Bad day for Magic at Balina

[randell]

hi guys,
saw this in the Bundaberg News-Mail this morning.....
http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/boatie-has-that-sinking-feeling-with-bungs-left-ou/2098927/

randell

[Dezzer]

Ouch!!


Interesting rear sling points, guess there's not much choice.

[Spaniard_King]

Nasty, Be some cheap 2nd hand suzis forsale down that way soon

[Lucky_Phill]

Thanks randell, yep real shame about hese types of incidents, but they do occur regularly.

In the heat of the moment one doesn't think about the decision and implications of returning a water laiden boat to the trailer and attempting a retrieval.

A very similar incident occured only a month ago at the 1770 boat ramp, but involved a 4.5mtr tinnie. No bungs, and with a lot of water in the hull, the deckie ( skipper was parking car ), started the motor and attempted a U turn to bring the boat back to the ramp. Water shifted and rolled the boat in about 1.5 - 1.8mtrs of water. Smashed the bimini, left a lot of fishing gear on the bottom and obviously motor damage as well.

Hopefully, someone who reads this and experiences a similar issue will do things differently, maybe just run the boat up the ramp under power. Yes, there may be minor damage to the hull and maybe skeg ( scrapes etc ), but the thought of rolling it and almost writting off the boat is a worse.

Hope they get Magic back on the water soon and there is no surer thing than the skipper will NEVER .... EVER forget the bungs again.

LP

[Crocodile]

Hello All,

Something about this report doesn't ring true.

I am not having a go at the owner, I think that the reporting may be incorrect.

My reading of the report is that the boat was already underway when it was discovered that the bungs were not in.
No water will enter when on the plane. Not sinking, just stay on the plane and all will be OK.
There are plenty of sandy beaches on the lower Richmond R. eg. near the sailing club, where you could safely land the boat, go over the side and install the bungs.
If you had lost the bungs find something (anything!) to plug up the holes.


I would like to know:
Was the skipper alone or were there crew=helpers on board?
Did the skipper have a mobile phone or radio to call for help at the boat ramp?
Was there some damage?? that would cause the hull to fill, even when on the plane? eg. transducer knocked off.
There is one photo that shows the port hull under and the starboard hull afloat, was it only the port hull that took on water?

Sailfish are expensive boats and unlikely to be operated by first-time or inexperienced skippers, therefore I am assuming that every effort was made prevent the sinking, so what really happened?

I would like to hear from someone who knows for sure.

[mattooty]

As I'm lead to believe he had put the boat in, moored it and had a chat to another bloke, jumped in fluffiing around and putted out of fishery ck before realizing something was wrong, cut a u-turn and attempted to make it back for nil result.
As is the case with all these types of stories I doubt the truth will become apparent to anyone but the skipper and maritime.

[tjotter]

Similar happened me 1st launch :(
I was gently circling while co-pilot parked the car &
luckily I was wearing crocs & noticed my feet were wet.

Knowledge gained from this website meant I knew in a second what the problem was &
my first thought was get back on trailer, but co-pilot can't reverse;
so option2 was 'park' her on the bank next to the ramp...
not what I imagined the very first throttle burst would be !.

We later had a (pretend) practise at putting bungs while afloat & standing on back step
& actually seems easy once know where holes are.

Had already bought a 500gph with sensor [it was sitting in its box waiting].


What surprised me was how pitiful the existing 350 gph bilge pump was.

I have looked for a formula that
calc's how much water can enter a bung hole but
haven't found anything usable yet.

[stevej]

a 500gph pump wont keep up with 3 10mm holes for a transducer bracket that someone I went fishing with forgot to fill in when changing sounders

so what will keep up with 2 50mm bungs ?

[PeterKroll]

When I took my little tinnie out for it's second run, I had put a new transducer on, and had thus moved the transducer bracket a bit. I didn't realize that moving the bracket had uncovered an old screw hole behind the bracket. I found out on the way back from Peel Island, when I attempted to turn, and the water under the boat floor wanted to keep going straight ahead. Almost threw me out of the boat.

I searched for the hole and couldn't find it as it was indeed behind the bracket. In the end, I filled the tinnie with water, and found the hole that way. At least I now know that there are no more holes anywhere.

[fishing111]

Why Boats Sink Underway
In addition to studying why boats sink at the dock, BoatUS Marine Insurance examined 50 claim files for boats that sank underway, ranging from a tiny personal watercraft to a 54’ ocean going sailboat. None of the 50 sinking claims involved fatalities, although that is always a possibility when a boat sinks with passengers aboard. One thing that became clear after reading the various claims: wearing life jackets or at least keeping them handy, should be a priority on any boat.
Any boat has the potential to sink underway for the same reasons that it could sink at the dock--a hose slips off, a packing gland leaks, etc. While Thirty four percent of the boats in the study sank because of leaks at thru-hulls, outdrive boots, or the raw water cooling system, all of which are routinely implicated when boats sink at the dock. There are many other reasons that boats sink underway, however, which have nothing to do with loose hose clamps or broken fittings. Boats underway can strike floating debris or stray onto a rocky shoal (“Navigation error”). There were claims for careless skippers who forgot to install drain plugs. Six percent of the boats sank after coming down hard off of waves and splitting open.

Once a boat starts to sink, it will gain momentum as it settles into the water. If a boat has a two-inch hole that is a foot below the waterline, for example, over 78 gallons of water will pour into the boat per minute. When the same hole is three feet below the surface, the flow of water increases to 136 gallons per minute. Keep in mind also, that other thru-hulls that had been above the waterline will be underwater. If any of these fittings are cracked or missing, the flow of water into the boat will accelerate further.

[randell]

It's so good to be in this forum, you learn so much.
I read the Qld coastal online newspapers every morning with my coffee , from 6am, my missus is up at 5am........feeding the cats and starting the washing machine............
I keep an eye out for work boats , trawlers in Qld for a friend Mori Flapan a marine historian in Sydney..
If you want to know anything about an old boat ,ask Mori.

randell

Mori Flapan's website:
http://www.boatregister.net

The Register of Australian and New Zealand Ships and Boats:
http://www.boatregister.net/RegisterMenu.htm

Word Template to help organise information on a boat that you might like
to contact me about:
http://www.boatregister.net/ANZRegisterForm.doc

Key to References used:
http://www.boatregister.net/RANZS_References.htm

Maritime History Downunder Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/maritime_history_downunder/

[team_mongo]

I have left the bugs out.
You dont notice it until start to move forward, and the water under the floor moves to the stern, and it takes a nose up attitude. Then it doesnt want to plane (depending on how much water you have on board), so you can sh*t out of luck! Luckily I dived in and put the bungs in, not the easiest, but a couple of minutes of the bilge running fixed the problem.

Now I put the bungs in the day before launching.

TM

[Fed]

Sailfish are supposed to have foam filled hulls according to the webbe marine website, if so you wouldn't think they'd sink enough to become unstable and flip over?

[Cheech]

I agree there are a few questions here, or at least different ways of dealing with it. Just by being on the plane would have got the bung holes above the waterline, so just driving around for a while would have emptied any water that pumps could not. So should have just been a case of pulling up at the ramp or a beach, put the bungs in, and then head out fishing again.

[FisHard]

It's so good to be in this forum, you learn so much.
I read the Qld coastal online newspapers every morning with my coffee , from 6am, my missus is up at 5am........feeding the cats and starting the washing machine............
I keep an eye out for work boats , trawlers in Qld for a friend Mori Flapan a marine historian in Sydney..
If you want to know anything about an old boat ,ask Mori.

randell

Mori Flapan's website:
http://www.boatregister.net

The Register of Australian and New Zealand Ships and Boats:
http://www.boatregister.net/RegisterMenu.htm

Word Template to help organise information on a boat that you might like
to contact me about:
http://www.boatregister.net/ANZRegisterForm.doc

Key to References used:
http://www.boatregister.net/RANZS_References.htm

Maritime History Downunder Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/maritime_history_downunder/

Thanks for the link to Mori Flapan's site! I sent him the details of a boat I used to work on as a teenager, and he sent back some interesting info on its fate. Cheers

[MTAQ/BTAQ]

I agree with Cheech, in fact my boat has two interior oversize bungs (as well as a bilge pump) for just such an occasion - if any water gets into the boat I can remove the two bungs and get it onto the plane to remove any excess water the bilge pump cannot handle.

[Triple]

If the hull is full of water, Can it get on the plane if its carrying that much extra weight?

[Fed]

It doesn't need to be planing to drain water out of the b ungs.

[Triple]

It would depend on the style of boat wouldn't it?

Ok I should of asked, If it's not foam filled and hull is FULL could he get it moving fast enough to trim the nose right up and allow water to flow out the bungs without water pushing back in if bung holes are still under the water line?

And If you had sufficient power would you run the risk when panicked, flooring it and having all the water in the hull push to the rear and put the boat in a near vertical position? Or getting off the throttle before the hull is empty and having the rear swamped due to excess weight in the back?

[barney1979]

about 10 years ago i was fishing off cape moreton in my 5 meter runabout, we had a triple hook up which got all 3 anglers to one side of the boat which is then when i noticed water comming through the floor boards!!! i sh#t big time turned the bilge pump on which i knew was going to do next to nothing, checked the bungs were in which they were so i figured we had split or crack under the hull. i removed the 2 x 40mm bungs and tried to get onto the plane, no chance of that as the boat's bow went straight up, however with the slow momentum fowards the water was draining through the bungs, within about 5 minutes all water was out and we were on the plane heading straight for the boat ramp. (turned out to be a split keel).

so for a long answer short, you don't need to be on the plane and you'll be lucky to even get on the plane with a hull full of water, with a little foward momentum water will drain out the bungs.

[rexaway123]

from a reliable source.

Altho I was always thinking that Sailfish had sealed hulls with water tight bulkheads like my Noosacat...but it appears not. guess with metal hulls they will expand in heat when stored at home and air inside gets very hot and would create alot of pressure. I used to have bungs in the underfloor sponsoons in an old alloy cat I had too and when you took bungs out at end of day there was a huge Whooosh are air pressure escape

so....he just picked up new so was not familiar with the boat and launched without the bungs

drove along and while moving not much water will find its way into the sponsoons...out of sight remember and underfloor as they "sealed" so no bilge pump.
then realised they forgotten to so went back to ramp...in theory all ok...but then tied up at dock and got side tracked having a chat to someone with boat moored there...and there ends disaster while it slowly filled the sponsoons
went over on one side because setup is lop sided in sense that there is fresh water tanks on one side only so there was already less buoyancy on that side ( left side)

[Lovey80]

Who stops and has a chat when their new boat is filling with water? If moving around for half an hour, then dropping off the driver of the tow vehicle then driving around a bit longer while the last of the water drained out wasn't the first thing on the mind then something is seriously wrong.

[FNQCairns]

I did this, just thinking about it still speeds my heart up..only noticed when a couple of hundred meters from the boat ramp...6m tinny...first time in my life and I have been boating since a kid...actually I happened once when I was a kid to the 12ft punt and 6hp motor, father car topped it to the lake for me and my friends then set it up for us to go camping...so his fault...anyway my father was always pulling the bungs and planing that boat to get the water out so I knew what to do, I was 10.

Back to more modernly.....I only noticed when the water started to fill above the back floor....so I gunned it, nose shot up...all water rushed to the rear almost to the height of the bottom of the transom door, I started bailing flat out through the transom door hole all the above floor water, both bilge pumps going..felt like I was loosing and just plowing along still...all that saved me was the fact it was a tinny where the bulk of the water sought the lowest points in the boat.

Bailing like man possessed, engine at full throttle bobbing my head up to see where i was going..couldn't see over the front it was up so high anyway......have hydraulic steering so I could set and forget boat is rear CC, I ran to the front of the boat and leaned over it and the boat finally came onto the plane....saved! slow plane but at least the bung was above the water now, no way would I have got away with it if I tried to turn back for the boat ramp...and where I launch are crocodiles
if I was in the GC broadwater or offshore one can just jump overboard with the bung....or even have a backwards fitting one if accessible from the inside.

i got lucky IMO