I've been boating with my 79 Formula for three years now. It's going to hurt to post this story of me screwing up but maybe it will help someone else.
It's an old boat and an OMC so each season has required some rework or repairs. Got through all that and this season had to replace the distributor becasue it was self destructing inside. Now have a new Mallory breakerless and a new shift module and the boat runs great.
Lesson one. Keep your boat running good, it will save you later.
So my friend and I go out on December 4th on Puget Sound out of Everett. Perfect day, stayed warm in the boat. It was about 30 degrees at launch. Got up to a balmy 38 later in the day. Pulled up 6 dungeness. Perfect day.
About 3:30 we started back to the east and to the north for the 10 mile ride back to the launch.
We decide to go straight east and take a look at a spot called shipwreck on the west shore between mukilteo and edmonds. There is a big ship up on the beach and I have never really taken a look at it.
Lesson two. Stay on mission, this was a crabbing trip.
Well we putted around the general area and I was carefully watching the depth sounder and we never got in less that 9 feet of water. I thought we were safe at about 60 yards off the beach and in 9 feet of water. We turned to the north and were runnning at about 7 mph when we hit something and the boat stopped hard. Real hard, an instant stop. Hit my face on my steering wheel, bloody nose. My buddy got slammed into the dash on his side, bruised up a bit.
I turned the boat off immediatley and lifted the drive to take a look. I figured that the outdrive hit something. Nothing, no damage, not even a ding on the prop.
At this point we had to assume that there was some hull damage. Turned on the bilge pump and we were pumping water. Got the boat started and under way and made out at a fast pace to get her out of the water asap. This is where the work on the engine paid off. 40 minute boat ride, mostly at about 30 mph but the the slow ride into the channel. The engine works perfectly now, will idle as long as I let it, will start every time. And has never stalled since I replaced the dizzy. She got us all the way back to the launch and the front of the boat was starting to ride a little low so we knew were taking on a good amount of water.
Well after getting it out of the water I found a straight slice out of the keel at the bottom of the stem about 3 inches by 8 inches. A good size hole for the water to come in. It drained water out of this hole for about 15 minutes.
After investigating using google earth it turns out this area used to be a slavage yard and there are lots of wrecks there. You can find pics of the area on the internet. One of the wrecks, the one I hit, is out in the water a good long ways, 40 to 60 yards. And it is visible at low tide. We were out at nearly the peak of the tide, +11 feet. This wreck was not visible at this time and I didn't know it was there.
Lesson three. Know your waters. If you are in unfamiliar water give yourself extra margin for error. I'm going to stick to 20 feet more of water unless I know the area.
Also the chart shows a shipwreck symbol there but I always thought that symbol was for the boat that is on the beach. Now I know better.
All told, it could have been much worse. It hurt the captain's pride a bit, but the fiberglass is fixable and nobody got seriously hurt.
Have fun out there and be safe.
FT
It's an old boat and an OMC so each season has required some rework or repairs. Got through all that and this season had to replace the distributor becasue it was self destructing inside. Now have a new Mallory breakerless and a new shift module and the boat runs great.
Lesson one. Keep your boat running good, it will save you later.
So my friend and I go out on December 4th on Puget Sound out of Everett. Perfect day, stayed warm in the boat. It was about 30 degrees at launch. Got up to a balmy 38 later in the day. Pulled up 6 dungeness. Perfect day.
About 3:30 we started back to the east and to the north for the 10 mile ride back to the launch.
We decide to go straight east and take a look at a spot called shipwreck on the west shore between mukilteo and edmonds. There is a big ship up on the beach and I have never really taken a look at it.
Lesson two. Stay on mission, this was a crabbing trip.
Well we putted around the general area and I was carefully watching the depth sounder and we never got in less that 9 feet of water. I thought we were safe at about 60 yards off the beach and in 9 feet of water. We turned to the north and were runnning at about 7 mph when we hit something and the boat stopped hard. Real hard, an instant stop. Hit my face on my steering wheel, bloody nose. My buddy got slammed into the dash on his side, bruised up a bit.
I turned the boat off immediatley and lifted the drive to take a look. I figured that the outdrive hit something. Nothing, no damage, not even a ding on the prop.
At this point we had to assume that there was some hull damage. Turned on the bilge pump and we were pumping water. Got the boat started and under way and made out at a fast pace to get her out of the water asap. This is where the work on the engine paid off. 40 minute boat ride, mostly at about 30 mph but the the slow ride into the channel. The engine works perfectly now, will idle as long as I let it, will start every time. And has never stalled since I replaced the dizzy. She got us all the way back to the launch and the front of the boat was starting to ride a little low so we knew were taking on a good amount of water.
Well after getting it out of the water I found a straight slice out of the keel at the bottom of the stem about 3 inches by 8 inches. A good size hole for the water to come in. It drained water out of this hole for about 15 minutes.
After investigating using google earth it turns out this area used to be a slavage yard and there are lots of wrecks there. You can find pics of the area on the internet. One of the wrecks, the one I hit, is out in the water a good long ways, 40 to 60 yards. And it is visible at low tide. We were out at nearly the peak of the tide, +11 feet. This wreck was not visible at this time and I didn't know it was there.
Lesson three. Know your waters. If you are in unfamiliar water give yourself extra margin for error. I'm going to stick to 20 feet more of water unless I know the area.
Also the chart shows a shipwreck symbol there but I always thought that symbol was for the boat that is on the beach. Now I know better.
All told, it could have been much worse. It hurt the captain's pride a bit, but the fiberglass is fixable and nobody got seriously hurt.
Have fun out there and be safe.
FT
