dont forget your plug

i've never had a bass boat until recently. i've always had little alluminum boats, where if you dont put the plug in you notice pretty quick. back to the story at hand, i got to the ramp, perped the boat, loaded up my youngest(11 yr old girl that is terified of boats), lined up the truck with the ramp. when my wife backs us in we put around in the cove while she parks the truck. so when she comes to board she says why is the carpet wet. so i reminded her it just rained less than an hour ago. so we're putting around some more looking at all the people swimming, etc... when i started to take off we were pushing some major water, i hammered down and you couldnt see anything but sky, wouldnt plane or anything. so i thought ok fuel probs since i had just replaced the fuel lines, so i killed the motor. then i noticed all the water rushing in. i opened the rear hatch and my batteries where under water, thats when it dawned on me - i forgot the plug. i half panicked scanned the bank so i could beach, as we were standing in about 4" of water about now- too many people to hit the bank. so i tell the wife we can drive around and with the transom drain and the bilge pump we'll be fine. well the fuse popped for the pump and when we were driving the water wasnt coming out. so i tell the wife you drive cause if we stop again we're gonna sink. so im laying half inside half out of the rear hatch pulling leaves out of the transom drain. the wife says everybody on the bank is pointing at us some are laughing. needless to say nobody lets me forget the plug anymore. the sad thing is my daughter is the calmest one in the boat, she said she was ready to swim for it. it took a little over 3 miles to rid the water.

i've been told everyones done it, but nobody i know ever admits it. it was a very humiliating experience.

Re: dont forget your plug

Look on the bright side, at least it will stick in your mind so much that you won't make that mistake again.

Keep in mind that fact that the folks on the bank did not know about the plug, for all they knew the boat could be defective. (You just felt humiliated because you knew, not them)

It is funny though...

Do like I do and ask your wife to remind you, tell her "thank you" every time she reminds you, even if it is two or three times between the garage and boat launch.

Re: dont forget your plug

I'm seriously considering making a checklist and have it laminated. I've always had my "mental" checklist,but lately that hasn't been working so good. Any and I mean any distraction will make me forget what I was just going to do.
1. Plug
2.Bow strap
3. Transom straps.
4.Trailer Lights
5.Prime fuel bulb.
6. Motor set at correct trim
7. Keys are always left in the boat.
8. Life jackets

Re: dont forget your plug

I put the handle of my plug through my key chain so when I get the key out to put in the ignition I see the plug. Has worked so far.

Re: dont forget your plug

My plug is attaced to the drain hole with a rubber strap. I just have to make sure the plug is screwed into the drain hole!!

Re: dont forget your plug

maybe cuz its a new boat but i have never gotten a drop of water from the main drain so I only take it off occassionally. When I take it off, nothing comes out so I just put it back on.

Re: dont forget your plug

fire831 said:

I put the handle of my plug through my key chain so when I get the key out to put in the ignition I see the plug. Has worked so far.

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I use a over size safety pin on my ring but about the same thing.

Re: dont forget your plug

I have plugs all over the place on and around my boat. On the key ring, on the lanyard, in the boat glove box, in the boat tool box and in the transom well. The transom well one is the one that should go in the boat and all the others around me remind me of that.

So far so good.

Re: dont forget your plug

david_r said:

i got to the ramp, perped the boat,

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See that is where the problem is...... You "perped" the boat when you was supposed to "prepped" the boat . I haven't launched without the plug yet.

Although I was testing another boat of mine (recently purchased used boat), bomber fish and ski I/O. I got it on the water and my cousin noticed that water was rushing in, I knew I had the plug in but couldn't figure out where the water was coming from because I'm not use to I/Os. I asked my uncle who was standing near my truck if he would back the trailer on down. Well we got the boat back up on the trailer and we went to town to search for a different plug, after I just got through paying $7 for a plastic screw in type the day before. I bought several different plugs to be on the safe side because I wanted to test the boat out and get it out of my system.

Got back to the ramp and put one of the new plugs in and launched but still had a leak, this time I followed up on it instead of my cousin. I found out a bellow was leaking . Once I had the outdrive trimmed down it slowed the leak down some, so I decided to continue on with the boat testing. After all of that it was still a failure, boat wouldn't go into forward gear and motor was starting to run hot, didn't leave the boat in long enough to sink it although I wouldn't of cared to much if it did at that point.

Look at it this way at least you didn't sink your boat, that would have cost some $$$$ in repairs.