Keel drain alert

[Ovey]

Haha, I forgot to put my bung in last weekend! Having launched, tied up on the jetty and then gone to park the trailer, I came back to put the engine down and noticed water coming in through the drains in the rear engine well (normally a good couple of inches above the water-line). It suddenly clicked and I ran back to get the trailer! I got the boat on the trailer and then left it to drain the contents of the Solent back into the marina. The amount of water that came in from only about 5 minutes in the water was staggering!

Ah, learning experiences, eh?!

[Trimix]

[Ovey]

Yup, for a good 15 minutes that's exactly what mine looked like too! (Well, out of my single hole in my single hull).

[Trimix]

When I got home both battery boxes were half full of water. I took out the batterys, dried them off, charged them and checked them. Both OK.

But the wiring I added to have them charge in the box was all corroded.

So I had to replace those bits. Could have been worse, I imagine two big batterys would cost loads.

[Ovey]

Fortunately my battery is in a box under the console (so above the deck and hence any gathered water).

[Trimix]

Mmm, I was thinking about batterys and have since wired my two bilge pumps up so they are automatic - even with the battery isolators removed.

But that still wouldnt have stopped the sea comming in with three bungs missing

You cant build in failsafes for idiots.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Your batteries and electrics should be on a shelf in a console at a height above the flooded boat's waterline if possible. Otherwise if you stuff in a sea, your batteries are toast.

[AJ.]

Originally Posted by Trimix

Oh I do remember that day well. That trailer and the transit did well there must have been at least a tonne of water pour out, went on forever. Lessons learnt though!


Sent from my iPhone using RIB Net

[cptsideways]

Attatch bung to a piece of string that is fixed to the transom, use it for tying up the prop bag so you don't forget.

A friend very nearly got in trouble this week when he left his bung behind & forgot about it in his 20ft bayliner. They first noticed when the portaloo started floating in the cuddy !

[willk]

I used to clip the boat's bung and the killcord to the boat's keyset. Always worked for me