Fun boat turned project boat

[bo brown]

Well on Saturday we decided to take the jet boat out on the lake. Lake Conroe had a poker run and I thought it would be fun to go home put up the o'l trusty pontoon boat and bring back the jet boat. bp and Tom have been helping me with some things with the boat as I just bought it a couple months ago. 18ft Rogers with a 468 bbc. Well, I got back to the lake and all the big boats were gone so we decided to ride around and look at some of the homes on the lake. We had'nt been 200 ft up the shore line when the boat went up on a wake and came down, I guess right in the middle of tree that had been cut off by one of the local home owners. I was able to get the boat in about 7ft of water before it sank. I called the Constables office they sent their deputy, he got all the information. He set me up with a guy to come out Sunday morning and float the boat and get on a trailor. Well the guy called me Sunday morning at 8:00 am, and said he couldn't get it Sunday as the wind was blowing out of the West instead of the southeast like they thought it would be. I just happen to ask him a price. $1800 to get back on a trailor. and it would be Monday before they could get to it. I couldn't let my motor set under water any longer. So, I called my nephew, my cousin and a friend. We took my 22ft pontoon boat with 88hp Johnson and went and found my boat. Once we were able to get the nose out the water, you'd thought someone was in the boating driving it. I pulled it a half a mile to the boat launch and pulled it on the trailor with another truck. My boat is now at home, it didn't cost $1800 to get it there and I have already taken the motor apart all the way down to the block. The stump popped a hole in the hull about 5" X 30". it just ripped a big hole in the bottom. So my once fun boat has become my project boat.
Bo

[4trax]

Don't that just PISS you OFF! It's bad enough you sank the boat and then to be bent over to take it to the sum of $1800.00 to get it out.:mad: Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with making a living but:jawdrop: COME ON!:mad: Get real. Glad everyone is ok and safe.

[bo brown]

I tell you what, don't give a man time to think of options because he just might find a way to do it himself, like I did. I told my girlfriend, if I had the money, I'd buy me a little tug boat, put some gin poles on it that lift about 5 or 6 tons and charge someone a couple 100 dollars to pull boats out of the lake. I don't mind paying someone to do a job but I felt like that guy is raking people over the coals with his business. My girlfriend said "when you call him don't be rude you might need him some day" I said "piss on him I needed him today". But you know I hope I never need him. He sure was upset when I called him and told him I had already retreived the boat. He couldn't believe I did it with my pontoon boat. And I didn't reveal how we were able to get it up to him. I knew if I could get the nose up the boat would plane if I could get enough speed. It worked like a charm. Now I just have a lot of work to do to get back on the water.

[4trax]

Yea, I told my wife the same exact thing 2 or 3 hundred bucks you would've thought. Your Idea is a good one just don't get to much wrapped up in it cause you might not get to use it that much. (hopefully never) But if you have a way of raising the boat that is over half the battle.

[Lucky7]

Did you inflate inner tubes under it??

[bo brown]

Did you inflate inner tubes under it??
I didn't use anything under the boat. I had went and bought 6 big bowie bumpers, but, I didn't even use those. I had 3 guys in the water. I was running the pontoon boat. I would have never thought 3 guys could lift the bow of the boat must less lift the back of the boat with a 700 lb motor in it but that's exactly what they did. I guess the boat doesn't weigh a s much under water. It was unbeleivable to me. All 3 went down together in the front, I started the pull and when they felt the lines get tight they lifted the bow and the boat moved about a foot or so. We did that twice. Then they all went to the back of the boat and we diid the same thing but I got on the gas a little harder. We did that about 3 or 4 times. My cousin told me as long as the boat is moving don't stop keep going and they catch up to me on the wave runner. The very next time, the boat started moving and I hammered it a little harder with o'l pontoon boat and wouldn't you know it, once the nose came up, the boat planed just like someone was in the driver seat. I think the only thing that made it possible was the size of the motor on my pontoon boat. I had enough power to pull the boat and then I had enough motor to run the speed I needed to make the other boat plane. I was pulling the boat once it came out of the water about 12 to 13 mph. If I'd a had a small motor on my pontoon boat I wouldn't have been able to get enough speed to make the jet boat plane. I was just plane lucky. I had good help and the good Lord above.