What Dumb thing did you do to your boat?

[greenhut]

I think I may have requested the thread... So this one makes my top 5 dumb things:

In an attempt to isolate starting battery from house battery loads, I moved some positive connections off the starter terminal to the battery. Friends on the way. Tighten things back down on the starter, and SNAP. Busted the entire positive lead off the starter. Friends on the way home. New starter several days later

[willyswagon]

Bought a boat that needs to be delivered 3.5 hrs away for Volvo support. As my wife says, she has always wanted a Mercedes but drives a VW cause there is no MB dealer on "The Island", yet we bought a boat that needs to be hauled 3.5 hrs away for engine work, and 14 hrs to nearest Cobalt dealer.
She said it is proof that the beauty of a Cobalt can overcome common sense

[cmattj]

Sinking at the Dock

As I launched our 22 Donzi for a lunch run I proceeded with my pre flight check list.( oils , resv level, belts etc).
What’s this in my fancy fresh water chrome strainer? Delta weeds had it full. So let’s clean it out quickly as it has fancy wing nuts just for this reason.
I quickly learned the strainer was at water level as the last wing nut allowed the water to pop the lid off and send it to the bilge.( never never land ).
Within 20 seconds she’s flooding fast and filling up as I have no recourse in finding my lid.


The bilge pump kindly kicked on but couldn’t keep up and the Donzi was going down .
Thank goodness I pulled it forward on the hoist and raised it from harm.
With the sound of the bilge pump still running my lovely wifey asked me a question...( “Dont they make some sort of Saftey shutoff Incase that thingy breaks? )
“ Yes they do “ I replied.. “But now I know why that petcock valve was recommended and should be installed.”
Lessons we learned the scary way right?

[AsLan7]

Sinking at the Dock

As I launched our 22 Donzi for a lunch run I proceeded with my pre flight check list.( oils , resv level, belts etc).
What’s this in my fancy fresh water chrome strainer? Delta weeds had it full. So let’s clean it out quickly as it has fancy wing nuts just for this reason.
I quickly learned the strainer was at water level as the last wing nut allowed the water to pop the lid off and send it to the bilge.( never never land ).
Within 20 seconds she’s flooding fast and filling up as I have no recourse in finding my lid.


The bilge pump kindly kicked on but couldn’t keep up and the Donzi was going down .
Thank goodness I pulled it forward on the hoist and raised it from harm.
With the sound of the bilge pump still running my lovely wifey asked me a question...( “Dont they make some sort of Saftey shutoff Incase that thingy breaks? )
“ Yes they do “ I replied.. “But now I know why that petcock valve was recommended and should be installed.”
Lessons we learned the scary way right?

.
Great story Matt!
....and such a sexy picture!
.

[liquid]

It's amazing how we all have at least one of these.

Love that Donzi CMatt

[ajcampen]

I will make a list one of these days soo of all my dumb actions

[liquid]

I will make a list one of these days soo of all my dumb actions

I was going to say the same. I've done so many dumb things on boats I think I might exhaust a character limit. Maybe not so much dumb as unsafe, unadvisable, Plain stupid, understandable...

That's why I just post the prop. It shows even an extremely experienced boater can do something stupid in a millisecond.

[akorcovelos]

All I can say is I'm thankful my trailer sits high enough that even fully down the outdrive have almost of foot of clearance...I'm not used to trailering anymore!

[mdadgar]

Today, I put my brand-new $1500 Cobalt mooring cover, still in its box, in the back of the boat for the tow to the storage yard. And of course it was gone when I arrived.



We retraced about 75% of our steps - no box on the side of the road. I'll get the other 25% tomorrow.

Otherwise, I guess it's a call to the insurance co.

So I gotta follow up on this.

I have a $1K deductible - an insurance claim isn't worth the effort. So I call the local dealer (which is about 3 hours away) and order another cover. They give me a small discount to offset the pain because they feel bad for me. Cover will be produced by July 9, which gives Commercial Sewing plenty of time to ship it to me before I leave for my epic tow to Table Rock.

A week later, I get a vmail from the local Cobalt dealer, who says "Mike called and has your cover. Give him a call back at XXX-YYY-ZZZZ."

I call "Mike" and it turns out that he found my boxed cover on the side of the road and it's in fine shape other than the box is a bit scuffed. He's kindly hanging on to it for me until I get up there on Friday. He called the dealer because their phone # was on it and mine wasn't (although my name and address was).

So I call the dealer back to cancel the new cover order. "No refunds, sorry." I ask if they can all Commercial Sewing, since if they haven't cut material yet, there should be no issue in canceling. He calls back and says they have started, so the cover is coming my way.

In the space of an hour, I went from zero $1600 mooring covers to two.

Ahh, well, I guess I have a spare now.

Boats.

- Mark

[JTinMO]

Today, I put my brand-new $1500 Cobalt mooring cover, still in its box, in the back of the boat for the tow to the storage yard. And of course it was gone when I arrived.



We retraced about 75% of our steps - no box on the side of the road. I'll get the other 25% tomorrow.

Otherwise, I guess it's a call to the insurance co.

So I gotta follow up on this.

I have a $1K deductible - an insurance claim isn't worth the effort. So I call the local dealer (which is about 3 hours away) and order another cover. They give me a small discount to offset the pain because they feel bad for me. Cover will be produced by July 9, which gives Commercial Sewing plenty of time to ship it to me before I leave for my epic tow to Table Rock.

A week later, I get a vmail from the local Cobalt dealer, who says "Mike called and has your cover. Give him a call back at XXX-YYY-ZZZZ."

I call "Mike" and it turns out that he found my boxed cover on the side of the road and it's in fine shape other than the box is a bit scuffed. He's kindly hanging on to it for me until I get up there on Friday. He called the dealer because their phone # was on it and mine wasn't (although my name and address was).

So I call the dealer back to cancel the new cover order. "No refunds, sorry." I ask if they can all Commercial Sewing, since if they haven't cut material yet, there should be no issue in canceling. He calls back and says they have started, so the cover is coming my way.

In the space of an hour, I went from zero $1600 mooring covers to two.

Ahh, well, I guess I have a spare now.

Boats.

- Mark

Cool you got it back. I would be more than peeved about not being able to cancel the order. I would be wearing out both your dealer and Commercial Sewing. Commercial Sewing is a real piece of work. I've been trying to get a new support pole and strap setup for my cover for over a year. Yes, over a year. It's a damn shame they work this way. I was told they have contracted with 2-3 other boat manufacturers in the past year, and their timelines have gotten beyond unreasonable on all orders if it's not a cover coming on a new boat.

[ajcampen]

Today, I put my brand-new $1500 Cobalt mooring cover, still in its box, in the back of the boat for the tow to the storage yard. And of course it was gone when I arrived.



We retraced about 75% of our steps - no box on the side of the road. I'll get the other 25% tomorrow.

Otherwise, I guess it's a call to the insurance co.

So I gotta follow up on this.

I have a $1K deductible - an insurance claim isn't worth the effort. So I call the local dealer (which is about 3 hours away) and order another cover. They give me a small discount to offset the pain because they feel bad for me. Cover will be produced by July 9, which gives Commercial Sewing plenty of time to ship it to me before I leave for my epic tow to Table Rock.

A week later, I get a vmail from the local Cobalt dealer, who says "Mike called and has your cover. Give him a call back at XXX-YYY-ZZZZ."

I call "Mike" and it turns out that he found my boxed cover on the side of the road and it's in fine shape other than the box is a bit scuffed. He's kindly hanging on to it for me until I get up there on Friday. He called the dealer because their phone # was on it and mine wasn't (although my name and address was).

So I call the dealer back to cancel the new cover order. "No refunds, sorry." I ask if they can all Commercial Sewing, since if they haven't cut material yet, there should be no issue in canceling. He calls back and says they have started, so the cover is coming my way.

In the space of an hour, I went from zero $1600 mooring covers to two.

Ahh, well, I guess I have a spare now.

Boats.

- Mark

BOGO situation?

[Big Block Power]

I guess I wouldn't be thrilled about it. But put it on ebay it will sell.

[mdadgar]

I guess I wouldn't be thrilled about it. But put it on ebay it will sell.

I've wondered about that. I have an A25 - Cobalt didn't build a lot of those. How much demand can there really be?

- Mark

[Big Block Power]

I guess I wouldn't be thrilled about it. But put it on ebay it will sell.

I've wondered about that. I have an A25 - Cobalt didn't build a lot of those. How much demand can there really be?

- Mark

More than you think. For the A25 that sits on a lift or in the water. I would want one. it's free to list it. Nothing to lose.

[Cobalt262]

With my first boat, and unfamiliar with lake, I hit a rock, chewed up the propeller and snapped off the sterndrive skeg. But that wasn't the dumbest thing I did.

After some costly repairs two weeks later, I took some friends out to show them where I hit the rock, but this time I approached cautiously from the south. It wasn't cautious enough. I hit the same damn rock again. Thank goodness stupidity is a covered peril on my insurance policy.