PDA

View Full Version : i capsized today



Razgo-
06-02-2009, 01:56 PM
I bought a Quintrex 3.75 dart with 15HP thinking i would use it to transport prospective buyers for my 10m custom hartley boat on a mooring at coochie.

I was going over to coochie to install a bilge pump and a general clean up on hte hartley.

I left the nth ramp with one mate but halfway across my other mate showed up so i turned around back to the ramp to pick him up.

we headed back out halfway across i made a small turn and my mate sitting up front lost his balance and rolled back and my other mate (sitting in middle) looked to lean forward to stop him rolling off but it set off a motion that put the bow in the water and over we went just like that.

I would say within a minute we had the tinnie turned back up and one of my mates swam in and used our esky to bail out the water. got a fair bit out but were lucky an older fella in a punt came to our rescue and towed us back to the ramp.

i ran the motor and it seemed fine back at the ramp. then came home and ran it again with fresh water and all seems to be fine.

so i am thinking the short dip it took it may not have done any damage.


But i have to say i was surprised how fast we simply rolled over into the water.
my mate went in upside down at the bow and swam out ok and my other mate in the middle pushed himself out as she went over, and i went in last as i watched the stern flipping over to hit me and watched the fuel tank fall out the opposite site. how that happened i dunno but i was glad it went the other way :)

oh well everyone was ok and i will have to try again another day.

wilcara
06-02-2009, 02:07 PM
Wow - glad you are sitting there writing about it!

I once watched a house catch fire and burn, it was totally amazing how fast it happened, guess that is like you. Makes you think when people say "I'd do this or that" maybe you have no time to do anything.

FNQCairns
06-02-2009, 02:12 PM
She's fine you ran it early after the dunking so you have the internals sorted but consider a good flush everywhere under the cowl with direct water, even up and under the flywheel, use the hose end straight without spraying, turn the engine upside down, sideways etc to let gravity drain any pockets etc then take it for a run enough to fully heat and dry it or run in a barrel/muffs. Then coat the entire powerhead with lanolin spray or equivalent.

These 2 strokes can get 100 gut fulls of salt water and they will shake it off as long as it's ran quite soon after.

cheers fnq

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 02:24 PM
Thanks for the advice. after running it back at the ramp i then opened the cowel and it was barely wet at all so i figured that was a good sign. apparently the motor only had 2 hrs on it so everything was still looking fresh.

And it definitely happened very fast even though it seems like slow motion at the time. I just couldn't believe i was driving along one minute and the next i am treading water. I am like WTF?? It was like the bow sucked/scooped up all the water and rushed it back toward me and sucked me in and flung the fuel tank out he other side as it toppled over toward me.

Then it was like first reaction to grab the boat and tip it back up which happened pretty quick as thats all we had to grab onto anyway :)

we were only in a about 2m of water at most i reckon as my mate who went in backward said he hit the ground.

Oh and i didn't get the name of person who towed us back in even though i have seen him down there before. He was an older fella but am sure he may help out around VMR down there during the week. not 100% sure.

I reckon we were barely in the water 5 mins before this guy appears out of no where in his tinnie/punt then disappears all as quick when we got back to the ramp. weird.

Chimo
06-02-2009, 02:26 PM
Glad alls OK inc you and the motor from the sounds of it.

As a matter of interest did your 15 HP have a foil on it?

Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 02:34 PM
Hi chimo, no foil on it.

I put it down to a case of we were all just too heavy as we are all over the 100KG but thought we had trimmed the ship. It was just too much weight at the front when my mate lost his balance there was simply no stopping it. Although i did notice back at the ramp the motor was in neutral so i must have instinctively cut the throttle at least when it happened. I just don't remember doing it.

Chimo
06-02-2009, 02:40 PM
So are you moving to a pontoon setup after all?

At least whoever gets yours will get a well set up unit now!

Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 02:43 PM
lol, yes once i have sold of all my boats I will be definitely looking into a pontoon style boat for sure.

Mindi
06-02-2009, 02:44 PM
Really good you are all OK, accidents seem to happen in slow motion like that but really quickly in reality. Good that someone came to your aid without asking if you had got the scheduled services on your motor. We know who it wasnt, must have been one of the thousands of boaters who help first think about it second.

Chimo
06-02-2009, 02:51 PM
Better keep the dart and the 15 as a tender.

If I were you though IMVHO I'd put a foil on the 15HP.

I have found that a foil on my 9.9 on a 10ft tinny (have used the 9.9 on a few and all the same) which would be about the same power / boat ratio makes for a lot more stabilty esp when the tiller is moved. Have said it on here before that if set up right tinny turns more like an MGB than a boat no mater what the speed esp if you manage objects in the boat and limit the number of loose cannons in the mix.

Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 02:57 PM
well it did come with a foil so yeah perhaps i should put it on.

my mate was a little concerned about sharks but being the time it was around 11:am i felt pretty confident we could have been naked with burley coming out our butts and wouldn't attract any sharks. well not until after 3pm anyway :)

It was that yesterday i pulled up (in car) at the spit and as soon as i looked out a 3m shark jumped out of the water right in front of me. Well it was more of a role out of the water and back in on his side. still can't get the image of those shark teeth out of my head as he came out :o

Chimo
06-02-2009, 03:10 PM
Try it out, you might be pleasantly surprised and if you tip it over again you know the rules.
1 make sure you have a good sized durable esky to bail the boat out
2 keep in shallow water eg 4 to 5 ft deep is good so you can stand up to
3 first tip the boat over
4 bail a bit
5 slide into boat
6 bail some more
7 start motor and go hard
8 before undertaking trial go to Whitworths and get one of these http://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=2931&search123=+bailer&intAbsolutePage=1

Give me a yell when your doing your trial as I'm sure I'll be free and I might go to Whitworths too and get a couple of those thingos too in fact maybe I could stick 4 of them across the tail of the Vagabond too!;D

Cheers
Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 03:18 PM
hi chimo, we did everything on your list but only got to number 6 before this mysterious punt appeared out of nowhere to tow us back. I will have to dub him "punt man" :)

although the water wasn't quite shallow enough for me to stand. We had a 47 ltr kool esky. at firth though my mate who is about 100KG 6'4 and a scaffolder from the mines was standing in the middle bailing it out with this 47 ltr esky but as he stepped back the stern would let more water in. but eventually got the right position and it worked good enough. then when enough water was out i slid in and we both could then use the esky to bail out more.

unfortunately my 3 rd mate (the one who rolled off the seat) hung on the the back of the tinnie as we were towed back and we were bailing. being dragged behind a tinny a couple hundred meters was very impressive indeed. he seemed none worse for the wear either considering he was probably the heaviest and the oldest at 49.

I checked that link and i have never seen such a thing before. I don't understand how they work?

Chimo
06-02-2009, 03:38 PM
It screws into the bung hole with the unit outside the back of the boat.
It's soft rubber so water water flows out from inside the boat (auto bailing).

Water cannot come back in as the soft rubber flap is either ontop of the water or if stopped the water pressure on both sides of the flap keeps it closed.

A bit like an auto sphincter as found in humans!

Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 03:46 PM
that sounds like the go then. I have 2 bung holes at stern so i could get 2 of them. that definitely would have been used today then.

finga
06-02-2009, 04:35 PM
Guess what I thought of as soon as I read it matey....
Not another pair of sunnies gone to King Neptune :(
Good to hear all are oK and the new tinny is running again.
Just be careful though as things happen in 3's
Actually...thinking about it you must be about right now.
(1) boat V-drive knackered
(2) Poly nearly sinking
(3) tinny going over...well bugger me that's 3...go hard young fella. The curse is gone :D

Maybe you should have used the poly as a tender to the tinny ;)

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 04:57 PM
Hi finga, your right about the 3's. funnily enough i didn't loose my sunnies this time, go figure.

It actually started at the servo before i left home this morning. I went to leave the servo onto the roundabout and a car come hurtling through and smashed into another car on the roundabout spinning it 360 to land and totally block my exit from the servo right in front of me.

that was the first sign something was up today :)

And yeah when i got home i thought if i had of been in the Polly tuff tender i actually wouldn't have tipped over.
But it's not real comfortable with 3 blokes in it.

In fact and embarrassingly enough I got stuck on the sand bank in the Polly only a few days before had too and had to drag it across the sand bank at low tide to get going again only to have the fuel line pop out cause the motor to stop all the time.

it was actually the pin that locks the fuel line into the motor side. so that kind of prompted me to say bugger it and get something a little bigger and more comfortable.

so do i feel more comfortable now? ah no! lol ;D a little wet maybe :) meanwhile i can only keep an eye on the bigger boat with binoculars from shore.

Steeler
06-02-2009, 05:29 PM
Hi Chimo.
Would it be practical on the back of my V16R to have one of the bung holes changed over to this style and leave the other as is ?.

Cheers Steve

Chimo
06-02-2009, 06:45 PM
Hi Steve

Could be but if one of the bungs is into a sealed section under floor probably best to keep the standard bung in place.

These seem to have a place to drain the bilge / sump type areas that you would use a bilge pump for or wait until your back on the trailer to get the water out.

Maybe these could be good to dry self-draining decks too or these ones with a bit of lateral thinking and an extension could also have some potential as they really move some water at low speeds. If you have ever sailed small boats you may be familiar with them. http://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=2949&search123=bailer&intAbsolutePage=1

Cheers
Chimo

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 09:03 PM
I wasn't going to mention this before but after confirmation i found out there is a new low despicable ###### act.

When the old fella in the punt was towing us in there was a center console Polly in the water with car and trailer ready to winch it up.

the punt man took as the safest way in and approached around from the northern side of the jetty pontoon as the tide was outgoing and we would smash into the jetty.

now this Polly man clearly could see the events unfolding around him.

yet he never tried to get out of the way OR help at all.

punt man had to try and squeeze in enough between Polly man and trailer so we could get closer to the ramp.

keep in mind our tinny is still clearly half full of water and my mate Chris is hanging off the back neck deep in water.

then all 3 of us are standing chest/.neck deep in the water waiting for Polly man to get out of the way.

after 5 mins of this i thought stuff this i will go get the car and trailer to bring down as Polly man should be out of the way by then.

as i dragged my self full clothed dripping wet to walk up the ramp i heard Polly man say to punt man "mate your making this really hard for me here". then punt man says "sorry i will try and move up a bit"

now keep in mind there are 3 people neck deep in the water with a tinny still tied to punt man who is trying to get us to the ramp.

as i heard this i was nearly going to say something but thought i would just turn and give him a hand to bring the center console poly up. so Polly man says NO its okay i can do it. so thought ok then and walked up the ramp to get the car.

without a word of a lie it was something like 20 mins i sat at the top of the ramp waiting for this ###### to move his boat whilst 2 of my mates are still in the water hanging on to the tinny!!

it wasn't' until just a few minutes ago i found out he was simply ignoring us whilst he talked to some people on the jetty.

apparently my mate Chris had to say something to him in the end but not sure what he said yet to get him to move.

Now we have all seen and heard it all before at ramps but i NEVER would have believed this had i not seen it and experienced it first hand!

3 people in the water neck deep at the ramp and he doesn't move? then has a go at the guy who rescued us??

i wont be kind next time i can tell you!

seabug
06-02-2009, 09:17 PM
Glad to see no one was hurt.

But just what weight can a 3.75m Dart carry?

As capacity is done at 75kg per person.

Regards
seabug

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 09:30 PM
the label says max 4 persons at 300KG. i know i am about 104KG and my mates at roughly 110KG and 90KG maybe a little less. so we were pretty much on the limitations.

the total overall weight says 410KG

we had no gear accept the esky with water bottle and some cleaning stuff.

Razgo-
06-02-2009, 09:34 PM
actually i tell a lie, i just went and weighed myself at only 101.8KG ;D . must have lost some weight from the last boating incident :-X

Oh and i just found out what my mate said to polly man to make him move off the ramp. I can't repeat it here as it will just show up as all hashes/bleeps 8-)

oldboot
07-02-2009, 02:27 PM
If the section of water in question is between vic point and coochie.....You don't have to chat long to the blokes at the VMR there to find out that small boats flipping within view of the VMR is not an uncommon occurance.

Old mate "punt man" problay saw it all going on and thaught .." here we go again".

It must be the shalows and the funnel effect between the island and the point.

cheers

onerabbit
07-02-2009, 08:14 PM
"i felt pretty confident we could have been naked with burley coming out our butts and wouldn't attract any sharks."

This does not conjure up a pretty picture............................

is the burley pre-loaded ...............just in case?????

Sorry bloke, I have had a bad day & this is the first laugh I have had for a Saturday......................

Muzz

upstart
07-02-2009, 08:53 PM
Reminds me of a story my brother told me....
He and a mate were hurtling along the Wenlock River (think big crocs in NQ) when brother, let's call him Howard, sitting in the front had his hat blow off. Mate driving, I'll call him Jay, decided to let go of the tiller rather than the stubby in his right hand, and make a grab for the hat. Result was sudden full lock of the motor and two silly blokes turfed into the River with the tinny doing doughnuts around them. They somehow managed to grab hold of the boat and haul themselves back in. Sober blokes would have been done for I reckon.

BaitThrower
07-02-2009, 10:39 PM
Polly-man = dumb bum! (in kind words). No excuse for that rudeness and lack of understanding.

It should be a crime for these people to breathe air!

Razgo-
08-02-2009, 06:27 AM
glad i was able to lighten your day muzz :)

my mate said he has seen just as bad people like Polly man before. He said try being stuck on a sail boat thats sinking on a small reef while people in big boats toot there horn and laugh as they go past.

I guess some people just don't get it? boat and people in trouble = boat and people in trouble.

It was just the fact that 3 people standing neck deep in water beside their tinny staring at you to move you boat off the ramp would have been a bit of a giveaway? not polly man :-X

at least we didn't have crocks to contend with :)