Breakdown disaster stories??

[SunnyCoastMark]

Hey Guys,
Just thought it would be interesting to start up a Thread telling a bit of a story about any unfortunate boating breakdowns or fails you have experienced.

Apart from the obvious entertainment value;D. There may be some sound advice to help us avoid what others have learnt from experience;)

I'll kick it off with an incident that happened to me quite a few years ago in Cairns.

We had talked my wifes sister and her husband into coming out with us on our 1/2 cabin on a a day trip out to the Frankland Islands just south of Cairns. Also out with us was our 3 year old son.

Launched at Deeral - and had a nice scenic trip out to the River mouth - In laws loved that (oohs & ahhs). Water was great - 5-10 knots and almost glassed out (more Oohs and ahhs). Darted over to Russel Island and and did a bit of a circuit of the island - pointing out the lovely coral etc in the crystal clear water (lots of ooohs & ahhs). Stopped at one of my fav. spots on the southern side of the Island. Anchored up - Burleyed up a bit (cries of ooh, YUK).

Caught a couple of nice Coral trout (more oohs and wows) - Then picked up an 8 or 9 kilo Spaniard (Sister In law thought it was amazing).

Then from that point it all seems to go downhill fast......begins with me taking the pacifier to said Spaniards head (cue lots of screaming and hysteria from Sister in law - she may have been splattered by some fish blood...and brains;D).

In order to placate her - I suggested we go on to the island for a bit of a walk around, which was great until brother in law cuts his foot on some coral rubble and comes down with a migrane::). (this was my fault of course)

So we decide to call it a day and head home. Johnno starts first time - no probs - we travel about 300m and she cuts out. Around 4;00pm by this time.
Start checking everything - fuel, fuses, etc. - doesn't take long to work out we don't have spark. - Yep the lovely little black box has fried itself. Tried the the radio to call for assistance - however we seemed to be in a black spot as no one answered and looking around - every one else had gone home - almost dark by this stage and sister in laws eyes were growing strangely big, also her mouth kept opening and closing but no sound was coming out - she was going into shock at the realisation that we might not be going home.

Remembered a yacht moored around the other side of the island - so I fired off a flare or 2. Half an hour later - a little tender with like a 4 hp outboard comes around the island and asks if we need a hand. He took about half an hour to tow us the 300 or so meters to the beach. -
Long story short we camped overnight on the island. - made a fire and cooked the coral trout on coals (yum yum) Our 3 year old had a wow of a time. Slept under the stars Brother in laws Migrane got so bad - he passed out - or pretended to so as to avoid his wifes hysterical panicking. Amazing how her voice just seemed to go an octave higher with every tirade.
Managed to get a tow back to the ramp around luch time the next day. Only downer was I had to chuck the Mack as we didn't have any ice:(

Thankfully the sister in law has never wanted to come out in a boat with us again;D;D

Mark

[theangryangler]

out fishing at the reef inside of moreton with my two bros on their first boat outing.
runnin a yamaha 4st 60 with only 22 hours on it on a 5m brooker side console.
got to sunset and decided to pack it in as swell was building, started the engine
upped the pick and headed off 100m later engine cuts out and wont start fuses
fine spark fine everythin fine. threw the pick back in to stop us washing out to NZ
decided oh well fish overnight and send for a tow in the morning, simple enough.
hour later is when the fun began 6foot swell started rolling thru throwin us about
a sock in the wash!! brothers were assured all is fine as i called up anyone within
vhf range for a tow noone replies.... then the water police at fishermans island come
on get details and inform us that VMR are on the way. hour latert they show up much
to my bros relief. Throw us a tow line of which the shackle almost took my head off in
the dark. hooked up and started to tow, they offered us to ride in their boat but all
gear must stay in mine, so we politely declined the ride to hold on to rods and what not
well the tow rope was of the length that as we reached the top of the swell so did they
and we were yanked down into the trough of the next wave quite violenty!! with only 2 seats
in the boat i rode in one and 1 bro in the other and poor justin was trying to crouch on the floor
then something caught his eye rolling across the floor so he dove down and lay on it (turned out
to be a chip packet!!) where he stayed for the next 20 or so minutes until i noticed the anchor in
the anchor well was getting very close to flying out due to the swell, reached down and yanked
him up by the hood of his jacket just in time as the anchor flew out of the box and landed roughly
where his head would have been!!! the rest of the tri[p was rough but uneventful. But lucky we
stayed in the boat as nearing the end my brand new rod and reel (stella 2500 on a fireblood) came
loose and almost flew out the back but was saved. Got back to the ramp and those two were shaking
like the wendys shake and dog!!! they never came into the bay again after that only river fishing to
this day...... took to the mechanic the next day he plugged it in and there was no problems at all
started fine and never missed a beat again so to this day still dont know what it was.
The Angry Angler

[googarra]

Great stuff isn't it, certainly stops the relations from hounding you for a fishing trip.

I used to go out in some very ordinary conditions and this stopped all but the real fishos and diehards from coming with me, including the wife, probably a year since she has been out.

[Spaniard_King]

Early 80's owned a Cruise craft rouge with an 80 merc

Headed up to Airlie Beach for a camping/fishing/diving holiday with 3 other mates. took 3 trips in my boat to take all our gear to whitsunday island. Set up camp and decided to head over to hamilton island to see if we could get our tanks filled. The bloke there was helpfull... no problems so we asked about wandering up to the bar for a drink.. he turned a blind eye so up we go...4 hrs later we head back to the beach to find our boat high and dry (at least 50m to the water) so back up to the bar.. well it closedat 9 and the rain started at 9-30.. 11pm we got the boat in the water and we got back to camp in pooring rain.. got up the next day and mooved back to Airlie and into a caravan park.. set up the tents and moved into a caravan :)

Over the next few weeks we headed out on day trips

The weather turned for the worst and after a few days we were keep to do some more diving and fishing so we thought we would just follow one of the big boats over to the islands. All went well for a while until I saw the boat we were following smash into a good swell so I went to grab the throttle when we hot the wave and I managed to put it into WOT we just launched off the wave and came down and stopped dead in the water :(

The engine was gone! It was hanging on by cables only, we managed to get the engine into the boat and then got the trusty 6hp redband merc going... Ahh all good we thought.....NOT ... the steering on the 6hp was seized.. out with the paddles to steer our way home.. got a call from the VMR who offered assistance but we declined.

The cost of that excersise hit home and I vowed then to learn to fix any boat/motor that I owned hence I ended up in the trade since 1987

[SunnyCoastMark]

Hahaha - gee, experience is a great teacher, hey Gary :D

Funny now - but I bet it wasn't at the time. The facial expressions would have been priceless.........

Mark

[frankgrimes]

Yep this one got the pulse rate up - http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?170084-GC-Seaway-scare

Mick

[Noelm]

I have told this one before here a few years ago, my mate had an old 18’ Glass boat with a 135 HP tower of power Merc, the carbs would continually flood, so he had to remove the cowling (which in itself was an engineering marvel) and give the carbies a bit of a ‘tap” with an old roller pin/axle that he kept in the motor well for just such occasions. This one day we were out and he went to start the motor and of course, petrol started flooding out of the carbs again, so off with cowling, find the bar and give the carbies a bit of a whack, he must have shorted something out at the same time as he hit the carby, because there was that unmistakable “WHOOOOMPH” that only petrol makes when ignited, the whole motor and well was on fire, I shit my pants and went for the extinguisher, which of course had been tied in with 200lb fishing line because the old steel bracket had rusted away a long time ago, I yanked and pulled for all my worth, but it would not budge, he started tossing water on the flames and before we knew it, the water around the boat (well the fuel floating on the water) was also on fire, he decided to make a jump for it while I was still cursing the fire extinguisher, by some miracle, the fire just went out on it’s own, leaving us shaken but very much in big trouble as far as ever getting the thing going again, another boat had seen the smoke and come over and gave us a tow back home, never did go out with him again after that.

[Jarrah Jack]

Some great stories there.

When I knew bugger all I brought my first boat, a 23 ft trailer sailer. For the first trip I thought I'd take some mates who owned similar boats so they could do all the work. I didn't have a clue how to put the sails up and other stuff but I was very proud of my new boat.

They wacked the motor on put the sails up and off we went. I remember saying that the only thing wrong with the boat was the rusty looking motor.

Time to come back in, sails in and all the other things, I was in charge of motoring in. Well, the motor jumped off the bracket and fell in the water. It was still running as it was sinking. I watched go down.:o

I said to the other guys "the motors gone" expecting some miracle from the experienced hands. We nearly lost the boat. I went diving for the motor but could never find it. I don't think it liked what I said and the insurance company wasn't impressed either, having only insured the boat a few days before.

[Noelm]

One of my mates had an old ex surfclub 25HP Johnson on his old crap tinny, he mounted the motor but forgot to do up the clamps, he idled away from the shore and gunned it, the motor sort of leaped up in the air, yanked him backwards out of the boat (still hanging onto the tiller) in a flurry of foaming water, and he and the motor just gurgled out of sight under the water, seemed like 5 minutes before he surfaced, must have tried to keep hold of the motor.

[Floating Rib]

In the early 90's my mate had just finished rebuilding a Caribean Reef Runner, new floor, new wiring, hardtop off and all the nice gear, unfortunately didnt do a lot with the 165hp merc inboard, we left noosa late arvo to fish overnight
off sunshine, had just approached the point of the nat park when the boat filled with smoke instantly, thankfully wasnt smoke but steam as the water hose had split, just getting dark and not sure what to do when i remembered i had a roll off old ankle strapping tape in the tacklebox, wrappd the split hose with it and took turns holding(bloody hot) it together as we limped back to the bar, well and truly dark by now, only a small swell thankfully but we couldnt see the channel and so beached the stupid thing on a sandbar, 4 of us out in the water pushing with each swell until we were free, this is the middle of winter and very cold, finally back to the ramp and first thing i do is run for the car and change into all dry clothes, race back to the ramp to help and go arse up on the slime on the ramp, launch myself on my back into the water so now wet and cold again, much to the amusement ofmy so called mates not a trip i remember fondly, amazing when we were all so young and stupid that we survived.
Cheers
Rib.

[midcoast learner]

One of my mates had an old ex surfclub 25HP Johnson on his old crap tinny, he mounted the motor but forgot to do up the clamps, he idled away from the shore and gunned it, the motor sort of leaped up in the air, yanked him backwards out of the boat (still hanging onto the tiller) in a flurry of foaming water, and he and the motor just gurgled out of sight under the water, seemed like 5 minutes before he surfaced, must have tried to keep hold of the motor.

If we had to vote for the funniest this would it.Can't stop laughing.Hope there were no ill affects from following the engine to the bottom.

[Noelm]

nah, he was OK, we still laugh about it, he got the motor from our local surfclub and the tinny was a piece of crap he found somewhere, all this happened on the maiden voyage, the motor made the funniest sound, revved to about 20,000RPM then a sort of sshhloooop as it went under at full revs.

[theangryangler]

another time was retreiving the old but new tinny at pinkenba ramp and for those who remember this ramp it was a car wide and really slimey drops on either side. so reversed the trailer to the water got out and started to pull the boat around to trailer when a huge gust of wind caught it and pulled it to the side of the ramp so i held onto the rope with all my might!! only to be dragges over the side of the ramp and neck deep into the water. Bloody woman just stood there laughing asking what are you doing?? i said going for a swim!!! no help from her. climbed out retrieved the boat and headed home in the nud and very silently!!! >:(
Always remember the old boy drove the 15ft trailer sailer up the drive then without thinking lifte the trailer off the towball with out pulling on the brakes or using chocks (the driveway was quite steep) we all stood there watching him as he was dragged on his knees down the drive and into 4 lanes of traffic before he let go boat rammed a retaining wall across the road after luckily not being hit by a car and was semi destroyed.

Mate was out with his alco dad in his deathbox tinny fishing under stockton bridge newcastle. when retreving the anchor they caught someones old anchor rope and the bob decided he was gonna get 2 for the effort of 1 and told kev to hold it in the front while he gunned the motor. well the rope snapped after a few good throttles sending the boat slamming nose first into the pylon and caving in the front of the boat. limped back to the ramp.

same bloke did what has been mentioned here put the motor on didnt tighten the clamps enough and jump into the water. gooone

same bloke again pulled the tinny up the beach to goto the bottlo get some piss came back to see the boat halfway across the hunter river mate swam out got half way and cramped up almost drowned a passing boat saved him and ther boat!!!

Same bloke again used to drive a truck and was foloowing his missus datsun which was towing the boat came to a orange light thought she was goping to go thru it so knocked the truck back a few gears and gunned it.... she slammed on the brakes to stop. He rammed the boat and the car writing off both!!!!

[lucee81]

another time was retreiving the old but new tinny at pinkenba ramp and for those who remember this ramp it was a car wide and really slimey drops on either side. so reversed the trailer to the water got out and started to pull the boat around to trailer when a huge gust of wind caught it and pulled it to the side of the ramp so i held onto the rope with all my might!! only to be dragges over the side of the ramp and neck deep into the water. Bloody woman just stood there laughing asking what are you doing?? i said going for a swim!!! no help from her. climbed out retrieved the boat and headed home in the nud and very silently!!! >:(
Always remember the old boy drove the 15ft trailer sailer up the drive then without thinking lifte the trailer off the towball with out pulling on the brakes or using chocks (the driveway was quite steep) we all stood there watching him as he was dragged on his knees down the drive and into 4 lanes of traffic before he let go boat rammed a retaining wall across the road after luckily not being hit by a car and was semi destroyed.

Mate was out with his alco dad in his deathbox tinny fishing under stockton bridge newcastle. when retreving the anchor they caught someones old anchor rope and the bob decided he was gonna get 2 for the effort of 1 and told kev to hold it in the front while he gunned the motor. well the rope snapped after a few good throttles sending the boat slamming nose first into the pylon and caving in the front of the boat. limped back to the ramp.

same bloke did what has been mentioned here put the motor on didnt tighten the clamps enough and jump into the water. gooone

same bloke again pulled the tinny up the beach to goto the bottlo get some piss came back to see the boat halfway across the hunter river mate swam out got half way and cramped up almost drowned a passing boat saved him and ther boat!!!

Same bloke again used to drive a truck and was foloowing his missus datsun which was towing the boat came to a orange light thought she was goping to go thru it so knocked the truck back a few gears and gunned it.... she slammed on the brakes to stop. He rammed the boat and the car writing off both!!!!


Entertaing stories....
Are you the bloke?????;D;D

[theangryangler]

Entertaing stories....
Are you the bloke?????;D;D

No was my mates dad went to school with kev and his old boy bob was a removalist in newcastle
would see him every morning come out of his place and get into his truck with a longneck of vb
already half finished!!!

[Chimo]

Hey angry

Even a bloody good warranty wont save you!

C
C

[theangryangler]

Hey angry

Even a bloody good warranty wont save you!

C
C

Now ya see why i need the warranty eh ;D

[gazza2006au]

with over 15 years boating experience im still learning lol ;D

3 weeks ago i finished doing a full engine rebuild we decided to head off just before sun set on a quick run we drove down stream 7km's from the car park and boat ramp i slowed down for the 8knot zone when my alarm started sounding we tried turning around the alarm kept sounding and shut down the engine to idle we had to row about 1km against the tide in a river than walk 500m along a beach pushing the boat than row another 200m to another boat ramp the gates were closing in 30mins and i had a 3km walk back to my car i just made it in time loaded the boat back onto the trailer and drove home the problem was im new to 4 stroke engines i left the oil cap off the engine LOL :o;D lost $50 worth of oil had to row and walk what a beautiful afternoon on the maiden run lol

next time just a few nights ago went out on the bay just before sun set same boat same engine my cousins convinced me to bodge the anchor light for the night so while on the water i wired up the light directly to the battery started fishing as we drifted i thought we needed to move a big storm was coming so i cranked over the engine started driving off in the dark my cousin yells sparks the light wire has melted and light shut off we are now sitting in total darkness and my cousins mobile phone light comes to the rescue i disconnected the bodgy wiring for the rear light and forgot i had undone the battery terminals in a panic so i tried cranking the engine over and got nothing zip sweet .... all i thought dam blew a fuse lets get out the oars yet again we find out selfs rowing :disappointed: we rowed with the tide and with the wind which was good to the closes boat ramp around 300m the boat ramps gate was locked bugger! i walked for 20mins back to the car as i knew i had fuses in the car i picked up the car drove back and proceeded to check the fuse the fuse was ok than i thought .... me i left the battery terminal undone done it up the engine started instantly LOL what a night! we drove off after loading the boat pulled into the first petrol station started filling up the car when the hailed larger than golf balls how lucky are we as we were sitting ducks out on the water in a small run about with no bimini or cover

[MudRiverDan]

One borrowed the ol mans tinny, took it out to wello point, had a gf at the time an she was with me..

Went out a bit and snagged a few grinners, was getting choppy so decided to head home, hit the throttle hard and must have planed at about 2 knots..

Then BRRRRR...!! hit a sand bar, looked over and I was in about 6 inches of water, snapped the prop holding pinion clean,, was a hard row back, very hard,,very very hard row back.

Since the oars hardly was so short hardly touch the water, I was getting some good exersise..

Got back to the ramp after an hour and realised I had the engine down when rowing, so the drag made it a bit hard.

Found some old steel rod, whipped it up on the $20.00 grinder and threw it in, good as new returned to the old man no probs,,, until he goes out that is,,,

Cheers Dan

[trymyluck]

Touch wood I havn't had too many dramas but plenty of time yet.

When I was kid I witnessed a bloke who in his wisdom decided he wanted to fish under the bridge at Foster, but he wasn't interested in dropping an anchor, he would just tie the bow to one pylon and the stern to the next pylon. All was going well until the run out tide started to pick up.........It rips out there pretty well and ended up flipping the boat and the boat ended up like a paddle wheel until one of the ropes gave way.

A couple of years ago, myself and a mate were heading up to Roonies. We had a few dramas during the day with blocked thermostats but having sorted that out headed up just after dark. Got about half way up when the alarm went off and the motor went into limp mode, one of those things that if you read the manual you would know about........Anyway we were left with the decision of do we shut the motor down and hope it starts. Or do we head back doing about 7 knots. All I can say is its a long way back to Urangan doing 6 to 7 knts from half way up the island.

Mark

[SunnyCoastMark]

Another time in Cairns - this was in my first boat - a little 12' fibreglass dinghy with a 10hp Evinrude. I was by myself - right up the top of Trinity Inlet somewhere - chasing jacks in one of the little creeks - went to move spots and the motor wouldn't start - spent almost an hour trying to get it going then gave up and started the long row back to the ramp. 3 hours later, Completely stuffed and 5 kgs lighter - I made it back to the ramp.

Gave the motor another pull just to see - and it started 1st time. grrrrrrrr.>:(

From memory, I think it was just a faulty Fuel Bulb

Mark

[Stuart]

Not me but a mate. Heading out fishing in his 18ft haines and half way to the ramp he realises he has forgot the bait. So he rushes back home with the boat in tow and clips a centre island only to see the boat fly off the trailer and skid up the road. The trailer almost flipped over the as well. I asked if he had the boat strapped down to the trailer which I did tell him to do many times before, answer was no. Damage bill, $11,000. I wanted him to call it gavel rash, skid mark, or rolly polly.

[Thedoc]

This is a mates story here in Cairns, he had the father in law visiting and planned a trip out first thing to the wreck here off Double Island. Woke in the morning had the boat ready all hooked up and father in law left the dogs out ( new pup) so had to unhook trailer and travel around Freshwater to find the bloody dogs. They find the dogs get home hook up the boat again get down the road go around a roundabout, trailer comes off towbar goes in to the back of ute ( denting it). So they hook again properly this time head out to Yorkeys Knob, reverses down boat ramp with newly installed electric winch which gives way and deposits boat on ramp eventually they get boat back on trailer ( electric winch not working). They head out to the wreck get nothing all day blowing its head off anyway. They head home and opposite the servo at Yorkies flat tyre on boat trailer no spare so jack it up and head off and get other one repaired. They come back and and the boat trailer had fallen off the jack! They eventually fixed it all up.

True story.

He has gone fishing again but not with his father in law!

[ubdkdd]

I had one in december last year. I took the boat out for the regular lazy afternoon fish, out of pacific harbour, flick some SPs around the bridge, down to buckleys - stuff I have done a thousand times before. I rushed this particular afternoon and didn't worry about packing a torch as I'd only be an hour - home well before dark.

Well I decided to head up to white patch to fish the top of the tide. Got there, caught nothing and decided to head home. I went to turn the key and there was nothing. Now, I have been working on this engine for a long time and thought I knew it backwards - its an 86 mercury. But couldnt work out what had gone wrong to cause it to fail.

So after 30 mins of fringing about, it started getting dark. I picked up the mobile to call home and no go, its was a blackberry, so there was enough power to light the phone, just not make calls out. Not good. So then it got dark, and it was black, heavy cloud, no moon, no ambient light, nothing. I couldnt see my hand in front of my face.

So I managed to get the anchor up and started drifting down towards the entrance to pacific harbour. As I drifted the runout tide picked up and started pushing me out across the passage. Wanting to say close to the island side, cause that's where I'd be most likely to bump into another boat, I started paddling. Every time I put the oar in, I'd get a splash of water and 2 or 3 jellyfish up onto the oar. Soon enough just touching either oar hurt, and I couldn't see enough to work out when I was touching oar or jellyfish.

Anyway, after drifting for what seemed like ages, I realized I wasn't going to beat the tide. So I stopped paddling and dropped anchor and waited, with hands stinging.

In all of the time I'd been out I hadn't seen another boat, not one. So I started to think I was going to be in for a long night on the water. Then in the distance, I saw a boat coming out of pacific harbour. Desperate, I picked up the dying mobile and started waving it above my head, hoping theyd see the dim blue light in the distance. But the boat got up on the plane, and started heading down towards the bridge...... Then they turned.

So I started waving more frantically until I was sure they were coming my way... Sure enough, they were. Out of all the people that could have been out there, they were the ones I wanted to see... The police out doing patrols. So the pulled up, tied up and dragged me back into pacific harbour, and all the way back to my pontoon. Very relieved.

Over the next two months, I had two welts on hands from the jellyfish stings that started out as just red, then slowly killed off the flesh till they were about the size of a 50 cent coin, and about as deep. Then within a week, they virtually healed up. Now good as new.

I consider myself lucky, not that I was at any great risk, just saved from a long night. And it sure did stop me from being complacent about carrying the right gear each and every time I go out.

[weekendfisher]

These days things seem to go pretty smoothly but back when i was new to boating and had my first boat we had a few incidents.....
First time out with my new boat we launched from long jetty with just me and the misses... dropped the boat in with no dramas started up the motor and headed out within about 2 mins the motor stopped and would not restart brand new battery was dead ..not happy after paddling against a strong current the current finally worked in my favour and beached me on a sandbank of which i was then able to walk the boat back to the ramp in what i thought was shallow water which was actually waist high mud then to make things even better then whinch on the trailer was not working ....bad first day out.
Next time same boat with my brother and sister in law we headed out from the ramp and north entrance were going ok until we got the prop caught up in some weed and the motor stopped so lifted the motor cleared the seaweed and went to start again ...would not start so after killing the battery trying out come the paddles and we started fighting the strong current/wind after not getting far my brother in law strips down to his undies jumps in and starts paddling while pushing the boat to a while but we eventually got back.
Many years later and 3 boats in between i never go out without all of the required gear plus spare fuel a spare battery and an auxiliary motor i think those two experiences have made me very cautious and a little paranoid.
even to this day and with our latest boat the misses still won't come out on the boat with me lol it didn't help she was scared of boats to begin with.