Boat just sank. What to do when it is out of water?

[Hawkis98]

I have a dateline bikini boat that just sank today. At the beginning of the season my engine completely broke. I took my boat out of the water and invested in a new boat with a better engine. Some backbreaking weeks later the new engine was on. It ran great, however a little heavy on the back. One week after I set it out it sinks. It took about 2.5 hours to get the thing up again. It was saltwater. I'm taking the engine to my local shop the see if they can salvage it. I really hope so as I have invested alot of time and money into this boat. Besides the engine, what else do I need to do? I'd guess my Garmin GPS, Stereo, switcherpanel etc is pretty much broken..? Do I have to rewire the entire electrical system? How do gauges hold up to saltwater?

Images of whole process here: http://imgur.com/a/9eQU1

 

[tpenfield]

Plan on replacing everything electric and electronic, including the wiring.

 

[aerobat]

as an alternative approach : don,t you have insurance on this boat ? when it sank in saltwater probably everything is damaged. why did it sank ?

 

[Hawkis98]

as an alternative approach : don,t you have insurance on this boat ? when it sank in saltwater probably everything is damaged. why did it sank ?

Why it sunk is currently unknown. The only reasonable theory I can think of is a big wave came from the back and flooded the area where the engine sits. (English is not my native language, not sure what that part of the boat is called.) This part sits very low already and I guess it was just too much weight. It started to sink and fill with water inside the boat through the hole where the cabels from the engine goes in. The insurance only covers the expenses of getting it out of the water.

 

[Hawkis98]

Plan on replacing everything electric and electronic, including the wiring.

Sounds logical and I'd learn alot from it. I'm going to replace the wiring and try to save the electronics by trying to get all the water out of it and letting it sit. Boat is at a garage and is being worked at at the moment. Hopefully all goes well.
Will the battery need replacing?

 

[H20Rat]

The electronics are shot, the wiring is shot... Even if it works now, you ABSOLUTELY will have problems in the very near future from corrosion. You must replace all wiring/electronics/gauges, period.

 

[Ned L]

Salt water ehh?? Chances are it is too late to salvage much. For future reference (hopefully you will never need it), what you need to do is to put anything electronic in a buchet of clean fresh water IMMEDIATELY. Remove any covers that you can and disassemble anything that comes apart. Rinse, soak, rinse, soak, and rise again in clean fresh water (can't do this part too much). Then place in a very warn dry place (oven with the door partly open, making sure it doesn't get above about 120 deg.F is good) for probably 3-4 hours. Wait a couple of days and see what works.
Sorry to say that letting things dry with salt water in them just about guaranteed nothing will work.
As for the boat, get in there with a garden hose & again wash, flush, rinse repeatedly, the more the better. Yes, ideally replace the wiring, but if rinsed well you could probably get away without it.

About the engine, it wasn't running at the time, so that is a good thing (should be little or no water inside the mechanicals). The concern would be the electricals (ignition etc), and the externals. Ideally you would have wanted to IMMEDIATELY take off the covers and take a garden hose to it and rinse, flush, rinse, etc, over & over again. Then take a hair dryer to dry off the ignition stuff and electrical and get it up and running as soon as possible.
The main concern is not so much how long things were in the water, but more about how long they were up out of the water before the salt was gotten out.

 

[Chris1956]

With Saltwater you never know what damage will be done. I sunk my speedboat twice. Different stuff went each time. The wiring survived. Different gauges survived, The steering cable survived the first sinking, but not the second. The engine survived both sinkings. The control cables went on the second sinking. A lot depends on how long it is under water. I would recommend you concentrate on saving the motor. Flush everything else with freshwater and see what happens.

Anything not marine, like your GPS is likely bad.

 

[Scott Danforth]

dunk everything in fresh water. rinse everything with salt-away, then fresh water. then rinse everything with rubbing alcohol to dissipate the water. you may be able to save somethings. If it was sunk in fresh water, you would have much more of a chance to save most things. My family and friends consist of people that tend to drop things in the water. everything from cell phones to radios to trolling motors to outboards to generators. I have saved everything dunked in fresh water, and only a few things dunked in salt water

if items were not powered, they may survive. if items such as your GPS, Stereo, etc were powered up at the time, they will have shorted out immediately . things like your GPS, stereo and gauges will need to be taken apart to attempt to save them. you need to remove the salt traces, and make sure they are dry prior to powering back up.

get the motor running within hours and it has a chance of the motor surviving. much more than that, it it may not be worth while.

 

[midcarolina]

The wiring itself is not bad, it's the exposed terminated ends that are cause for concern

 

[Hawkis98]

The wiring itself is not bad, it's the exposed terminated ends that are cause for concern

If so, can I just clip off the exposed ends and solder on a new cable?

 

[Hawkis98]

dunk everything in fresh water. rinse everything with salt-away, then fresh water. then rinse everything with rubbing alcohol to dissipate the water. you may be able to save somethings. If it was sunk in fresh water, you would have much more of a chance to save most things. My family and friends consist of people that tend to drop things in the water. everything from cell phones to radios to trolling motors to outboards to generators. I have saved everything dunked in fresh water, and only a few things dunked in salt water

if items were not powered, they may survive. if items such as your GPS, Stereo, etc were powered up at the time, they will have shorted out immediately . things like your GPS, stereo and gauges will need to be taken apart to attempt to save them. you need to remove the salt traces, and make sure they are dry prior to powering back up.

get the motor running within hours and it has a chance of the motor surviving. much more than that, it it may not be worth while.

I probably can't save the electronics given it's already been a day. (Wasn't there when the boat went down, my dad was however.) I'll give it a shot though.
The engine is being fixed at the moment. Fingers crossed...

 

[Hawkis98]

I have got hydraulic steering too. I guess I'll change the hydraulic oil. What do I do to the part assembled to the engine?
Rinse the controlbox too?

 

[Watermann]

Like has been said rinse off everything that was immersed in the salt, starting with the expensive stuff first if it were me.

 

[TonyR64]

Once the wiring gets wet, it's pretty much toast, even if you get it dried out. When corrosion starts, you can't stop it. It will travel to the other end of the wiring and transfer itself to everything else. You might get lucky by cutting off the ends and splicing new ends on, but now all you've done is create another source for a bad connection. I work on race cars all the time. Every end I crimp uses marine connectors or shrink tubing. It takes longer, but I know the wiring is sound and I won't have any issues.

 

[acdc96]

How long was it underwater? A day? Week? What motor was originally on the boat?

 

[Barramundi NQ]

Fully agree with the comments about replacing all electrics and wiring when dunked in salt. As you may know salt crystals will be left behind sometimes even after extensive rinsing. If you live in a humid climate any residual salt left will the take over the wire or connection or gauge. This mean when you need to rely on a component or gauge or worse a critical system on your boat, sadly it will always eventually let you down. The cost will hurt now but safety of all aboard falls upon the skipper/owner. Even a new GPS is cheaper than yours or a friends life.

Re the motor being under water, Try to get it running asap. Get the old waterlogged oil out so it doesn't get into your bearings. The bores will already have slight rust mark on the ones that took any water. Pull the plugs and squirt some diesel or light machine oil into the them and turn the motor over with the plugs out. Re install the plugs and clean out any water in the motors fuel system, in carburetor engines expect to have some water in the bowls. Flush them out. If Fuel Injected, water can damage the injectors. If 2 stroke make sure that your oil tank is cleaned out and water is gone. Engine should come back mechanically but if you have any electronics on the motor they will be toast.....sorry. Starter motor and Alternator will need special attention to de-salt or the magnets will grow in the part and they will need a burial at sea!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Speed is of the essence as salt will be growing as we speak. Be grateful the engine wasn't running.

If the back of the boat was down very low, Is the engine too big for the boat?

And last of all, an automatic bilge pump may have saved you....at least until the battery ran down.

Cheers

Kerry

 

[Hawkis98]

The boat was under water for about 2-3 hours in total. Got the boat back from the mechanics and they were able to fix the engine. It's running just fine now. The only problem is it won't tilt up. All I hear is a click. Tilting down works just fine. The mechanic said the relay is full of water and it might resolve itself later as I run the engine. These will be changed anyways. The reason they weren't changed was because it is a Suzuki df 70 2000 model. They use special relays that have to be ordered. Eventually these will fail, so it's better to change them now.

The old engine was a 2 stroke Johnson 90 hp from 1990. The new one is a 4 stroke and it's a bit too heavy. I'll definitely invest in an automatic bilge pump. Change wiring, gauges, gps etc.

 

[Hawkis98]

Last picture is one of the mechanics. You can really see how low the boat sits. Should probably move the engine tank to the front of the boat.

 

[java230]

Can I suggest investing in a high powered bilge pump with a float switch, before the stereo and whatnot gets replaced. Try to keep it from happening again.