oops i forgot the plug

[jungleboy]

I've done the plug thing , I would imagine most have . My dumbest moves though were
#1 First run of the season 1989 I was in a big hurry to get on the water and forgot to replace the oil in the lower unit I had drained in the fall.I didn't destroy it but came close , paddled that baby back to shore afer it hit me that i had forgot something.
#2 couple seasons later out cruising across the lake as far from the launch as possible and the motor RPM takes off but the boat dies in the water. I shut it off lift the motor and oops no prop! I forgot the cotter pin when I installed a new prop and my new SS prop was now at the bottom of Jackfish lake ..DOH!

[just_dave]

We once forgot to put the plug in a friend's grandfathers new boat THAT WE BORROWED! I've never backed a trailer so fast in my life. It was only luck that I didn't jack-knife it. AND, while backing friends truck up at warp speed, found out that he sometimes wiped his boogers under the drivers seat where they dried, only to sit and wait for my hand to get a nice palm full of narsty. omfg. barf.

[Rustomatic]

Once my buddy and I were Pulling the boat out and he went out to winch the boat up and accidentally locked the door of his truck. It sat there running in the water for an hour as we tried to get the doors unlocked. Sure glad it was late october and no one else was there to use the boat launch

[plinker]

This wasn't a plug issue but by God I think I peed a bit because I laughed so hard when I saw it. Summer of 1984, by Bowden Refinery on # 2 highway I was southbound, they were northbound. Motorhome pulling a boat trailer with a boat. Unremarkable right? Nope! The boat was about 30 feet behind the trailer, being merrily drug down the road at 55 mph. It had fallen off the trailer and was still attached to the trailer by the winch line. They had no idea because it was perfectly in line. No one would pass them.

[TrollGRG]

[QUOTE=Dacotensis;1256713]Once at Tobin. I went for a swin in the cold spring water and managed to get the plug in.
QUOTE]

Do you know you can put the plug in on the inside as well?

Without a bilge pump you can easily drain the boat (after it is moving) by removing the plug then replacing it when the water is all gone.

[vettedreamer]

Burning x-mas boxes on the 26th, and the wife got a wine cooler so the box would not fit in the burn barrell. I couldn't rip the stapled corners so in my wisdom decided I would lay the box over and jump on it.

Just before my face planted in the frozen grass I seen my wife come around the corner, After the dust settled had her set my shoulder AGAIN brush the grass of my forehead tape up my wrist and put ice on my ribs .............then she went out to burn the box tipping it sideways.

SIGHS

[EZM]

Almost sunk my brand new Smokercraft on her maiden voyage. Was out fishing 30 minutes after launch and saw lots of water begining to pool on the floor. Looked down to make sure the plug was in place - it was. Tried to get the boat back to the launch and she was so heavy I was limited to a 7mph crawl. Ankles wet and heart beating we made it back. Luckily - we were only 1km from shore.

Beached the boat and walked around back - The plug was in but would not tighten or seal properly. Apparently, along with robbing other parts from my boat (like the air box, livewell screen etc....) the DEALER exchanged my plug with someone elses which was broken. Probably my fault for not checking it - should have yanked the plug and put it back in. Never thought about it. I trusted the dealer. BIG MISTAKE. The dealer, which will remain nameless, has the PERFECT NAME. It warns you. Would you buy a boat from a place that implys it's boats will sink?

Anyways .... I pull the boat out and off to canuck Tire 80km away. After buying a new plug, a spare plug and letting it drain - the boat was still taking on water that evening. Dumbfounded - I had to yank the boat out of the water every few hours. My weekend was ruined. The bilige ran like crazy all weekend.

After 3 trips back to dealer - with the "exempliary customer service" I was ready to sue. They robbed parts from my boat, had a **** poor attitude (blaming me for my stupidity and lack of knowledge) only to find out one of my rivets was loose. I had to ask them repeatedly to test the hull (fill the boat with water and watch for leaks). They told me repeatedly they did this and it must be my fault - the boat was fine. .......... wtf? ......The strange thing was - after the dealer apparently filled the hull to check for leaks, there was no evidence of moisture in the hull - I'd think there would have been some evidence of water in the boat if, indeed, they filled it with water - would'nt there be? I was assured the test was done. They obviously let my boat sit there untouched for days and were probably happy to charge time back to the manufacturer for warranty. nice.

It was not until I phoned Smokercraft in the US and the issue was escalated to the point of near legal action when I brought the boat back, a fourth time, and I personally watched them fill it with water when, almost immediately, the rivet, near the nose of the boat began to **** water. Needless to say they fixed it this time.

Lesson learned - keep two plugs (one as a spare and another in the glove box) AND never trust THIS dealer.

Also - sometimes you can have 2 issues contributing to one symptom.

I did, finnally get the parts they robbed off my boat near the end of the season some months later. Everytime I was in there it seemed something else was "borrowed" off my boat. I was a burden to them.

unblvbl. lol.

[Hunter Trav]

I've done the plug thing twice. First time I had just refinished the benches in the boat, and was in a hurry to get the kids out to try it out. Was just backing it in and I remembered that I didn't have the plug in. Pulled out let it drain the little bit that got in, threw the plug in and away we went. The second time, I went to Pigeon with my son, and we went out in some fairly rough water. Plug was in but a bunch splashed in from the waves, so I pulled it to let it drain on the way home. Decided to stop by Gull to see if that lake was any calmer, launched the boat, but forgot the plug. Had the boat tied to the dock while I went to park. Was walking back to the dock and my son is yelling at me that the boat is filling with water.

Needless to say thats the fastest I've ever backed a trailer up. Got the boat on, let 'er drain, put the plug in and went fishing. I haven't forgot to check the plug before launching in quite some time now...

[cribfisher]

Once is all it took for me to store my plug on my floating keychain with a carabiner clip so I'll never forget again.

[thumper]

One of my Dad's favorite sayings is " A boat is hole in the water into which you pour money"
A lot of these stories bear out this 'trueism'!

[Dan Foss]

Originally Posted by thumper

One of my Dad's favorite sayings is " A boat is hole in the water into which you pour money"
A lot of these stories bear out this 'trueism'!

BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand.



"The 2 happiest days in a man's life is when he buys a boat, and when he sells it"

[Bigdad013]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

x10. Some real amazing stories here. Bigdad, I couldn't imagine, big salmon on the line or not, not helping out a buddy in trouble. That was an amazing story.

Thanks snap. Was much younger then, didn't really see all the implications at that time. It was just an adventure, and nobody got hurt.

[Bigdad013]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

I've done the plug thing , I would imagine most have . My dumbest moves though were
#1 First run of the season 1989 I was in a big hurry to get on the water and forgot to replace the oil in the lower unit I had drained in the fall.I didn't destroy it but came close , paddled that baby back to shore afer it hit me that i had forgot something.
#2 couple seasons later out cruising across the lake as far from the launch as possible and the motor RPM takes off but the boat dies in the water. I shut it off lift the motor and oops no prop! I forgot the cotter pin when I installed a new prop and my new SS prop was now at the bottom of Jackfish lake ..DOH!

Why would you not fill the leg when you winterize it?

[Mistagin]

2 stories.

A couple of years ago I took my boat, a 14.5 Princecraft aluminum fishing boat, out for the first run of the spring. Before leaving home I put the plug in, because I leave it out for the winter.

I get to the lake, get ready to launch, take off the tie downs, check the plug - it's sticking out of the plug hole so okay, back the rig down the ramp, launch the boat, tie her off on the other side of the dock at the ramp, go park the SUV and trailer, go back to the boat and see water pouring in !

Now, I had tied the boat off with the stern towards shore so I dragged it up on shore wondering what was wrong. The plug was out, it had broken and was just loose enough that it was pushed into the boat when I launched. I managed to jury-rig a repair, and then spent an hour bailing. Bought a new plug when I got back to town.

The other story happened to a friend. Back when I was just a bit younger I was part of a sailing club (we sailed and raced Hobie Cat catamarans) and on days when there wasn't enough wind we'd often go water-skiing. This was one of those days. My friend went to get his family boat, a 16' Starcraft aluminum runabout powered by a 115 Evinrude.

He launched it by himself at ramp about a km down the lake. Now, he had an easy quick-launch technique, he'd have the boat untied and would back quickly down the ramp and when his rear wheels hit the water's edge he'd slam on the brakes and the boat would launch and float out. He'd then park his car and trailer and run back to the dock, dive in and swim to the boat, climb aboard, fire up the engine and take off.

That's what he did this time and he so soon arrived to at beach where the rest of us were hanging out. When he arrived he tied off his boat to a mooring and swam and waded to shore - about 100 meters or so. The boat was moored in about a meter and a half of water.

Well, when he got to shore we all sat around talking and eating snack food and so on. After about 20 - 30 minutes my Uncle said to our buddy, "Hey _____ did you forget something with your boat?"

Buddy looked out at the boat and said, "Oh, ****! The plug!"

He, accompanied by my Uncle and I ran into the water and got to the boat as quickly as we could. My Uncle and I went to the bow where we reached up and pulled it down to raise the stern, our buddy got in the boat and started the engine. There was only about 5 cm of transom showing by then! Buddy then helped us climb onto the bow deck, we untied from the mooring, and we then drove around for a couple of hours letting water drain out! 5 more minutes and she'd have been on the bottom.

It took buddy a looooooong time to live that one down

[jungleboy]

Originally Posted by Bigdad013

Why would you not fill the leg when you winterize it?

well that would just make too much sense and ... I am shocked you would even ask that

[wolfman403]

17.5 foot bayliner with inboard 135 put away for winter pulled block drain lines and exhaust drain lines. Put boat in the water in the spring get wify and kids in boat giver down lake when oldest son says dad theres water in the boat were sinking. Okay everyone relax open engine cover and bottom of crankshaft dampener in water about 1 to 1.5 feet of water in boat top of boat getting close to water now cant see where coming from start engine hot water sprays me in the face. Shut engine off plug the gosh darn lines in swear like sailor which is justified since in boat and I am the captain. let bilge work for about an hour. Reasure children and wife and catch a few fish all good.

Next incident go fishing on crawling valley see a storm coming in get the hell off this lake head for shore balls out at 45 MPH 3 foot waves kids crying again getting really wet. Ok made it to marina all good load boat fast cause many people in line pulled halfway up ramp and can hear horible noise and hear people yelling sh-t forgot to trim up the leg now grinding off on the launch very embaressing look like a newbie. Trimmed it up and headed for the camp site then spent 2 hours with my axe sharpening stone modifying the bottom of my mangled leg.

There are two kinds of boaters. Those who have forgot the plug and those who will! Thanks everyone. It makes me feel better about when I did it myself. You always find what your looking for in the last place you look. Hopefully it's not the plug. Safe boating next season to all.

[thumper]

When we were kids at the lake my brother and I managed to blow up the Merc on the family ski boat - a neighbour came out and towed us in. While my Dad started dismantling that motor, we took out the 14 ft aluminium boat and promptly killed the ancient Clinton outboard - same neighbour came out and towed us back in. We gave it about an hour, then took the Hobie-cat sailboat out, managed to flip it and bend the aluminium mast - by now the neighbour had boat-towing down to fine art, and had us back to our beach in record time.
I still clearly recall my Dad that evening, having a cold 'sun-downer' while watching dusk settle on the lake and sadly remarking "Now I know how the Americans felt at Pearl Harbour"

[lolanr]

I also have forgot the plug. I had a 12' tinner, launched boat and tied it to the shore while I parked the truck. Came back to find the boat filling with water. I was able to pull it up on shore, put plug in and bail out. Only damage was to my pride.

Worst mistake so far: My first time pulling my new to me boat to my favorite lake. I was 6 miles from town and I see my trailer make some strange darting moves. Manage to pull over with no troubles. I had forgot to put the pin in that locks the lever down on the ball. Thank goodness for safety chains and that "v" shaped thing on the bottom of the hitch. Very very scary.

[bisonhunter]

I was halfways across a bigger lake here in the nwt when the guy I was with pipes up and says "hey I am I supposed to see daylight through the floor?" I look down and the hull of my boat is split wide open for about 16 inches at one of the seams! fortunately I was on step and it was only a little bit of water getting in as we were about 6 kms from the boat launch already.

I just turned it around and headed for home. I couldn't find anyone who coud weld it for me so I fixed it myself by shaping some aluminum angle iron and sealing it with marine "goop". Marine goop by the way is basically indestructible as I didn't have to repair that crack ever again. No matter how rough the water got, that seam held. I ended up having to do the same thing on the other side the next year.

You can see the patch right about the middle of the boat.