| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Rockmeister |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 4:00:07 PM
Yes the near sinking was at the dock, right after I got the boat.
We had gotten to the boat late (like 11pm) on a friday night, first time with my brother & his gf. (6 people total)
(Things like this always happen when you have company! Murphy's law...) 
I looked at the boat & thought the lake level must be low...
Stepped on-board and actually HEARD water coming IN the scuppers due to the rocking motion of us getting on-board!
It was THAT close to going totally down!
I ordered everyone off the boat Immediately!
Opened the cabin door & saw the sheen of water...
Things floating randomly around the cabin...
Greeeeeeaaat... 
Reached in and flipped on the main breaker, the pumps started immediately running off the charger. 
(The charger died a week later, pretty sure it didn't like all the load...lol)
(VERY good reason to keep ALL electrical as high as possible in the boat! Chargers, outlets, etc.)
It took 45 minutes to pump the water below the level of the floor of the cabin...
By this time, it's near midnight...
Rip out the soaked carpeting.
My daughter & her friend start vacuuming and pulling staples. (They did Goood!) 
Pull the 2-1/2 million rusted staples someone used to attach the carpet. 
(Don't want one of those in your foot...)
Used the life saving wet/dry vac, over and over.
(BTW bought this mini-wet/dry vac at Home Depot, fits in the locker, works AWESOME!!!)
All the lower drawers were under water, so pulled everything out and laid out to dry.
(ALL drawers EXCEPT one beneath the Dinette, were filled with water. The one in front of it was full, and the one in back was full of water. It had the owners manual in it and was dry as a bone. I Have NO explanation, and am not even going to try...)
(Now keep the owners manual in the top drawer of the front berth.)
Finally got gear stowed away and laid down to sleep about 2am or so...
(ONLY saving graces besides the owners manual, was it was late at night & no one at the marina noticed, didn't have to hear wisecracks about it! lol That, and there was NO water in the engines! TG!)
Laid new carpet the next day.
New carpet is NOT stapled down! Simply cut to size and is easy to pull up for getting to anything.
Installed new BIG battery for bilge pumps.
Installed new battery for second battery also.
Causes:
Leaking thru-hull due to old/poor bedding.
Leaking packings.
Old batteries with low capacity. (Had a brand new BIG one that I had brought up with me that night.)
Main breaker was off, so charger had no power.
A friend and prior owner was at the boat the prior weekend, don't know if they had a blond moment with the breaker, or it tripped itself due to a fault.
I ran into a fault condition a couple months later.
In another post I put alot of info about the electrical system, it is very sensitive to arc faults, that is good because it indicates a problem, and it's bad because it WILL trip the breaker off!
The chargers are now wired independently of the main box breaker. They have their own breaker under the dinette (just under the seat) and dedicated outlet without GFI.
All other outlets are GFI'd and fed through the main panel. GFIs are awesome lifesaving devices, however the way I have it wired now, if the cord is plugged in and the breaker to the chargers is on, it WILL WORK!
Everything in the panel can be off, and it's NOT an issue. : )
I purchased 2 chargers from Advance Auto for about $40 each (Lifetime warranty, gotta like that!). They are automatic chargers that can keep up a battery without boiling it dry, they are intended for marine batteries. Hardwired them to the batteries.
They have an auto position and a manual position, with NO off position. Foolproof. If they have power, they WORK!
They also come back up in the automatic mode after a power failure, not all chargers do!
Black & Decker's power back up in stand-by, NO charging... Worthless...
Why TWO? See near sinking incident... Wired one to each battery... lol No battery isolator.
The packings SHOULD leak a little water while running, thats how they are lubricated and cooled.
Its easiest to adjust the packing after break-in by watching for a steady slow drip while running.
The drips of water should be cool to lukewarm, not hot.
They may, or may not leak while at dock.
Sooooo... make sure EVERYTHING is right in your bilge pump system... Things will all come together at the wrong time to sink you otherwise.
79 28' Mariner twin inboard V-drive.
SW Lake Erie: Maumee Bay & The Islands |
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