors for.

 

We stayed at a family friends lake house a few years ago, they had a Bayliner bowrider with a 5.0. Me, Mr. know it all boat guy, and the GFs brother-in-law, a CAT mechanic who has built many a hot rod, fiddled with that thing for over an hour trying to get it to start. Turning wrenches, spraying this, pulling that, everyone was packing up to walk back to the house, and well, you know what happened...

 

Had a ‘91 Z28 late 90s. One day, no start. Battery 2 months old. Buddy comes over. Spent day gettin starter, alternator, solenoids, everything pulled and tested or replaced. All the while Im insisting its not the battery. By nightfall we out of ideas. He demands we get the batt tested.
Yep, 2 month old bad battery.
Ask me what is the first thing I check and the last thing I trust now.
Guess what the first thing i be buying new before I launch this month? Both 2 yo.
I hate batteries! And they want me to buy an EV! Have you lost your farkin mind!
Id rather drive a rusted out carburetor AMC Gremlin that a Tesla.

 

Hell, I left the plug in the pedestal last spring! I got interrupted out of my routine and too excited to move 1st time on boat after splash...Luckily I wasn't wrapped around the pedestal and the outlet just popped out.

 

My 400 DB has key switches in the interior power panel. Turn the keys, go up to the helm, hit the starter... nothing...I check the shifters. Still nothing... about to call a mechanic when I remembered.. The keys have the foam key floast on a chain. Behind the key floats are two ON-Off switches. Flip the switches... boom she started right up...

 

Ha, this happened to me as well the first time I went to start the engines on the 380. I even called the broker, thank goodness he never answered, to try to figure out how to get the dumb thing started.

 

Back in the day, my first car was a 72 Chevy Vega GT with a 4 speed transmission. Was a fun little car. I could change the timing belt in about 15 minutes if it broke...

One day I was at a party and my good friend, Crystal asked if she could borrow my car to run and see her boyfriend who was at work. I gave her the keys... and off she went.
She called me when she got there because she couldn't get the key out. The Vega was one of the first cars that had a lever on the opposite side of the column that you needed to push down to release the key.
So... what do I do? I got another friend to drive me and I move the car and then go back to the party.
Then she calls me back in tears because now she thinks somebody stole the car....

 

OMG! Mine too, 71. GT Wagon, 4 speed. Loved that car, and yes the timing belts were crap but so easy to change. I carried spares and with a couple of tools could change in no time on side of road. Spent many a night sleeping in the back road tripping. Not mine but similar.

 

Back when I had a 26 foot Chaparrel, I was waiting my turn at the boat launch to put the boat back on the trailer. Took that opportunity to remind my wife to be sure to pull all of the lines into the boat before we pushed off again. Ramp cleared, we put the trailer in position, untied the lines and pushed off as we started the engine and moved the boat into position. Didn't quite get it into position the first time, so put it into reverse, but the boat wouldn't go into reverse. Tried it a few more times but boat would not go into reverse. By this time the boat had started to drift so I tried moving forward and that didn't work either. Finally a good Samaritan that had been watching my plight waded in and grabbed the bow line and walked the boat back to the trailer. We got it close enough to hook it to the trailer and winch it up with difficulty. That's when I saw the line wrapped around the propeller - the only line that I had responsible for!

 

Bone head thing 1: First trip with my Back Cove 34, we go to my wife’s brothers house. I went below to check the engine and figure why not clean the strainers. Later I take all 20 family members on a day trip to Mystic, when 15 mins in I get an overheat alarm. I’d forgotten to open the main seasick if closed and fried the impeller. Had to be towed back to the dock and spent 5 hours learning to replace the impeller. Later I got to clean the rubber bits out of the aftercooler.

Bone Head thing 2: fist trip of the season, forgot to remove one of the 2 stern lines. Couldn’t figure out why I was drifting my slipmates’s boat. Then had the oh shit realization.

Bone Head 3: another first time out of the season. Forgot to remove a mid cleat line - it was not set up my usual way. But it in gear - and ripped the cleat clean out of the dock. In front of a bunch of people.

 

Bone head thing 1: First trip with my Back Cove 34, we go to my wife’s brothers house. I went below to check the engine and figure why not clean the strainers. Later I take all 20 family members on a day trip to Mystic, when 15 mins in I get an overheat alarm. I’d forgotten to open the main seasick if closed and fried the impeller. Had to be towed back to the dock and spent 5 hours learning to replace the impeller. Later I got to clean the rubber bits out of the aftercooler.

View attachment 142361

Bone Head thing 2: fist trip of the season, forgot to remove one of the 2 stern lines. Couldn’t figure out why I was drifting my slipmates’s boat. Then had the oh shit realization.

Bone Head 3: another first time out of the season. Forgot to remove a mid cleat line - it was not set up my usual way. But it in gear - and ripped the cleat clean out of the dock. In front of a bunch of people.

Hell some folks say, oh there is a you tube video on that... Some of us just learn by experience.

 

Not in gear but I did "fix" a few things before realizing that my neutral safety switch was a bit temperamental.

Moved shifter out of and back into neutral and presto...

 

I'm guilty of committing at least some version of 75% of these admissions...

There was an incident that I still claim foul on though. When the 280 was in Miami, we weren't allowed to have a garboard plug in while racked. (folks would let their boats fill with rainwater to the point that racks could collapse)

Upon launch, the forklift drivers would tilt boats to drain any rainwater, then grab a plug from a bucket mounted to the step of the forklift and lower the boat into the water. Upon lift-out, they'd remove the plug and toss it into the bucket and again let the boat drain and re-rack it. That was my only experience rack-storing a boat, and the routine made total sense to me.

I moved the boat to Ohio and requested a launch when I got to the marina. The driver lines the boat up with the well and notices the missing plug. There's no bucket of plugs. He shuts down the forklift to scold me about "forgetting the plug and almost sinking my boat", but then it gets better. I knew I had a spare plug somewhere aboard, but I didn't know where and the boat is 7' off the ground and I didn't have a wrench on me or in the car. He had to set the boat down on the work rack while I located the plug and wrench. The mocking and scolding continued, but on the bright side it saved me a whole season of tips.

 

My old marina would remove my plug at haul out…… I would give him shit. I said why why do you keep doing this my bilge is dry ….. he said well you are the only boat in here then

 

I never forgot to screw in the plug with my prior trailered/forklifted boats...

 

My old marina would remove my plug at haul out…… I would give him shit. I said why why do you keep doing this my bilge is dry ….. he said well you are the only boat in here then

Ours does same, gallons come out. Plug is on dash tied to ignition key. Ive never had a boat that had a dry bilge, don’t know why.

 

Owned my boat for a year now and still don't know how to turn and off all of the lights. Eventually I get it but it's only by playing with every single light switch. Some are ac and some dc which really adds to my confusion.

 

That's not a bonehead moment. That's just regular boat ownership!

 

Thought I would bump the thread, spent the night on the boat Friday, Saturday was supposed to be a crap day with lots of rain. All true, I get awakened at 0400 by a big thunderstorm and water dripping on my shoulder in the V-berth. I had the shade pulled and it was 0400, put a towel on myself and moved. Next day ordered more sealant and gasket to re-bed the forward hatch, Again! Opened the shade and guess what? The friggin hatch wasn’t dogged shut. In my bourbon state I “thought” I had closed and dogged them all down. Oh well now I have more supplies.