whats your worst boating experience

[buhky62]

G/ay all just woundering if anyone has had a bad experience while out fishing .
mine was when i was 10 yrs old dad and i went out over caloundra bar to fish brays reef we anchored up and started fishing when we noticed the anchor had let go :( so we decided to have another go while pulling the anchor up we managed to get 1 of the floating lines around the prop so my dad tried to get it of he took the prop of untangled it as he was putting it back together he droped the nut :'( so no motor we were drifting towards the rock so out with the paddles and paddle like sh!t just made it away from the rock :P so we tried to get the auxilery motor going and after trying to start it the rope broke so we got a toe in from a bloke going past :)
we got to the bar and half way across the rope broke :o i was sh!tting my self (10 yrs old ) nearly got swamped by 1 wave :helpa: finnaly got the rope back on and over the bar :laola: so from here its up the river to the ramp nnnah we got about 100 meters from the ramp and the nice man that toed us in well his motor stoped in a cloud of smoke dont know what happened but it didn't look good so we all paddled to the ramp and inspected the damaged boats :cry: dad thanked nice man and shook hands and i still think about it when ever i cross a bar i'm 44 now. thats my story whats yours ......BOB

[finga]

My worst boating experience was actually finding a decent boat.
I found people lie....lie to your face even :(
We must have looked at 40 boats and in the end I said to the cook if this one isn't any good then buggerit, we don't need one. We'll buy another house instead.
And it was the last one we looked at. The cheque book come out real quick ;D

[ashh]

getting stuck on a sandbar at the top of the morning high tide and then having to wait for the next high tide 12 hours or so later.
Thing was though, the evening high tide (11pm), was 200 mm lower then the morning tide, and it didnt reach the boat.
I wasnt the skipper and it wasnt my boat but I wasnt happy either!

[tunaticer]

Heading accross Moreton bay at 2am on a pitch black night and oily calm. We were in a stacer 525 searay with a 140 suzuki on the back doing about 15-20 knots taking it easy for a run accross the bay then outside to hutchies. Got to the far edge of the pearl channel from Spinaker Sound and just got over the bar there (not even a ripple) then we hit a 3m wall of water that stood the stacer on its tail and pushed it backwards. Must have been a wake of a ship or something to be so out of place on such and oily calm night out there. Ended up we lost three rods and the spare anchor out of the anchor well with going so vertical. How it came back down the right way is still beyond believing.

The other account that scared the hell outa me was fishing deep tempest at night at about 2am or so the boat stands on its side and takes a few hundred gallons over the side. Got the lights happening right as a whale spouts ten feet from the boat. We were in a new 20' yalta and when we got back on dry land there were scuff marks on the gelcoat on the side that went in the air. We figured the whalemust have used the boat as a scratching post or something as we were drifting along.

Both of these events happened withing one winter season about 23 yrs ago now. I gave up outside fishing at night that winter and i'm still edgy about making a run out there again in the dark now.

Jack.

[blu]

Having a tiger try to follow the spanish into the boat......bloody near CRAPED myself...

[Aussie Spirit]

When living in the NT as a 10 year old, dad tipped the 12 wooden dinghy in the middle of the Daly River....thats scary in that area. Dad couldn't swim but he walk on water that day.

[4x4frog]

Many years ago heading back to the Luggage point(?) ramp after a good days winter whiting fishing the skipper decided we needed a closer look at the bow of the tanker we were overtaking. Thing was as we got close we encountered a huge bow-wave. Damm near tipped us all out; all crew safe but we lost one bin full of bay slurry and the whiting it contained:'(:'(:'(>:(:speechless:

[Dan5]

About 15 years ago i borrowed a mate's little 12 footer and headed from dundee ramp to the little finnis it had a 6hp jonno on it .On the way back after a quiet session i was just cruising along and the tiller handle went all funny feeling sort of! what happened was the swivel tube had finally corroded through and given way so the motor swung 90 deg's and just about fell off!So here i am in the middle of sweet fa with no donk or paddles about 2 miles offshore with a offshore breeze blowing me further offshore.I ended up throwing the anchor about a million time's to get back to land then faced with about a 6km walk on the beach and through a creek to get back to dundee ramp.Then i had to recover the boat by my self which turned into another nightmare getting half bogged on a territory beach with a 7m incoming tide is not a pleasant expiriance.Finally i rescued the boat and went home only to have to tell my mate what happened to his boat which he had very little understanding of how bad my day acctually was.So in the end a day off work $400 dollar repair bill sunburnt and broke with 1 lousy blue salmon for all that effort,And i will never borrow or lend a boat ever again never.Dan............

[Dezzer]

Nearly sinking at Horseshoe Reef.
We went to sleep at anchor in an old displacement cat that had automatic bilge pumps fitted in each hull. Woke to find the boat listing wildly and about to go down. With tide against wind she copped some water over the stern that made its way into one hull (can't remember how, was 20 yrs ago) and didn't get pumped out. The lower she settled the more that came in until it was about to go. About this time I wake due to my feet getting wet, raise the alarm and start bailing like theres no tomorrow. With thoughts of the big tiger that had been pestering us during the session before taking a kip it was seeming like there would be no tomorrow. With some superhuman bucket work she started to come right and later inspection found that a WA pillie was the perfect plug for the bilge inlet.
Damn those cursed pilchards. It might be some sort of subconscious reason for me doing a lot of fishing with plastics nowadays.

Cheers

[BM]

I promised a customer that before delivering the boat to him just prior to one Christmas (a used boat and a consignment boat that we had done a lot of mods to for him) I would test run it.

Well test run day arrived and when I departed the Mordialloc creek (Vic) into Port Phillip Bay I ran straight into about 20 plus knots from the Sou West which is the worst (which I had already looked at on the webcam, but a promise is a promise....) and I was in a 16ft ski/runabout and I drove straight into 1.5-2mtr breaking waves around 5mtrs max apart.

First one, up and over, 2nd one straight through it and the boat now 1/4 full of water and so on etc etc. Got out of the drivers seat and sat kindof on top of it and prepared to jump free as she went over backwards.

Managed somehow (still don't know how) to get her out past the breakers area and turn around and ride the waves back into the creek.

Must have been shaking for a good 10 minutes after that. Even though I was in shallow enough water, one of those waves could smash you on the rocks either side of the creek entrance and you would not be getting back up again...

Cheers

[Dono]

Ive got two, 1 when i was about 15yo i was at Chaffey Dam (near Tamworth NSW) with my family for Easter, in front of about 100 people i pushed the tinny with my Father and Brother in it off the shore only too slip off the front little platform with my knee and land head 1st in the boat between the bow and the seat.
With my legs in the air all i could hear was loads of laughter in and out of the boat.:-[ :-[ :-[

2nd was Coffs Harbour when i brought my very 1st boat being a 14ft Acadamy 1/2 cabin, we launched and took of towards the bar when i said to Scott, you did put the bungs in didnt you and Scott replied AAARR nope! quick rush back onto the trailer and all was well.>:( ;) ;D

[leezor]

Around 10 years ago we decided to make the move from Townsville to Noosa with the boat in tow.
Weather looked good this day so myself, the missus and my two young boys decided to have a look out the front. Had never crossed a bar in my life as all of my fishing had been on the GBR. Anyhoo, waited around the mouth of the Noosa River for a while and waited till the coast was clear, or so I thought and off we went. Within seconds a wall of water appeared in front of us and the Haines 600R heading up the face of this bloody wave. Got past the first one and noticed a tackle box, bucket and some fishing gear float past, looked over and saw the bow of a capsized 14 or so footer sticking just above the water with two blokes hanging on to it. Before I knew it along came a second wave, within seconds I had the 600R vertical heading up this wave.
Anyway, I managed to get past the breakers and noticed the coast guard heading out to rescue the blokes in the capsized boat, which made the decision not to go back to help them easier.
Once past the bar the sea was quite calm, except for the bloody swell. While building up the courage to come back in we were listening to the VHF and the coast guard was advising a bloke in a 30 odd footer who was out there near us not to come in as conditions were to dangerous.
I gave it 10-15 minutes or so and thought buggar it, and headed back in. Thankfully we got through ok and all ended well. Though could never convince the missus to come out the front again.

Have since moved back to Townsville where there are no bloody bars to cross!!!

[fozzy]

Trolling on the outside of Flinders Reef many years ago, a calm afternoon but huge swells, got caught in a situation where i had to drive the boat straight up a wave that was far, far bigger than the rest.

Went vertical over the top, nearly lost the old man off the back, as no time to tell him what was going on. Turns out we split the hull on splashdown, didn't notice till we decided to go home and couldn't get the thing on the plane because of the hull full of water.

To make matters worse, a section of the floor that had been cut and glassed back over gave way while I was giving the outboards some curry, wondering what was going on and so we spent the next 4 hours taking turns to bail while travelling at 4 knots or so back to Bribie in the dark.

No better bilge pump than a nervous man with a bucket.

[wheelerdog]

hitting a rock bar in the Limmen River full noise. shredding the prop and wondering if i'm going to have to do some tarzan wrestling with some big salties

[4x4frog]

I promised a customer that before delivering the boat to him just prior to one Christmas (a used boat and a consignment boat that we had done a lot of mods to for him) I would test run it.

Well test run day arrived and when I departed the Mordialloc creek (Vic) into Port Phillip Bay I ran straight into about 20 plus knots from the Sou West which is the worst (which I had already looked at on the webcam, but a promise is a promise....) and I was in a 16ft ski/runabout and I drove straight into 1.5-2mtr breaking waves around 5mtrs max apart.

First one, up and over, 2nd one straight through it and the boat now 1/4 full of water and so on etc etc. Got out of the drivers seat and sat kindof on top of it and prepared to jump free as she went over backwards.

Managed somehow (still don't know how) to get her out past the breakers area and turn around and ride the waves back into the creek.

Must have been shaking for a good 10 minutes after that. Even though I was in shallow enough water, one of those waves could smash you on the rocks either side of the creek entrance and you would not be getting back up again...

Cheers
So from this, I should take it that it's best not to buy a 16ft ski/runabout for rough water?;D

[BM]

Something like that 4x4froggy...... :)

[fish-freak]

Fishing on the tweed nine mile about 15yrs ago in my fathers 17R haines. A huge manta ray got tangled on our anchor rope, after thrashing on the surface for a few seconds this ray then took a dive and almost took the boat with it! With the bow nearly submerged and outboard hi and dry we thought we would be soon swimming. Thankfully this thing freed itself ,leaving my father and i wishing we had a roll of toilet paper on board! Very scary experience!!

[reef_king]

Paying to go on a charter boat of D.I and not catching any fish.

[buhky62]

yer that allways sux reef_king but thats fishin some times you get some and sometimes you dont .......BOB

[Pacific]

Hi All ,

One Christmas , camped at Woody Head in NSW. Put the boat in the river and wife took the car back to camping area . Motored up to near Woody Head and main motor stopped . My mate put out the anchor and I started to look at the motor . I noticed we were drifting and asked him to check the anchor , now it was just a frayed rope . Ok , start the auxillary after a few minutes steam out of the tell tale on the auxillary , so stop the auxillary . Paddle the boat into the beach . Sea was flat so ok we will pull it out over the sand. Went to get the 4WD and trailer . Wife had gone shopping and taken the 4WD . She had chained the trailer to a tree and taken the key with her . Three hours later she came back. Not a good day !!!!!!!!!

[KGW3]

Pacific.

You have gotta take the blame for at least some of those things. You well know that you at least have to check some of the emergency items before heading out. Obviously the kicker had an impeller problem and needed to be run periodically to make sure it ran OK. and anchor ropes usually show signs of wear before breaking...
I find the defendant guilty of slacking off...
Mordiallic , on the east side of Port Phillip.. Yes....I have seen the conditions there during a S/W Melbourne blow... and a few boats stuck at the ramp being pounded by waves with the same problem as that guy described but did not recover. They basically had to tow the boat up onto the ramp without that trailer and then try to loaded from the concrete ramp.

[BM]

KGW3,

Mordialloc ramp is well protected as its quite a way up the creek, but the entrance area and the surrounding say 200m gets nasty in a SouWester.

You are probably thinking of one of the exposed ramps futher along towards Melb. There are a couple that go straight into the bay and have no protection from a SouWester. They are nasty, nasty ramps.

Cheers

[Noelm]

geees I have had more "interesting" moments than I can remember in all my years od boating, one that springs to mind was in my old Seafarer Viking doing a long trip to the shelf, had the bait tank full and the "scoop" picking up water as we zipped along, but at sometime the inlet hose had fallen off and the pickup was squirting water straight into the bilge, as the boat was getting slower I looked around to see half a boat full (nearly up to our feet by now) of water, as soon as I backed off a bit to see what was going on, it all rushed to the front and we were knee deep, now that took some bailing.

[GBC]

Poking up past Scawfell island in a small cyclone in the trawler in some monstrous swells. We had already taken in the stabilisers because they were blowing out of the water going down the swells.

All was as well as it could be when while gently accelerating toward hull speed down the face of another wave, the boat suddenly hooked right, went way past where I thought she'd roll, and broached down the face. Somehow managed to get her off auto pilot and corrected manually.

Turned out the wiggly cord in the pilot compass had jammed the binnacle and changed our heading by 90 deg.

[Noelm]

OH just remembered another moment in the old Viking, one time at the Banks on the South Coast of NSW we were out there and the current was absolutely roaring, but we thought we would try to anchor anyway, now anyone who has owned a Seafarer will know that they are not all that bouyant in the bow, I lowered the anchor, it took up instantly and I could not hold the rope, the current was just too strong, I used to have a big Styrene float on the end of the rope, it came to the end, the float jammed in the hatch (and near ringbarked my legs) the bow went down untill there was water coming through the hatch, and luckily the anchor broke free, sh!t what a day that was, never tried that agin! I think that is where the term "experience" comes into it.

[Pacific]

KGW3 ,

That was a well founded boat. The problem with the main motor was water in the tank . The auxillary had the water intake packed up with shellgrit (we had been trolling in deep water 2 days before ) (not possible to get it packed in like that from the pump sucking . Where did it come from.) and the anchor rope looked like it had been cut threequarters through with a knife . I think more like someone took a dislike to me . I always carry at least 2 anchors and a sea anchor

[Noelm]

crap, just thought of another sort of boating experience, I was diving with an Abb diiver out of a 23 foot Sharkcat, when I went in the water I noticed a "granny knot" in the hose, now anyone who has done any diving with a "hooka" will know that a knot is a definate no no! so I swam out the hose to near full length (to make it easy to undo the knot by swimming through the loop), but before I got it out the anchor broke loose, so now we have the boat blowing out to sea in a very strong Westerlie, and every time we tried to pull up the hose,(to the boat) the knot would tighten and cut off our air, so we had to half swim, half pull, half drown, half hope to get back to the boat, by the time we did, we were about 5 miles out to sea.

[buhky62]

Noelm

Are you sure you didn't run over a black cat or something , you got bad luck mate LOL .......BOB

[Noelm]

hehe, a lot more than that to relate if I really got started, years and years in Outboard powered pro boats and sharking gives you a fair old share of moments.