Sunk the Boat Today!!!!!!!!!

[poncho-pwr]

I took the boat out today for the first time since putting it away for the winter and sunk it! After unloading the boat I took about a ten minute cruise around the lake while the brother-in-law parked the truck and trailer and added some ice to the cooler. After giving him time to park and ice down the beer I went to the dock to pick him up and off we went to take a cruise and see who was out. After cruising around another thirty minutes or so at anywhere between 3300-5200rpm I decided to get on it and make a pass or two close to where we were staying before going in. I was rolling along at about 10mph or so when I nailed it, and 2-3 seconds later I hear what sounds like a jackhammer being used on a steel floor, then the motor went to the moon(took rev limiter out two days ago because it had issues) and the boat fell on it's face. Soon after water started rushing up between us and I immediately hit the switches to turn on both bilge pumps(over 900gph combined) but it didn't help, she went down, and fast! Well, it didn't really go all the way to the bottom but it went down stern first and sunk down about 14 feet or so and just sat there bobbing with the bow pointed up towards the sky. Several times I have thought about removing all of those little air filled, round whoopie cushing looking air bladders under the bow to make for more storage room and boy am I glad I didn't, they worked and kept it from going all the way down. Luckily there were a lot of people already at the lake early getting ready for Memorial day weekend so we got help pretty soon. A family in a big deck boat wasn't far away and they came over right away and we got a line on they bow eye which I kept praying would hold. We were only about 150 yards away from shore so we towed it over to the ramp until the pump started to touch bottom(about 75ft from the ramp) and my brother-in-law bailed out to go get the truck and recruit the rest of our family as well as some fellow boaters to come help. after he backed the trailer in as far as he could a guy brought us a big climbing rope that was about 150ft long and we tied it to the bow eye along with the other rope we had. Several people on the ramp started pulling on the ropes which made the bow tilt downward and allowed the boat to get shallow enough for several of us to get hold of the back of the bottom of the boat and we strained and lifted until we were able to walk it up on the trailer. After pulling it out of the water and draining it out I found out where the water came from. Upon inspection I immediatetly notice that my driveline cover is pretty much destroyed at the back and literally ripped loose on the pump end. My pump brace is bent and mangled and there is a big hunk missing from the right side of the suction housing(about 4" x 2 1/2") and a HUGE crack on the other side running from the suction piece mounting foot all the way to the transom and there are some pieces missing along that crack as well . The thrust bearing area of the pump is beat all to hell too and I can't find all of the u-joint pieces. I am assuming I had some kind of driveline failure but I am really stumped on this one. I had just went over evrything on the boat a few days earlier to get it ready for the summer and I am the most thorough person in the world when it comes to my hotrods. Everything had been checked, lubed, tightened, re-cheked and then gone over again before launching as I always do. I can't believe how fast the water came in, it was unbelievable!! So now we are setting around getting drunk at 2:30 in the morning after thrashing on the motor for about four hours to deal with the water. I guess it's time to go ahead and put the big Pontiac in it and really step it up a notch since the boat's tore up and I will be taking it apart anyways. Any ideas on what caused this guys? Oh yeah, by the way, we never lost the cooler full of beer, and that's a good thing because I need it!!!!!

[jbone]

Dude that sucks big time!
All I can say is good luck in getting that thing back together so you can enjoy the rest of the season. This is where a good credit card comes in handy.
Just think, someday you'll laugh about this.
J

[moparjet]

That Sucks....i Been There And Done That.....but Mine Was Caused By Beer

[fleetimus]

OH, I definitely know that feeling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Same thing happened to me at Camp Far West. Only mine went down 85'. I am glad you got it back on the trailer.

[IMPATIENT 1]

Sorry To Hear This Poncho, I'm Callin My Insurance Company And Gettin Some On The Boat Today.have Herd To Many Of These Stories Lately.

[steelcomp]

Hey PonchoPower, that sucks. What kind of boat do you have?? What lake? Where's the pics?? I'm curious...if you went over everything so meticulously, then why do you think it came apart?
Do you know a guy named DeputyDog?

[Cas]

that's a deja vu! As Fleet said, the exact same thing happened to him with the driveline.
With my engine out right now, I think I'm going to pull the ujoints apart to check out the needle bearings.
Do you grease the zerks on the ujoints often?

[502 JET]

Poncho sorry to hear about your boat.You will get it back together and it will be better than ever.Like the saying goes (Bring On Another Thousand).

[572Daytona]

I've spun a u-joint in the driveline before, but I didn't take on water when it happened. Just vibrated like hell and I drove very slowly back home. What would cause water to leak in due to this?

[boater012]

If a U-joint fails and comes apart really badly It will cause the whole driveshaft to become a 5000 rpm or more flail that is being spun by the engine. When the driveline came apart it didnt just fall off because it is bolted solidly to the engine. Sounds to me like this is what happened. When it came apart and started flailing the crap out of the pump it tore a big whole in the suction houseing like stated and caused the water to rush in really fast. I'm guessing an 18 foot jet boat with a 4" square whole in the suction housing wouldnt take long to sink. (maybe 20 seconds or so).
Good luck getting it back together in a reasonable amount of time. I have my old berkely pump and suction housing that im removing from my boat soon and I'll donate it to the cause of getting yours up and running again if you want it. Just pay the shipping!!!

[572Daytona]

Thanks for the explanation, I had missed the part about the hole in the suction housing. I guess I got lucky when mine went.

[poncho-pwr]

My boat is a 19ft Rogers TR, and the incident took place at Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. I will be home Monday night and the wife will print out the pictures on the camera dock. I am not much of a computer geek so I am not sure how to post them but I can e-mail them to somebody if one of you guys can help me get them up online. After looking at everything really good this morning the only thing I can figure is that it was a u-joint failure. There isn't anything stuck in the pump or impeller is far as I can tell but the impeller did kiss the side of the suction a little bit. I don't think the impeller touching the suction is what started the whole thing but I guess it could be. I have certainly seen and had u-joints fail on cars but in a car it usually happens on launch like when a drag leaves the line. I am not sure just how much force is exerted on a u-joint in a jetboat as compared to car but I would think it would be less.

[G-Body]

On the average there is a lot more force exerted on u joints in a boat. If you are cruising a car at 60mph you are only using 40-60hp or even less, so there is not a lot of stress on the driveline. Now if you are running slicks and dumping the clutch at 6000rpm or letting off the trans brake at 6000 then a car will put more stress on the u joints. But in a jet boat, cruising at 60mph requires hundreds of hp which means a lot of constant stress on the u joints.
Heres a chart of how much hp is required to spin a given RPM in a jet.

[1968Droptop]

I took the boat out today for the first time since putting it away for the winter and sunk it!...............
So now we are setting around getting drunk at 2:30 in the morning after thrashing on the motor for about four hours to deal with the water....................
Oh yeah, by the way, we never lost the cooler full of beer, and that's a good thing because I need it!!!!!
REALLY sorry to hear that !!! Not a good way to start the boating season. At least your alright, the most important thing. And even better you recovered the boat right away. Hat's off to all the other boaters that helped you out !!!
BTW, your a way better typist than I am under the influence :rollside: , and nice job saving the cooler :cool:

[cave]

poncho-PR Glad your OK.

[moneysucker]

If a U-joint fails and comes apart really badly It will cause the whole driveshaft to become a 5000 rpm or more flail that is being spun by the engine. When the driveline came apart it didnt just fall off because it is bolted solidly to the engine. Sounds to me like this is what happened. When it came apart and started flailing the crap out of the pump it tore a big whole in the suction houseing like stated and caused the water to rush in really fast. I'm guessing an 18 foot jet boat with a 4" square whole in the suction housing wouldnt take long to sink. (maybe 20 seconds or so).
Good luck getting it back together in a reasonable amount of time. I have my old berkely pump and suction housing that im removing from my boat soon and I'll donate it to the cause of getting yours up and running again if you want it. Just pay the shipping!!!
That is totally cool of you. Nice to help out a fellow boater in need.
Cy

[Wicked Performance Boats]

That is totally cool of you. Nice to help out a fellow boater in need.
Cy
I definately 2nd that. We all need help when it hurts. BL

[boater012]

That is totally cool of you. Nice to help out a fellow boater in need.
Cy
Isn't that what boating and generally being a decent human being is all about?????
My offers still stands for the suction housing and the pump. I have a complete rebuild kit here at the shop for the pump and i'd be willing to go through it and put new seals, bearings and packing in it for you before I ship it. If your impellor is still good You can send it to me and I will install it at the same time. I've been there when the chit hits the fan and any help I can give I will. Baker out!

[BigBlockBaja]

I came very, very close to this situation this past weekend. My dominator pump decided to loosen the 3 cleanout studs and back off. i was heading back the the ramp and was loosing speed, Just thought it was weeds in the intake, which is a big problem here. I shut it down and walked to the back and saw water pouring in. Only 1 bolt was holding the cleanout cover on. Thank God I found a stud and a wing nut in the bilage and nursed it back to the marina. I never had the clean out off since I bought the boat, but tommorrow its getting locktite on the studs and lock washers on the wing nuts. I cant imagine the feeling you felt of really going down. Luckly most of my lake is only 10 feet deep. Good luck on the rebuild.

[SmokinLowriderSS]

If a U-joint fails and comes apart really badly It will cause the whole driveshaft to become a 5000 rpm or more flail that is being spun by the engine. When the driveline came apart it didnt just fall off because it is bolted solidly to the engine. Sounds to me like this is what happened. When it came apart and started flailing the crap out of the pump it tore a big whole in the suction houseing like stated and caused the water to rush in really fast.
Yep, that's where my best guess was headed to.
Probable time line:
Motor pulled hard on the pump, then a u-joint broke in some manner, and broke in a bad angle, which let the coupler twist WAY out of line, but still have a grip on the following yoke.
The out of line twist from the engine started prying the shaft all arround which flexed the hell out of the suction piece, cast Aluminum hates being flexed arround, IT cracked in multiple places, this also bent the brace assy, (check your shaft, it may well no longer be straight either).
The now broken pump parts let the shaft move enough to get loose from the coupler so the engine wound free finally.
The large holes in the wrong places in the suction housing let in far more water than any pair of pumps were ever going to keep up with.
Sorry to hear you sunk her, glad she stayed "afloat" for ya, best of luck getting her back to running quickly. :boxed:

[RECORD7JET]

Sorry to here that Poncho. I was on a 19' jet that had a 427 in it when the U-joint gave way when I was 16. I was on a company picnic. My boss (his boat) heard a noise in back & checked it out. He thought he could limp it back to shore. :idea: He got it up to about 1500rpms & after about 30sec to a min. There was a good size bang & some knocking after that. He instantly turned the motor off. Then we all noticed the water! Bildge was already on & wasn't even close to helping.
Everything was tossed out (ski's, boards, cooler) & signaled for help. I didn't know how to swim (still cant do much more than a goofy dog paddle :messedup: ) but wasn't scared because I was skiing all day with the life vest.
It was bobbin & my boss said its OK cause its supposed to stay a float. Me as I'm holding onto the bow said "great! but is it supposed to hiss too?" Sure enough it had a pin hole air leak (perhaps along the trim or the eye for the rope) somewhere. We were about 100-150 yrds from the island at Lake Berryesa. A guy came by with a bayliner & we hooked the rope he had to the eye & was going to get it as close to shore as posable.
Ya Right! :rolleyes: it started going down faster & was lifting the bow of the other boat out of the water! Water was close to the rear edge of that boat as everyone was frantically looking for anything to cut the dam rope! :eek: Just as we found something that would cut it. It snapped!
So I was almost on two sunk boats in the same day lol! But the thing I learned (way before I owned my own boat) is that not to temp fate with a U-joint. As you can see it didn't take much rpms to do it. One of the guy's while it was still bobbing on the surface waiting for help. Dove down & saw a hole at least the size of base ball cap in the hull directly under where the drive shaft was.
When you put the Poncho in. Get the bigger drive shaft & U-joints. I got it from GT Boats when I took the 454 out & put the 455 in. It cost more but can handle a lot more power. I think it was around $250? It was years ago so Im prolly off a little.
Glad your OK & you save the boat. My bosses boat stay there for around 15-17 years before that drought we had & they were taking 100's of boats out of the lake becaues it was so low. They also got two boats out that had Pontiacs it them. One was a 421 the other was a 428. One blown & one dual carbs. Must have been there way longer than 20+ years. Right when I heard about them I whent to buy them & they were sold alreadt to some guy in Calistoga. I was only about a day late.

[Mighty Thor]

last year there was a fair amount of discussion about what would be required to keep things floating, and now you have first hand experience, so for the rest of us, about how many pillows did you have and what size were they? Thats the next thing I want to add to one of my projects, some sort of bouyancy up front.