So I did it: I forgot to put the drain plug in.

[hooah212002]

.........and the second worst outcome happened: it took on more water than it could handle and became submerged just over halfway.

 

Got the boat out yesterday morning and the launch we dropped in at did not have a dock. Being only our 3rd time out, we didn't realize the trouble that would wind up causing. Anyways, I get in and try getting the engine started but it didn't want to turn over. I get out for some reason or another, then when I get back in, I see that there is water coming up from the floor on the captains chair. I tell my dad and he says ""OH **** ****, I FORGOT THE DRAIN PLUG!". I open the bilge and sure enough, it's full. I flip on the bilge pump, but it's listing to the side the pump empties so that is useless. i then reach down to try and find the plug but nope, I can't. My dad then gets in and finds it and plugs it.

 

Then some other chain of events happen that all kinda blended together and are kinda fuzzy, but they resulted in the motor eventually starting and me trying to go in reverse because I could not go forward which was the final straw: my dad looked at me and said "that's it, it's under water, go go go!". I gun it to try and cut it left and maybe get it on plane or something, anything but all I do is drive it up on the concrete walkway. That actually saved our butts by bringing it far enough out of the water to formulate a salvage attempt. Luckily, some amazing guys were there and they helped us maneuver the boat back to the ramp, then slowly and methodically pulled it back on the trailer via the winch and our anchor rope. How that winch didn't snap is beyond me.

 

Once we got it out of the water and drained, the only obvious damage was the trim motor randomly getting stuck in the up position, trimming the engine up. I narrowed this down to being the switch by the transom and was able to take it apart and clean it which seemed to have fixed the issue. We took the cowl off the engine, checked the spark plugs and blew most everything out with an air compressor until it was good and dry. Took the batteries out and did the same. After a couple hours of making sure stuff was dry, we reconnected the batteries and tried starting it up but nothing. No power. I then noticed how heavily corroded all the battery connections were so I took a wire brush to all of them, one by one and cleaned them off. Reconnected everything and voila! We have power! Put the key in and it tries to turn over! Holy crap, it's not completely dead. Well, then I fiddle around with some oil injection hoses and as most of them have been, one more breaks apart in my hand (the third one to do so in the ~2 weeks we've had the boat) and I have to swap it out. Once I do so, we are able to actually get the engine running. I am sitting here today still in disbelief because we then took it back out on the water without any issues.

 

nope, I don't have pics. But looking back, I kinda wish I took some to put on my wall of shame, possibly even on my console next to the steering wheel so i NEVER forget again.

[Junger]

I'm a newbie boater too, I bought my first boat in March, and on my third outing I also forgot to put the drain plug in.

My dad spotted the water coming from the transom bilge area and luckily the bilge pump did just enough to keep it from going under.

 

Lesson learned, I now plug the drain in while I'm leaving the garage instead of at the ramp.

[hooah212002]

26 minutes ago, Junger said:

Lesson learned, I now plug the drain in while I'm leaving the garage instead of at the ramp.

I'm considering doing that as well. Or putting my boat keys on a carabiner with my plug. Or a yellow sign on my console that says "did you put the plug in, moron?"

[12poundbass]

Welcome to the club. We have T-shirts. ?

[Gundog]

19 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Welcome to the club. We have T-shirts. ?

But they are currently at the bottom of the lake. ?

[Way2slow]

Don't worry, next time you can take pictures.

I've been boating since the early 60's and have left it out a few times. 

The drain plug in my Javelin is a screw-in with a short tether that keeps it in the hole when unscrewed.  A few years ago I was going to see a friend that was camping on the lake I mainly fish.  It was about five miles by water and 40 miles by road so I dropped the boat in and went by water.  I was there about 20 minutes, came back and loaded the boat.  I always take the plug out before I leave the ramp.  When I went back to take it out, I found I had never screwed it in.  Luckily, the tether holding it let the plug fill the hole so water didn't rush in when stopped or it would have sank at his camp site, the water there was deep.

[MickD]

I never take mine out.  Since I store the boat inside, no need to take it out.

 

But I've been there too.  Grandson to Grandpa: "Grandpa, the water's getting pretty deep back here."

[gim]

2 hours ago, Junger said:

Lesson learned, I now plug the drain in while I'm leaving the garage instead of at the ramp.

 

36 minutes ago, MickD said:

I never take mine out.  Since I store the boat inside, no need to take it out.

 

I used to do both of those because I was so afraid of forgetting to put it back in before launching but state law here now says you MUST travel down the road with the drain plug visibly out and you cannot put it back in until you get to the ramp.  If you get caught going to the lake with the plug in now, you get a major fine.

[Way2slow]

I also have my routine, and normally screw mine before leaving, but things can happen when you get out of routine.  That time, I didn't go through my normal routine because I wasn't going fishing and didn't need to prep the boat.  I just jumped in the truck and headed to the ramp

[Arcs&sparks]

10 minutes ago, gimruis said:

state law here now says you MUST travel down the road with the drain plug visibly out

Curious,  what is the theory behind this law?

[Russ E]

Fortunately my boat has a remote drain plug. 

Twice while in a hurry to launch the boat I forgot to close it.

luckily I heard the water gurgling and quickly closed it.

[Sam]

Welcome to the club.

 

It will happen to everyone sooner or later.

 

I always put the plug in before I leave home.

 

Never have had a problem since I started doing this.

[Russ E]

3 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

Curious,  what is the theory behind this law?

I believe it is to cut down on transporting nuisance species, like zebra mussels

[gim]

23 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

Curious,  what is the theory behind this law?

They're trying to slow and/or reduce the spread of aquatic invasive species from one body of water to the next and a visibly removed drain plug basically indicates that you don't have any water in there that could be transported to the next lake.  Same with the live well, bait well, and anything else that could hold water in your boat.  It took a lot of getting used to here but after you get in the routine of taking it out and putting it back in at the ramp, and ONLY at the ramp with a heavy fine as punishment, you learn quick.

[Arcs&sparks]

^Gotcha.  Makes sense. I wasn’t thinking about the bilge pump and livewells.  My bilge pump is a flat sided milk jug w/top cut off ?

 

 

[flechero]

I don't know a single boat owner that hasn't forgotten the plug at least once...  most of the time it's uneventful.

[Arcs&sparks]

3 minutes ago, flechero said:

I don't know a single boat owner that hasn't forgotten the plug at least once...  most of the time it's uneventful.

4 years and I haven’t done it yet... knocks on wood... 

[N Florida Mike]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

 

I used to do both of those because I was so afraid of forgetting to put it back in before launching but state law here now says you MUST travel down the road with the drain plug visibly out and you cannot put it back in until you get to the ramp.  If you get caught going to the lake with the plug in now, you get a major fine.

Why in the world is that ?

Never mind, just saw the response.

[flechero]

Not even remembering as you launch?  Good think I don't know you!  You'd have made a liar out of me.  ?

[12poundbass]

19 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

4 years and I haven’t done it yet... knocks on wood... 

Key word is yet. Give it time. ?

[N Florida Mike]

I left it out once. Took a friend's daughter fishing, but I didn't notice until she said something like "Are we sinking"?Although I was in a fairly narrow canal, I did a 180 and gunned it to hopefully run the water out and, to at least make it back to the ramp if it didnt. It just planed off enough so it didn't swamp, and we were able to bail the rest out at the ramp.

   

[Arcs&sparks]

14 minutes ago, flechero said:

Not even remembering as you launch?  Good think I don't know you!  You'd have made a liar out of me.  ?

... On the ramp? Yeah I always catch it when I remember to unstrap the boat ?

[Junger]

2 hours ago, MickD said:

I never take mine out.  Since I store the boat inside, no need to take it out.

 

But I've been there too.  Grandson to Grandpa: "Grandpa, the water's getting pretty deep back here."

I get a little bit of water in the bilge after every trip, not sure where it comes from but it's not enough to worry about but enough to drain after an outting. 

[boostr]

Congratulations!

 

I did that once, but a fellow boater caught it while I was backing down the ramp... that would of sucked.

[doughboy1979]

Yup, just did that last Friday and was close to losing it.  3rd time out on the new boat, took my 6 year old boy with me. Just started to fish when my son asked my there is water in the boat.  I casually said "son, it's a bass boat, it's going to have some water in it".  5 minutes later, he said again, but this time with urgency and a crack in his voice. I looked around and saw water was coming in under the seats and was about 10 inches high on my drivers chair.  I freaked the F*** out and ran to the back.  The back of my Nitro was almost submerged, and the bilge pump was not working.  So thank god the engine fired up and I started to go.  I tried to floor it, but the nose shot straight up in the air and could only go about 5-10 mph.  I was thinking "crap, I sunk my boat with my boy in it, my wife is going to kill me!!".  So then I had my son sit down at the very front of the boat, and with one hand I was steering the boat while the rest of my body I was standing as far front of the boat as I can muster while still holding on to the steering wheel.  About 5 minutes goes by and I start to feel, and hear, the engine RPM's getting higher and I could feel the boat start moving faster.  Took about another 2 minutes and I was able to get the boat on plane and moving!! But then I started to think about how the hell I was going to try and put in the drain plug.  I tried swimming underneath, but after a minute of not finding it I came up for a breath and my boy was crying and shaking.  He thought I drowned, which destroyed me "inside" seeing my boy that way.  So I then remembered that this lake has a swimming beach, so I drove my boat to the beach and I beached it.  Found the drain plug, put it, and we were off after that.  Needless to say my boy ratted me out to mom as soon as we got home, so that was an interesting conversation she had with me.  Now I gotta figure out my d**n bilge pump issue.  But d**n, that was some scary **** considering this was my first boat and out for only the 3rd time.  Glad it all worked out for you guys!!!