KEY OR COMBO!

[MacGyver]

So this morning (Saturday) starts for me like any other.
open shop, clock in, open galley building, then go open the office.....
Half way down I always look over the harbor, looking at the masts, then looking at decks and water lines....usually nothing out of the ordinary

Till I saw her, bow low in the water. Had to do a double take! REALLY?!? Yesterday we walked the docks 2 times due to weather and no issues, but I definitely couldnt see a water line till you hit the stern....

Ran to the office with my cell in hand dialing my co workers.
KEY OR COMBO! I kept saying as I looked for the card with the owners name.

COMBO!  "Hello!" I hear on the phone in my left hand, the office phone,
"Get out here! the 38 is sinking!"   

After a fast run down to the shop knowing I had someone else to back me up on their way I went to grab a pump now that I know it is a COMBO lock!
Rushing down to the boat I hopped on and opened her up, NO LOCK!   LOL

set the pump in her and was careful not to slip on the decks Ice.
after plugging in the pump it turns on pumping water all over the dock due to the hoses movement from the surging of the water.

Great! now I got wet, slipped into the boat (yes I was being careful)

After the other guy arrived he brought another pump, and it took a little over an hour to raise the Catalina 38 to her proper water line.

What excitement for a cold morning.

So the culprit? Well, a comfort air line had come off and started pumping water into the boat. 3/8 in size.

There is no barb on the end to keep the hose on when clamped....... 
Turns out he didnt winterize either....... 

Just had to share, as it is a adrenaline pumper!     What a morning! And all before I had a sip of coffee! 

I will put up some pictures tomorrow, I snapped a few when her bow was 6 inches higher than when I found her!

Mac

[MacGyver]

I told my buddy about it and said what really got me (voice was hoarse!) was that running with that cold frigid air! Really got to me!

He said "Dude, you were running more efficiently, dont you know that a cold air intake makes you faster and more efficient?!?!"

Yeah............wise a$$

Had a laugh over that one.....

Mac

[skip1930]

Bill and Cleta [Her dad was Mr. palmer Johnson who started building boats. I think the first model he built was the Stoutfellow.] had Great Lakes Yacht Service place their extra tall 4 foot longer custom carbon fiber masted, 33' Hinterhoeller Nonsuch in the water.

The wife and I visited the docks that night after going out for dinner and were shocked to see their boat down by the bow.
Cynthia call Bill right away and I opened the hatch only to see the floor boards floating about.

I went down below with a five gallon pale and started bailing, dumping the water into the self draining cock pit.
A schooner full of students was just coming in that night from sailing Lake Michigan and these kids sprang to life with a self priming foot pump and long hose which they set-up on the dock. I bailed, they pumped. Bill and Cleta showed up right a way and a few hours later she was floating high but not dry.

Bill and I were looking for the problem when I saw the broken remains of a plastic thumb screw in the galley sink. "Bill, do you know where this goes?" "Yea" he says,...when we removed the engine cover and their it was...a 1/4-20 black plastic thumb screw hole was peeing a 1/4 inch stream of water into the bilge. The thumb screw was used to drain a pre-inlet water strainer feeding cooling water to the engine.

The marine service guys placed the boat into the water and tied it to a slip around 11:00 in the morning. We found her at about 8:00 in the evening. Apparently somebody broke the thumb screw off and dug out the plug during the winter servicing and never replaced the thumb screw with a new one or placed no signage alerting the 'put-in' crew.

Avoid mistakes, WRITE IT DOWN.

skip.

[jthatcher]

ok..  showing my ignorance..  what is a comfort air line?    quite the story!  nice to know that marinas ( at least the one where you work)  hire observant people!   jt

[NateD]

jthatcher, your not the only ignorant one, I'm not sure what a comfort air line is either.

I bet that got the adrenaline going! I got aboard my CP23 one day this sprint and noticed that it didn't "give" as much as usual when I stepped aboard. When I opened the cabin I noticed just a little bit of water at the edge of cabin sole. I got more of a sinking feeling in my stomach than an adrenaline rush. The boat was still sitting on her lines pretty well, but it had 10-15 gallons of water in the bilge that had leaked in about 1 drop per second for about a week. I tracked it back to a plastic fitting on the water intake line for the head that must have frozen and cracked (I got the boat in during early April, and had tested the head, then we got a few days below freezing in mid-April, not unusual for MN). An automatic bilge pump is on my upgrade list before she goes back in the water this spring.

Did the Catalina have automatic pumps?

[MacGyver]

The Catalina did have auto pumps but it may have wore the battery down enough finally and not been something that looked out of the ordinary to us as the boat was moved to a different slip because of the water situation with the lake (thought it was going to low water, but the good lord delivered!!)

A comfort air system I know works like a air conditioner, but I have heard that it also works as a heater.

It constantly pumps water using a dual setup from my understanding.

The bilge pump when we were on it was useless. I had to tend to another issue so I was unable to work with the owner to try to fix stuff on the boat.
Turns out that our work boats engine (Honda 40hp outboard) was left in the tilted up position, and all the rain had collected enough water in it that it froze, and cracked the lower unit.......... Not a good day by any means......

Looks like I will be getting a new Honda 40 fuel injected....... Meeting with my boss on Thursday..... Hope that goes well.

Mac

[MacGyver]

Here are the pictures I promised, I finally got a "round tuit"

Note that this is when a pump or 2 was already in the boat, I was waiting on it to come up to find the leak so I finally had a "break" so I took these. It is up some from what it was before I started pumping.

[NateD]

It doesn't look so bad from the outside, but seeing that much water inside is frightening.

I imagine it is pretty hard to find a leak once the leak is underwater inside the boat, can't just look for the gushing water but have to feel around for the water flowing in? Any better way?

[MacGyver]

What we do is drop in enough pumps till we overpower the leak.
That way the boat is rising which frees up guys to go and get the lift ready, launch the work boat if it isnt in the water, etc.

After you over power the leak then you can basically listen for running water.
If it had been a thru hull, say 2 inch, then our 2 sump pumps would have overpowered it by a inch or so, and if it had been. Big hole like that then you can use a cone like plug to close the hole up to get it to the lift.

One time it was a split and i just grabbed and held it while we towed her over.

Not sure if I mentioned it here but this one was a 3/8th line of water coming in. I could have held my thumb on it easily.......but I just hooked the hose back up and reclamped it. No more water in the boat

Another boat we had a 3inch gas pump running and it overpowered the issue and the guy as soon as we pulled the pump drove it to the ramp to pull it and was sitting low by the time he got there. He didnt have room to leave the pump going as he drove to the ramp.

Each one is a adventure to say the least.

Mac   

[MacGyver]

 
Today we had a J29 go down. Yesterday we launched it, and put it into a slip close to our GinPole to get ready to raise the mast. Everytime we launch a boat we check the thru hulls, and keep a close eye on the boat. The last guy on shift checked the boat at 4 pm, and found no issues.

This morning she was sitting on her keel on the bottom, with the deck level still, but below the dock decking height. The swim platform step up area was right level with the water at the transom.

A sump pump (1.5 inch line) and the large trash pump (gas powered 3 inch line) took 30 minutes to raise the boat. Upon inspection, not one single issue was found and as a precaution we immediately put the boat on our lift. After completely drying the boat out the best we could (water was easily knee deep.......) we again went in search of the leak.

We finally found the leak! It was a hose attached to a thru hull, that had no valve! and was left completely open!!!

After talking to the customer, and several hours of time with all this going on we found out that the owner, several years ago purchased the J boat as a cruiser, and converted it to a racer since cruisers are easy to get but the racing versions are hard to get. At that time he had sailed it for a year but was getting killed on the course, so he had the boat shipped off and had a new keel made, (longer and with a bulb) and had the sides repainted, then also had him and his son get in and remove the unnecessary at some point, like the A/C unit, and some other items.

At that time, he just layed the hose up, and figured it was above the water line, so "No Biggie" it would be fine......

He keeps his boat on a hydrahoist, so for the most part, he was safe...... until late last night.

We had a big storm, which caused a lot of wake in the harbor. That hose shifted (nothing kept it in place anyway!!) and allowed it to fill with water!!
This hose has been like that for what we can think is maybe only since the end of last year, or it was like that for a number of years!!

What a day. After all of this, complete engine submersion, so on and so forth, what is his biggest concern??

CAN WE LAUNCH THE BOAT TOMORROW SO HE CAN SAIL!!!!!   

WOW......... Mac

[NateD]

While I disagree with his boat maintenance philosophy, I'm fully supportive of his enthusiasm to get back on the water.

[kickingbug1]

     sure is nice to have my little boat in the garage. this is why large boats in slips dont interest me. great story jason. glad you had lots of "fun"----hey are the ramps flooded (at hazlett mainly)?

[MacGyver]

Here is the pictures to that J29. This was after we pumped some water out of it, Im sure it would be frowned upon me taking pictures without the pumps running! LOL 





Mac

[Koinonia]

     Anybody seen the movie Fools Gold?  They come up to the surface from diving and wonder where the boat is then look back down and there she is......   A guy at my sailing club has a catalina 25 on a mooring and went rowing out one day but the boat wasnt there.   From what I hear he was like, where is my boat, somebody steal it?  Somebody then noticed the mooring was gone to, but who would steal a mooring?  A little diving and she was found on the bottom.  I never did hear what the root cause of the sinking was, I just saw her break the surface while getting raised.