Not that anyone would set out to actually "test"
this, but I wonder how long it would take for
a new bayliner 175 bowrider to sink if one were
to launch without a drain plug. Anyone know ?
Ok, ok, so I need to come clean here... Yeah,
I'm stoopid, I launched without a drain plug. Yikes.
I always leave the plug in, and never take it out,
and I got complacent and haven't been doing
due diligence in checking the stupid drain plug.
Went in salt water the day before for the first
time, so I had to hose the thing out late last night.
Let it drip over night, and never thought to check
it - it's been absent from my regular routine. So,
local lake, public fishing launch area (seperate
from main rat-race launch lane, requires the
state Vehicle Use permit for fishing). Dumped
it in, tied it up, ran the truck up to park it, walked
down, untied it, got it, started it, and started to
pull out. Engine sounding a little funny, idle a
little weird, (Merc 3.0L I/O), acceleration all
weired, mushy, and just slugish. I look over
my sholder at the engine compartment, and said
now thats odd - water splashing out of the edge
of the engine cover on the bottom near the carpet.
Thought, humm, fan must be picking up water
left over from last nights hose-off, and throwing
it around the inside of the engine cover. No big.
DOH! 2.5 seconds I realized, Whoa! - I ain't
not fan - this ain't a car engine (well it is, but)...
Hol-Lee **** buckets - it sank it (no pun) that
I left the plug in. Panicsville!. Wham! - reach
over the steering wheel with both hands and
throw ALL switches upwards cause I ain't got
time to read each one to see which is the pump.
Engine chugging pretty good by now. Boat starting
to head into rocks - depth finder shows less than
2 feet. I can't let it stall, I can't let it stall, thats
all I kept saying to myself. Bang it into reverse
and jump up on that throttle and get her out from
the rocks a bit, whew, now in about 10 feet of
water just out from the launch a bit. Think quick.
Bingo, the plug is teathered (to the oil drain hose).
Without thought, wham, swan-dive off the back
of the boat, keys, smokes, rolaids, pockets full.
Flailed around the bottom, felt the plug dangling,
and fumbled around, but got it threaded in, and
hand tight. Whew, gonna need that cold beer
after THIS one I thought as I grasped the ladder.
(too bad I won't have any dry smokes, eh).
Anyways, get back up in the boat, bilage pump
pumping like a big dog, and I'm drifting towards
the rocks again. Damn. Throw her into gear,
get out more in the center, and catch my breath.
Engine still chugging and not running good at all.
Afraid to open engine cover, but I know I gotta.
Open her up, and hol-lee-****.... My engine is
drenched, water up to, and maybe past the crank,
holey f-ing crap, I just can't believe this has happened.
Sun. Sun is good. Sun is "hot", Sun dries **** I'm
thinking. Leave the cover off. Keep her running,
I can't let it stall I kept thinking. Water level. Do
I see the water level going down? No!... wtf?
Water coming out the side? yup, rolling out like
a big dog. Dang, whats taking so long then?
Calm down. Crack that beer, it'll be Ok. Smokes?
nope - all soggy, dry ones up in the truck. Balls.
Hey! - engines sounding better! (is it the beer ?)
hell no!, I just opened it. Water level ? Ahhhhh
who da man, huh? - look at dat! - water goning down.
I'll just hang out here, and let that water quit spurting
out the side. Dang, isn't it been like a half-hour now?
Andway, but the time the bilage pump was done, the
engine was bone dry from the sun, and hot enough
to fry an egg on (from the sun on that Phantom black).
Close we up, sop up the water on the carpet, and
go have fun. Dang, that was close I thought.
....or was it? 2-3 hours goes buy, the 24-oz Bug Lite's
gone, and time to start heading in. Replaying the
whole thing in my mind, I got to wondering just how
long could I have let that plug out? what would happen?
water would fill up the engine compartment to the point
that it was overflowing on the main deck, and carpet.
At whcih point, what, drain into that center section
with the door where you keep the life vests etc?
Was that pit already full? - I didn't check that while
the engine compartment was full of water. I'm thinking
that due to the design/layout of this boat (with all of
the sections/compartments and such, that it might not
sink as fast as one might think. Ideas, thoughts ?

Thanks

"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...


Corrections: (typos)

DOH! 2.5 seconds I realized, Whoa! - I ain't
"GOT" not fan - this ain't a car engine (well it is, but)...

Hol-Lee **** buckets - it sank "IN" (no pun) that
I left the plug "OUT" Panicsville!. Wham! - reach

Need to remove that plug after every trip to drain any water left in the
bilge. Leave it out if left outside, even if covered, since if you have a
leak in your cover, or if it collapses, it will be able to drain. Letting
even a little water sit in the bilge for days at a time will create big
problems down the road.

Pre-launch, make it a habit to install the plug when you remove the rear
tiedowns. Remove the plug when you fasten the tiedowns after loading the
boat onto the trailer.

"Stanley Barthfarkle" wrote in message
...

Need to remove that plug after every trip to drain any water left in the
bilge. Leave it out if left outside, even if covered, since if you have a
leak in your cover, or if it collapses, it will be able to drain. Letting
even a little water sit in the bilge for days at a time will create big
problems down the road.

Well, for almost a month now, there hasn't
been one single drop of water down there,
so that is why I've been leaving the plug in.
I cover it each night, so it just doesn't get
any water down there. But yeah, I'm just
going to have to make that part of my
routine, thats all. So they make some
sort of automatic plug? I can't believe
that with all the modern advancements,
that a $15-$30K boat gets down to
remembering to screw in a 25 cent plug.


Pre-launch, make it a habit to install the plug when you remove the rear
tiedowns. Remove the plug when you fasten the tiedowns after loading the
boat onto the trailer.

yeah, its a routine that I'm going to have
to get used to. Gosh, something so
important is just "so" manual. sheese.

thanks

"roadburner" roadburner^at^comcast^dot^net wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 04:35:26 GMT, "Stanley Barthfarkle"
wrote:

Need to remove that plug after every trip to drain any water left in the
bilge. Leave it out if left outside, even if covered, since if you have a
leak in your cover, or if it collapses, it will be able to drain. Letting
even a little water sit in the bilge for days at a time will create big
problems down the road.

Pre-launch, make it a habit to install the plug when you remove the rear
tiedowns. Remove the plug when you fasten the tiedowns after loading the
boat onto the trailer.


Good advice. It doesn't hurt to carry a backup screw type rubber expansion
drain plug that can be put in from the inside of the boat. I still carry 2
on board.

I was smart enough to buy 2 of the rubber plugs
when I got the boat, and carry them in my boat
box. The original has a teather, but if when I
went in, the plug was gone for some reason,
I'd have to get back in the boat, get the plug,
and dive back in the water - would have costed
me another minute or so.

For those of us that have water inlets, like for the head, tapered
dowel rods should also be carried.

Can you explain this to me? - why would you
need tapered dowel rods ?


My first boat of many years ago didn't have a bilge pump. It was a small
16'
Glastron OB. The wife, kids, and myself used to go tent caming on an
inland
lake at boat in only campsites. The open Glastron bilge would fill with
water after a heavy rain. To empty the rain water, I would have my wife
drive the boat at a moderate speed and I pulled out the drain plug from
the
inside. The water was "sucked" out of the bilge. When the bilge was empty,
I
put the plug back in.

I never had the misfortune to launch without the drain plug, but the
original question has me wondering.

If you accidentally launched without a drain plug and you pulled your
trailer up and away, could one be quick witted enough to start the engine
and accelerate away draining the water? Then put in a backup drain plug
from
the inside? Just a thought.

Regards,
roadburner

"roadburner" roadburner^at^comcast^dot^net wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 04:35:26 GMT, "Stanley Barthfarkle"
wrote:



If you accidentally launched without a drain plug and you pulled your
trailer up and away, could one be quick witted enough to start the engine
and accelerate away draining the water? Then put in a backup drain plug
from
the inside? Just a thought.

Dude, I never thought of that! Having survived
a plug-less launch, I'm a little less worked up
about the whole thing to where I'd feel confortable
with trying something like that. Problem for me is,
that with an I/O, its a little hard to get back in there
from the inside. I'm thinking that what is needed
is one of them 1/4 turn ball-valves with the long
handle on it. Plumb that up from the inside, and
fashon up a cable to open/close that sumbitch.


Regards,
roadburner

"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...
Not that anyone would set out to actually "test"
this, but I wonder how long it would take for
a new bayliner 175 bowrider to sink if one were
to launch without a drain plug. Anyone know ?
Ok, ok, so I need to come clean here... Yeah,
I'm stoopid, I launched without a drain plug. Yikes.
I always leave the plug in, and never take it out,
and I got complacent and haven't been doing
due diligence in checking the stupid drain plug.
Went in salt water the day before for the first
time, so I had to hose the thing out late last night.
Let it drip over night, and never thought to check
it - it's been absent from my regular routine. So,
local lake, public fishing launch area (seperate
from main rat-race launch lane, requires the
state Vehicle Use permit for fishing). Dumped
it in, tied it up, ran the truck up to park it, walked
down, untied it, got it, started it, and started to
pull out. Engine sounding a little funny, idle a
little weird, (Merc 3.0L I/O), acceleration all
weired, mushy, and just slugish. I look over
my sholder at the engine compartment, and said
now thats odd - water splashing out of the edge
of the engine cover on the bottom near the carpet.
Thought, humm, fan must be picking up water
left over from last nights hose-off, and throwing
it around the inside of the engine cover. No big.
DOH! 2.5 seconds I realized, Whoa! - I ain't
not fan - this ain't a car engine (well it is, but)...
Hol-Lee **** buckets - it sank it (no pun) that
I left the plug in. Panicsville!. Wham! - reach
over the steering wheel with both hands and
throw ALL switches upwards cause I ain't got
time to read each one to see which is the pump.
Engine chugging pretty good by now. Boat starting
to head into rocks - depth finder shows less than
2 feet. I can't let it stall, I can't let it stall, thats
all I kept saying to myself. Bang it into reverse
and jump up on that throttle and get her out from
the rocks a bit, whew, now in about 10 feet of
water just out from the launch a bit. Think quick.
Bingo, the plug is teathered (to the oil drain hose).
Without thought, wham, swan-dive off the back
of the boat, keys, smokes, rolaids, pockets full.
Flailed around the bottom, felt the plug dangling,
and fumbled around, but got it threaded in, and
hand tight. Whew, gonna need that cold beer
after THIS one I thought as I grasped the ladder.
(too bad I won't have any dry smokes, eh).
Anyways, get back up in the boat, bilage pump
pumping like a big dog, and I'm drifting towards
the rocks again. Damn. Throw her into gear,
get out more in the center, and catch my breath.
Engine still chugging and not running good at all.
Afraid to open engine cover, but I know I gotta.
Open her up, and hol-lee-****.... My engine is
drenched, water up to, and maybe past the crank,
holey f-ing crap, I just can't believe this has happened.
Sun. Sun is good. Sun is "hot", Sun dries **** I'm
thinking. Leave the cover off. Keep her running,
I can't let it stall I kept thinking. Water level. Do
I see the water level going down? No!... wtf?
Water coming out the side? yup, rolling out like
a big dog. Dang, whats taking so long then?
Calm down. Crack that beer, it'll be Ok. Smokes?
nope - all soggy, dry ones up in the truck. Balls.
Hey! - engines sounding better! (is it the beer ?)
hell no!, I just opened it. Water level ? Ahhhhh
who da man, huh? - look at dat! - water goning down.
I'll just hang out here, and let that water quit spurting
out the side. Dang, isn't it been like a half-hour now?
Andway, but the time the bilage pump was done, the
engine was bone dry from the sun, and hot enough
to fry an egg on (from the sun on that Phantom black).
Close we up, sop up the water on the carpet, and
go have fun. Dang, that was close I thought.
...or was it? 2-3 hours goes buy, the 24-oz Bug Lite's
gone, and time to start heading in. Replaying the
whole thing in my mind, I got to wondering just how
long could I have let that plug out? what would happen?
water would fill up the engine compartment to the point
that it was overflowing on the main deck, and carpet.
At whcih point, what, drain into that center section
with the door where you keep the life vests etc?
Was that pit already full? - I didn't check that while
the engine compartment was full of water. I'm thinking
that due to the design/layout of this boat (with all of
the sections/compartments and such, that it might not
sink as fast as one might think. Ideas, thoughts ?


Happened to me once last year. Not only did I forget to put the plug in the
through-hull...I left it at home. My wife left the ramp with the trailer in
tow and was gone a good 2-3 minutes when I realized it was out. She got
home about 5 minutes after I realized the plug was out, and turned around to
bring it back to me. Total time without a plug: about 15-20 minutes.
Fortunately, it was a Whaler. They don't need no stinkin' plugs. ;-)

"roadburner" roadburner^at^comcast^dot^net wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:03:32 -0700, "Mr Wizzard"
wrote:


"Stanley Barthfarkle" wrote in message
m...

Need to remove that plug after every trip to drain any water left in
the
bilge. Leave it out if left outside, even if covered, since if you have
a
leak in your cover, or if it collapses, it will be able to drain.
Letting
even a little water sit in the bilge for days at a time will create big
problems down the road.

Well, for almost a month now, there hasn't
been one single drop of water down there,
so that is why I've been leaving the plug in.
I cover it each night, so it just doesn't get
any water down there. But yeah, I'm just
going to have to make that part of my
routine, thats all. So they make some
sort of automatic plug? I can't believe
that with all the modern advancements,
that a $15-$30K boat gets down to
remembering to screw in a 25 cent plug.


Pre-launch, make it a habit to install the plug when you remove the
rear
tiedowns. Remove the plug when you fasten the tiedowns after loading
the
boat onto the trailer.

yeah, its a routine that I'm going to have
to get used to. Gosh, something so
important is just "so" manual. sheese.

thanks





Curious, you don't get any water in the boat. Are you using a canvass or
plastic cover? Canvass I hope.

Not sure what it is. Some space-age, super light
silver thing I got at Wall Mart for $49. Its great.
Its like an ultra thin, and light mylon fabric that
water beads right off. Also got the adjustable
pole thing with snap together section with a
mushroom shoe at the top. Can't beat it. Don't
know how long it will last, but it seems perfect.




A plastic cover can be bad if used improperly. It traps in the moisture
that
is accumulated while boating from the wet footed swimmers to the normal
drops of spray. If a boat were left for an extended period with some
significant amount of water left in the bilge and covered with a plastic
cover so it couldn't breathe and dry out, it could lead to dry rot of
exposed wood.

Yeah, I wondered about that. When I feel/smell,
sence mosture after an outing, I open it up when I
get home from work to let it air out. Easy to handle.

Some of the less expensive boats (at least the older ones)
didn't have plywood decking coated with fiberglass. I have seen a couple
older boats ruined because the owners stored them wet and covered them
with
plastic.

Yeah, I already feared this, and trying to be carefull
to air that baby out when I can. Maybe a fan inside
on low speed would help ?



Regards,
roadburner

"roadburner" roadburner^at^comcast^dot^net wrote in message
news
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:08:41 -0700, "Mr Wizzard"
wrote:


"roadburner" roadburner^at^comcast^dot^net wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 04:35:26 GMT, "Stanley Barthfarkle"

wrote:

Need to remove that plug after every trip to drain any water left in
the
bilge. Leave it out if left outside, even if covered, since if you
have a
leak in your cover, or if it collapses, it will be able to drain.
Letting
even a little water sit in the bilge for days at a time will create
big
problems down the road.

Pre-launch, make it a habit to install the plug when you remove the
rear
tiedowns. Remove the plug when you fasten the tiedowns after loading
the
boat onto the trailer.


Good advice. It doesn't hurt to carry a backup screw type rubber
expansion
drain plug that can be put in from the inside of the boat. I still
carry 2
on board.

I was smart enough to buy 2 of the rubber plugs
when I got the boat, and carry them in my boat
box. The original has a teather, but if when I
went in, the plug was gone for some reason,
I'd have to get back in the boat, get the plug,
and dive back in the water - would have costed
me another minute or so.

For those of us that have water inlets, like for the head, tapered
dowel rods should also be carried.

Can you explain this to me? - why would you
need tapered dowel rods ?


Be happy to. If for instance the seacock on the through hole on the bottom
of the boat were to break, I could break away the seacock (mine happens to
be some type of polymer) and pound the tapered dowel rod into the through
hole stopping the water from coming in. Forgot to mention I carry a hammer
and a complete tool set on board. Sometimes I am 15 or 20 miles from the
nearest shore. Too far out to get help quickly so I try to be prepared.

Best wishes to you

So what exactally are you calling a seacock?
The threaded plug, or the threaded female ring
that the plug screws into ? So more on my incident:
I got to reading some stuff on the web, and I
scared myself. Being newly single, I go out on
tje boat a lot by myself, and sometimes on the
big waters. (and at night). So did you know that
a 1-inch hole 5 inched below the water line will
let in 44 galons/min ? ****, a 1-inch hole is nothing.
If you hit a log, or dead head, you'd get a hole
bigger than 1-inch. Scares the **** out of me.
Also did research on why my bilage pump took
so long to clear out the motor compartment.
Not good. The cheesy pump on the Bayliner
is WAY too small according to recomendations.
They say that you need about 2500 Gal/Hour
worth of bilage pump on 17-18 foot boats. And,
they say to do it with multiple pumps to protect
against failure. Every boater should read this! :

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/bilge_pumps.htm

Thanks for all of your advose/help.





Regards,
roadburner

"NOYB" wrote in message
...

"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...
Not that anyone would set out to actually "test"
this, but I wonder how long it would take for
a new bayliner 175 bowrider to sink if one were
to launch without a drain plug. Anyone know ?
Ok, ok, so I need to come clean here... Yeah,
I'm stoopid, I launched without a drain plug. Yikes.
I always leave the plug in, and never take it out,
and I got complacent and haven't been doing
due diligence in checking the stupid drain plug.
Went in salt water the day before for the first
time, so I had to hose the thing out late last night.
Let it drip over night, and never thought to check
it - it's been absent from my regular routine. So,
local lake, public fishing launch area (seperate
from main rat-race launch lane, requires the
state Vehicle Use permit for fishing). Dumped
it in, tied it up, ran the truck up to park it, walked
down, untied it, got it, started it, and started to
pull out. Engine sounding a little funny, idle a
little weird, (Merc 3.0L I/O), acceleration all
weired, mushy, and just slugish. I look over
my sholder at the engine compartment, and said
now thats odd - water splashing out of the edge
of the engine cover on the bottom near the carpet.
Thought, humm, fan must be picking up water
left over from last nights hose-off, and throwing
it around the inside of the engine cover. No big.
DOH! 2.5 seconds I realized, Whoa! - I ain't
not fan - this ain't a car engine (well it is, but)...
Hol-Lee **** buckets - it sank it (no pun) that
I left the plug in. Panicsville!. Wham! - reach
over the steering wheel with both hands and
throw ALL switches upwards cause I ain't got
time to read each one to see which is the pump.
Engine chugging pretty good by now. Boat starting
to head into rocks - depth finder shows less than
2 feet. I can't let it stall, I can't let it stall, thats
all I kept saying to myself. Bang it into reverse
and jump up on that throttle and get her out from
the rocks a bit, whew, now in about 10 feet of
water just out from the launch a bit. Think quick.
Bingo, the plug is teathered (to the oil drain hose).
Without thought, wham, swan-dive off the back
of the boat, keys, smokes, rolaids, pockets full.
Flailed around the bottom, felt the plug dangling,
and fumbled around, but got it threaded in, and
hand tight. Whew, gonna need that cold beer
after THIS one I thought as I grasped the ladder.
(too bad I won't have any dry smokes, eh).
Anyways, get back up in the boat, bilage pump
pumping like a big dog, and I'm drifting towards
the rocks again. Damn. Throw her into gear,
get out more in the center, and catch my breath.
Engine still chugging and not running good at all.
Afraid to open engine cover, but I know I gotta.
Open her up, and hol-lee-****.... My engine is
drenched, water up to, and maybe past the crank,
holey f-ing crap, I just can't believe this has happened.
Sun. Sun is good. Sun is "hot", Sun dries **** I'm
thinking. Leave the cover off. Keep her running,
I can't let it stall I kept thinking. Water level. Do
I see the water level going down? No!... wtf?
Water coming out the side? yup, rolling out like
a big dog. Dang, whats taking so long then?
Calm down. Crack that beer, it'll be Ok. Smokes?
nope - all soggy, dry ones up in the truck. Balls.
Hey! - engines sounding better! (is it the beer ?)
hell no!, I just opened it. Water level ? Ahhhhh
who da man, huh? - look at dat! - water goning down.
I'll just hang out here, and let that water quit spurting
out the side. Dang, isn't it been like a half-hour now?
Andway, but the time the bilage pump was done, the
engine was bone dry from the sun, and hot enough
to fry an egg on (from the sun on that Phantom black).
Close we up, sop up the water on the carpet, and
go have fun. Dang, that was close I thought.
...or was it? 2-3 hours goes buy, the 24-oz Bug Lite's
gone, and time to start heading in. Replaying the
whole thing in my mind, I got to wondering just how
long could I have let that plug out? what would happen?
water would fill up the engine compartment to the point
that it was overflowing on the main deck, and carpet.
At whcih point, what, drain into that center section
with the door where you keep the life vests etc?
Was that pit already full? - I didn't check that while
the engine compartment was full of water. I'm thinking
that due to the design/layout of this boat (with all of
the sections/compartments and such, that it might not
sink as fast as one might think. Ideas, thoughts ?


Happened to me once last year. Not only did I forget to put the plug in
the
through-hull...I left it at home. My wife left the ramp with the trailer
in
tow and was gone a good 2-3 minutes when I realized it was out. She got
home about 5 minutes after I realized the plug was out, and turned around
to
bring it back to me. Total time without a plug: about 15-20 minutes.
Fortunately, it was a Whaler. They don't need no stinkin' plugs. ;-)

What da? .... Few questions on your logistics....
she left for home "with" the trailer? Whats the
deal there ? she not go boating with you ?

Which Whaler, how big, and no ****!
thats impressive. Thats good to know
that you now know your limit w/o plug.