My unreliable old boat

[alexr254]

Mt first boat was a 21ft glastron cuddy powered by a mercuiser 165hp. I didnt know much back then about boats, but it ran "sometimes".

This was like 17 years ago, me and my buddies used to go fishing all the time with always great success...

One day we decided to go watch a fireworks show which used to go on every Friday at coney island in Brooklyn. We got to our nice sweet spot to watch the fireworks anchored in and shut down the engine.
About 30 minutes before the show started, i started to notice the anchor was not holding the bottom, we were drifting to shore pretty fast, so we pulled up the anchor and i tried to start the engine... we were dead in the water, the engine would not even turn over.. ended up being the voltage regulator was bad... i quickly called boatus. They knew me on a first name basis...

Before they could get to us, we ended up drifting all the way to the jetty's on the beach, we were in the way of the fireworks show, about 10,000 people were hissing at us... because of us the fireworks show would not start... Then my buddy jumped into the water and started pushing the boat off the rocks, when he jumped in everyone cheered him on! Then finally boatus came to the rescue... All 10,000 people started cheering at us and the fireworks began... We only delayed it by about a half hour :facepalm:

It was definately a trip to remember, i wanted to share with you all... one of many

 

[alexr254]

Re: My unreliable old boat

doh, i guess i am the only one who found this amusing... You had to have been there i guess :facepalm:

Me and my buddies bring this up all the time, when were hanging out and remembering our "good ol' days", for a laugh.

 

[lncoop]

Re: My unreliable old boat

Alex, I just now saw this. That's a GREAT story and I definitely find it amusing. I'm just glad no one was hurt. Thanks for sharing.

 

[narwhals]

Re: My unreliable old boat

its amazing how a motor will run fine until you need it most. was up in northern wi. fishing for musky and my engine ran flawlessly all year. first day on the water the engine acted up on the way back to the launch. went through the typical stuff engine idled fine next day launch boat again looks like the exxon valdez with all the 2-stroke mix leaking into the water.used trolling motor all day next day same problems. found out the definition of insanity"doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".got boat home went through engine, faulty pump element. worse part about it was we had a spare evinrude in the truck we could've used and never thought to change them out .stupid is as stupid does. we did catch and release a 42 and 45 inch musky on the trip.

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: My unreliable old boat

ROTFLMAO! That's one great story. Almost worthy of Pat McManus.

 

[jim372]

Re: My unreliable old boat

one time i had a 17' runabout w/ merc 140 hp .
came into shore to drop of my mom and dad.
he pushed me off and i hit starter to find it would do anything.
in matter of mins. starter went out.
lucky i was 20' from shore
jim

 

[boltonranger]

Re: My unreliable old boat

Well; Not unreliable always but one day it was.
Decided to watch the capitol city's fireworks display on the river.
What could go wrong?
I had just rebuilt the carb.

We had never gone to the venue before;
Motored within range of the fireworks before sundown and it began to get a little "tight," so I started the engine to move us to a better spot where there was less congestion. WAH? Motor won't stay running. Now I'm in a mild panic with my brother and my wife aboard eating some KFC I'm sweating over the inboard.

The large pan head screw that holds the linkage on the carb body is gone.
I get filthy looking in the bilge - nothing doing. No screw. I'm drenched and not looking forward to the stampede over us once every one has had there fill of beer
and fireworks, and navigating in the dark.

So I scrounge my toolbox and come up with:
a: A sheetmetal screw
b: A small suction cup that would normally hold a "suncatcher" ornament on a window (glass surface)

I shoved the tiny end of the jelly like suction cup into the hole at the base of the carb.
I was really afraid I would strip the fine machine threads in the carb body; but I then screwed the sheetmetal screw into the hole and pierced the plastic of the suction cup.

Did it hold?
Yep.

I found it the following day; laying under the wiring on the intake manifold.
Yes the threads were un-damaged; I made sure it was TIGHT this time.

We enjoyed the fireworks; more chicken and the weather.

I'll save the actual ride home for another post (shudder.)

-br

 

[alexr254]

Re: My unreliable old boat

When the engine failed to start, we were about 1000 feet from beach. I tried many times and ended up burning the battery so bad the post burned off. The tides took us in fast, by the time we were banging off the rocks on the jetty, i was really worried about the bottom of the boat.
BoatUS called it a salvage and tried to charge me above the regular rates.

Worst part was, we were in the local paper the next day, in there was a picture of my buddy in the water trying to push the boat off the rocks (that was FUNNY). They called us bad boaters as if we planned to get attention and disrupt the fireworks show. Which we did not want to do at all!

And remember Brooklyn NY is a very highly populated place, with not all of the nicest people.
That was the last time i tried to watch the fireworks from the boat....

Definately an experience I and my friends who were with me will never forget!

 

[Lakes84]

Re: My unreliable old boat

Was out fishing on our lake about 20 years ago. The boat was a nice little Alumacraft with 50 horse Merc. The Merc would die when the coil would heat up and expand, effectively killing the motor till it cooled off. On this particular fishing trip the coil acted up and killed the boat. We then thought we would just stop and do some jig fishing for pan fish. Well, the mosquitoes came out and started biting like crazy. We tried to start the big motor, with no dice. It always started in the past when cooled off, this time the motor said NO! All the while being ate alive by the mosquitoes. We then used the trolling motor for most of the trip back to shore, still getting ate alive. The trolling motor died within a hundred yards of the dock, so now we start to row back to the dock....with one paddle. Got back to shore and RAN to the house. I must have had over a hundred mosquito bites. My Uncle and I still talk about that trip.

See you on the lake

Joe