What Dumb thing did you do to your boat?

[AsLan7]

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.

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That’s a great story C262.

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[Tuscany]

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.

What were the odds 262? You know that would happen to any of us. If that rock was in the same zip code, somehow it would be under our boats again.

Anyone ever break a skeg off, but never felt it or thought they were in a shallow area? I did that on our old Chaparral. Loaded it, and then got the surprise..

[Bfun220]

Anyone ever break a skeg off, but never felt it or thought they were in a shallow area? I did that on our old Chaparral. Loaded it, and then got the surprise..

So our lake has a lot of shallow spots and some rock piles. A few years ago a friend let me use his boat. We were having a great day out on the water and decided to try to find a coworkers lake house. So I was probably 150 feet off the shore line looking for this house. Then bang, I hit something. Everything seemed fine. Boat still ran well, no issues and prop looked good. At the end of the day load the boat on the trailer and that's when I notice the skeg is gone. . Drove straight to a shop dropped it for. I told the guy that owned the boat what happened and he says "oh, I hit that same spot 2 weeks ago."

[Ytmsn]

My latest dumb*** move... I only tell the story so maybe someone else won't do the same stupid thing.

Yesterday I brought the boat home to do some work on it before the upcoming Table Rock trip. I pulled into my backyard like I've done dozens of times before to unhook. I live in a valley and my backyard slopes slightly. As I was going through the process of unhooking, I got a phone call on a different boat that I have for sale and got distracted. Big time.

The problem? I forgot to chock the wheels. As soon as the coupler came off the ball the freaking boat took off. Of course I'm trying to stop it and freaking out, and it's a wonder I didn't get myself run over with the Jack wheel. My driveway approach to the garage has a retainer wall and all I could think of was my boat shooting backwards off of that wall. Then I thought of all the trees between me and that wall and realized it's going to crash backwards into a tree.

I see one of the trees coming up and with a Herculean effort managed to get the boat to turn just a bit so it just grazed the tree on the rubrail. Then it crashed into the side of my Kawasaki Mule with the corner of the swimdeck. It bent the side of the bed on the mule and shoved it sideways blowing one of the back tires off the rim, but it stopped the boat!

OH JEEZE. Okay. Breath. Cuss a little.. Breath some more. Damage Assessment....

Okay, it looks bad, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. The boat looks okay, the Mule looks smashed..What the heck? Stop shaking!

Breath some more. Calm down, it could have been SOOO much worse.

I get hooked back up to the boat and put it into position. Then CHOCKED THE WHEELS before unhooking. After looking it over, there is a small crack in the gelcoat on the transom and a small crack in the trim piece. Fixable.

The rub rail has separated midship for about 2 feet. There is now an 1/8th gap underneath where it should be tight. I took a screw gun and ran the screws out and back in but they're not biting into anything, so I assume the screws have pulled out. I will be calling Rick at Cobalt today to see what I need to do to fix this. I could call my insurance and make a claim, but I have $1,000 deductible and I think I can fix this relatively easy, but we'll see.

The Mule is already fixed. I jacked it up and got the tubeless tire to seal back onto the rim. Fixed. The corner of the swim deck hit the center of the side of the bed and bent it over. I tied to a tree with a strap and managed to pull it back and into shape, and now there's just a small dent/scratch on the side. Fixed. So no worries with the Mule.

Okay, stop to check and make sure I'M okay. As its rolling I could see the tree coming, and somehow managed to turn the boat to keep it from a direct hit on the swimdeck. Of course for the first 20 feet or so, its dragging me along, like I'm actually going to stop a 5,000 boat. Yeah right...

If it would have hit that tree it would have been bad. I'm sure it would have smashed the swimdeck and probably busted up the transom pretty bad. So, I don't feel anything other than anger and frustration... No pulled back muscles or broken bones. Okay, good...

If my Mule had not been sitting where it was to stop the runaway it would have smashed into a different huge tree dead center of the swimdeck, ruining it and maybe the outdrive. Who knows what it would have done to the transom. And if it somehow managed to miss any trees trees, the boat would have gone off a 3 foot stone retainer wall and landed on my old classic LandCruiser sitting in front of the garage.

So today, I'll make a call to Rick at Cobalt to see how to fix the rubrail separation. I may still be filing a claim, but hopefully not.

Lesson learned. Chock those freakin wheels.

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[cmattj]

Yt.. I’m catching my breath reading this
That really could have been a maaaajor catastrophe. Weeeew what a story!!
Glad your ok ( that’s the proper response ) But we still have one question.....

Did you make the sale on the other Cobalt??

[Tuscany]

Wow YT.
The first thing that came to my mind is that you are ok.
Situations like that? When reacting to saving our prized possessions?...we do.....things...we shouldn’t, like put our own life and limbs in danger trying to stop a catastrophe.
Looks like everything will be fixed perfectly, forgotten in a couple of weeks, and more importantly, you didn’t get hurt.

[Bfun220]

Holy cr@p.
Glad your ok, and things can be fixed.

And ya, what about the sale ?

[JTinMO]

Woah YT, That is crazy.

I get sick to my stomach if my kids put a scratch on a bumper. You have full blown mayhem in the yard going on there.

[Ytmsn]

Thanks guys. Yeah, it sure could have gone sideways much more than it did. You're right Tusc, the stupid things we'll do to save some material thing.. Its a durn good thing I wasn't behind it, because no doubt I would have gotten run over or smashed between the boat and whatever trying to save it.

And no, the other boat didn't sell. The lady flakes on me bigtime, after her and her husband spending two hours looking at it last week and asking all the normal questions. Then she makes an offer, I counter, she accepts, then tells me they have to think about it? Wait, what? You just said you'll buy it? What is there to talk about? Then Saturday she calls, says again, they'll take it, and agrees to meet me yesterday afternoon. I call to confirm because I'm at the lake and don't want to leave early, but it's a sale. Then she calls after I get back and says they've decided to wait until next weekend because they have no place to keep it until the water goes down and this is after I've left my family and the lake early to meet her dumbbutt... So I was bigtime distracted. But I'm not worried, there is a ton of interest. I'm leaving today for a conference but I'm guessing my broker will have it laid down this week or next.

Ahh, dealing with the public buyer. I love negotiations but buyers remorse is something I don't deal with well. Tusc I seriously dont see how you deal with the public on a daily basis. But when I get this Wedding Venue built I know I'll have too change my thinking. It'll be exponentially worse dealing with brides and Mommas, but that's why it'll cost so much!

So I've been Googling rub rail separation and how to fix it. It shouldn't be any big deal. It looks like those cheap old Sea Ray's come apart all the time!

[tgrace98]

Ouch! sorry to hear YT. Like others have said it could have been way worse and glad you are ok. Looks like everything is fixable

[NautiGirl]

Yikes! First, glad you are ok! Glad it was minimal damage to the boat!

I assume you looked a little something like this guy!

[Bamabonners]

Yt, same thing happened to my dad.

He was camping in a campground. They had a lot where you park your boats/trailers, etc... he did really inspect the area begire unhooking. The boat took off down the parking lot. He tried to stop it and it drug him on his knees across the gravel. It went over the retaining wall and stopped the road below. Couple thousand in repairs.

Always assume the ground is uneven (I take collapsing chocks with me as part of my towing kit). Never try to stop it by grabbing the jack.

[akorcovelos]

Yikes, scary stuff Yt! Glad it ended with minimal damage to you and the toys.

[Ytmsn]

Nauti that's exactly what I looked like!

Bama that is excellent advice and you're absolutely right. But when you see your Cobalt rolling down the hill it's really hard not to grab the tongue and think you can do something about it. I wasn't going to just stand there and let that summbiscuit go! But I did jump up and give a mighty shove on the bow to redirect it, although I'm not sure why because it would have hit another tree anyway if the Mule hadn't been sitting there.

[sailor55330]

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.

I agree with the statement on Commercial Sewing....when I ordered mine, it took 4 weeks and they sent me the wrong cover--it was for a boat with an arch....."miraculously", they had an extra R3 in inventory and sent it to me in a couple of days. The dealer I ordered it from (not my dealer) was very helpful in this. They make a nice product, but yes to the needing some CS work.