The woes of having a boat!!

[SMcGregor]

This will be lenghty but well worth the read hopefully!

Day 1

So, in the start of January I took my little 17' boat about 1.5 hours north of me where I purchased it to have the maintanace done and have a fm/am/cd radio installed and an second battery installed. Along with new trailer lights, re-pack the bearing and all the good stuff that goes with a owning a boat. Total time in the shop was about 2 weeks or so.

I get the boat back take a day off from work with the wife and little girl. We get to the boat ramp and I go to start the motor while it is still on the trailer (being smart here 1st time out this year) and nothing happenes. Turn the key again and nothing no ignation what so ever.. Me being the easily frusted person after dropping $700 bucks to get the maintanace done wiggled the wires on the new battery around and got it to fire up. Thinking I am good to go after turning it off and on several times I release it from the trailer. At this point I am happy again ready to get on the water and have some fun!

So, I am release from the trailer and my wife pulls the truck away to park it. Starting to drift down the river I go to turn the boat and no sterring it is frozen up! so, I go grab the WD-40 and spray the sterring down. Ok at this point I am sure you thinking you dumba$$ you should have checked this before you left home! Trust me I did 2 days before had the boat running and turning the motor. Everything was working beautiful! So, here I am drifing down river only able to go forward and backwards. I sprayed the sterring down real good. Was able to get a little play in the wheel so I give it a little tug and BANG it was a I hear! At this point I am about 50 yards from the boat ramp and dock! So, I drive the boat on the beach. No not the white sandy beach, but the knee deep muddy rocky river beach!

So, here I am highly pissed off that I spent $700 bucks on getting my boat ready and I am walking 50 yards in the mud to put it back on the trailer after 15 minutes of walking through mud. As I am getting the boat back on the trailer we have some friends coming down the river on their boat. They stop help me out and is nice enough to let us tag along with them for the day. We get out to the 1st fishing spot and my wife hooks up a fish. She goes to set the hook and BANG! My brand new fishing rod snaps in half! At this point it is just funny! We were able to get the entire rod and the fish in the boat. It turned out to be a 22 inch Spanish Mackeral!

The day was pretty good all in all the weather was nice and we caught a few fish and I drank a lot of beer and smoke a very good cigar. I would tell you what is was but I dropped the lable in the water!

Day2

I take the boat to another shop this time local to me. I get a rough quote to get the sterring fixed damn if it wasn't $700 bucks! Are you seeing a pattern here yet? So, I take the boat and the guy is awesome he gets it back to me in a week and it only cost $397 bucks! A lot of money but not $700! I go and pick the boat up and the family and I head to the coast for another shot at using the boat! We get to our boat ramp and the damn thing is closed! We go and hunt another down get the boat in the water and no problems! Whew! We are happy!

Day3

Since the boat is running well I decide I need to go fishing. I call up a buddy and he is ready to go as well. We make plans to head out about 8:00 AM to kill some fishes. He hook the boat head to coast. We get to the boat ramp and launch the boat. Me being smart again decided I'll start the boat before releasing from the trailer! No problems the boat starts up and run great! I'm good now I release it from the trailer and start driving around the boat ramp while my buddy parks the truck. As I am waiting the engines shuts off! I reprime it and try to start it nothing. Scratch my head and relize it is not from wondering what the hell is going on now, but the gnats are out in FULL force and eating me alive! Thank god it was low tide and I was still near the boat ramp. My buddy walks out to me and we spent the next hour and half trying to get the motor to start. I was surprised I didn't get mad I stayed nice and calm. Nevermind the fact the were having to hold to the hand rails not be carried away by gnats that were eating us alive. They were horrible coulds of them thicker then the mud we were standing in trying to get the engine to fire. I call my new best friend up. The one that charged me $397 bucks to fix the steering. He has me try some stuff, but no go. At the last minute before putting the friggin boat on the trailer I raise the motor and try to turn it on and BANG! it fires up! Hmmm.. I start thinking.. I got my buddy to hold the boat while I start the engine out of the water and trim it back down while giving it gas. It worked we have a running engine again. At this point I am full because of the amount of gnats that I have eaten from trying to breath. We decided to putt around the bay and take a break from the gnats at the boat ramp and let the engine run. It ran great we turned it off and back on several times no problems!

We decide we went through all of that we are not going home yet. We head out to go fish! It was great fishing we boated about 30 to 35 fish! Brought home 6 speckled trout, 1 spanish mackeral and 1 founder. I'm happy now I got to fishing, the boat finally started, and it would appear I am ready for summer boating again.

We head in to the boat ramp the wind is now at 20 knots and the tide is rushing in. Yeah you can see this coming can't you! It took me about 10 minutes to get the boat on the trailer because the wind and the tide were pushing me all the place and to top it off the ramp is shallow making it hard to get enough trailer in the water to fight the tide and wind! I get it on the trailer and go to tighten the whench up and low and behold I drop my victory Gurkha in the friggin water! My last one; my only one I had with me. Just as I though life was good BANG! another monkey wrench thrown at me!


To this day I still haven't figured out what happen to the motor is starts everytime I go out to fiddle with it.. I hate ghost. I'll get it out until then I have to work around it. Could be bad gas, water in the gas, gunked up carbs, or a bad wiring harsness.. All very expensive to replace for me at this point.


I know that was long, but I wanted to share.. I hope you enjoyed!

Shawn

[Piper~Pilot]

Sorry to hear. I am going to take my boat out for the first trip this weekend. I always stay close to home for the first few hours.

You know the old saying “A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.”

[SMcGregor]

Amen! To that one! It was all good no one got hurt we all still had a good time. If everytime then we wouldn't learn anything new! I hope you boat treats you well!

Shawn

Originally Posted by Piper~Pilot

Sorry to hear. I am going to take my boat out for the first trip this weekend. I always stay close to home for the first few hours.

You know the old saying “A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.”

[qwerty1500]

Thnak you. Stories like this make me feel better about selling our boat last year.

[RPB67]

Originally Posted by qwerty1500

Thnak you. Stories like this make me feel better about selling our boat last year.

Been two years without mine. I will admit I miss it.

But I dont miss the $4.00 a gallon cost of gas dockside.

Boats take patience and money. If you are not prepared to throw in a bunch every year into it, dont have one..........Just have a good friend with one.

[SMcGregor]

The story had bad moments yes, but I can't imgine life without my boat or even not having a boat. I have way more good times then bad! It the end it all worked out I will be back out there on the water another weekend with a smile on my face and ocean breeze in my hair somking a great cigar making more stories to share!

Shawn

[MeNimbus]

On the bright side you enjoyed some time with your buddy and caught 30 fishes. Life is funny sometimes; take it one day at a time.

[sikk50]

At least you can use your boat...kinda!

I work/fish here.... www.lakecasitas.info read about the closure, it may make you feel a little beter!

[Blueface]

I almost bought a boat last year.
Thanks for reminding me I did in fact make a great decision when I chose not to buy it.

You know what they say about boats.
There are two great days.
The day you buy it.
The day you sell it.

[Syekick]

Dang that is rough. Losing a Gurkha. Uh,, you said something about a boat?? Sorry I wasn't paying attention.

[SMcGregor]

Yes it was painful.. I was so looking forward it also! I sure wasn't enjoying it while it was floating off in the water.. I think I sheded a tear and said some rather choice words!

Originally Posted by Syekick

Dang that is rough. Losing a Gurkha. Uh,, you said something about a boat?? Sorry I wasn't paying attention.

[SMcGregor]

Man that is rough! Glad I live in Florida. North Florida at that. 1 year time frame without being able to use the boat would be having to give up smoking cigars wouldn't happen.

Hope you can find some place to enjoy the water.

Shawn

Originally Posted by sikk50

At least you can use your boat...kinda!

I work/fish here.... www.lakecasitas.info read about the closure, it may make you feel a little beter!

[fireman43]

Sorry to hear your rough patch of luck Shawn. Exactly why I sold my boat.....Too much of a headache, and I have little patience. It's cheaper and less hassle to go out with our friends on their boat. LOL Hope your luck gets better bro.

[SMcGregor]

It's all good no bad times here for me with the boat! A boat is like a having a clunker for a car the only difference is you can't get out and walk home when it breaks down.

I guess the story doesn't sound all to fun, but if you knew me as a friend and the rest of my friends it would have been funny as all get out.. This is the find of stuff we run into all the time. Either getting stuck in the mud, sliding off the road and hitting a wall(Mike32312) or having a sterring cable while be pulled down the river..

It is really is all good and makes for a story when you get back to work the next day after calling in "sick" to go fishing..

I grew up going out on the boat. The one thing I learned was never panic and adopt and overcome whatever is thrown at you. That is all you can do.

Thanks for the good luck!

Originally Posted by fireman43

Sorry to hear your rough patch of luck Shawn. Exactly why I sold my boat.....Too much of a headache, and I have little patience. It's cheaper and less hassle to go out with our friends on their boat. LOL Hope your luck gets better bro.

[txdyna65]

I miss having my boats, your story sounds alot like days I had I also had a motor like yours once. We called it the bucket motor. It was a old Chrysler and we had a 55gal bucket at home filled with water. It ran great in it, but when you took it to the lake no go....damn frustrating.