We made a couple of drifts and found some fish on one of them. After boating three trout and two redfish, we decided to go back to the beginning of our drift and try again. As we made a big sweeping turn inside Black Rock, we felt a hard thud and thought we had struck a rock with the motor.
The boat began to slow down, regardless of how much throttle I applied, so I backed off and we came to a stop. We checked the motor and the back edge of the hull along the bottom of the transom but could not find the damage. I have a 8" access cap in the rear of the floor where my bilge pump is and it began to gush a 8" diameter stream of water.
We cranked the motor back up and began to move forward at a little over 3 mph. The boat was level but the gunnels were right at the water, and at times, the rear corners would dip under the water. As we moved forward, the water would run toward the rear of the boat, then go out of the boat over the top of the transom. Despite the motor being nearly underwater, it kept on running and we kept on making slow progress. With Eric standing on the bow, and me on the back deck driving it seemed to be the perfect balance of forward motion and flowing water to keep us from sinking completely.
We were about 4 miles from the lighthouse ramp, moving at 3.5 mph angling toward the shoreline. Unfortunately, as I got closer to the shoreline, the seagrass got close enough to the jet-foot on my outboard to plug it up. We worked out a method where Eric would pull our two coolers up on the front deck to add weight and cause the water to shift forward. As this happened, I would shut down the motor, tilt it forward, then grab three handfulls of grass out of the jet intake. As I dropped the motor back down and cranked it, a large wave would move toward the rear of the boat and flow over the transom. Then we could ride along until the boat slowed from 3.5 to 2.9 mph, and the motor began to over-rev for lack of water. At that point we would repeat the process over again.
We did this process 9 or 10 times and decided that we should stay a little further off shore to keep the grass away from the intake. So, fighting our instincts, we headed our sunken boat back out, away from the shore. The deeper water and not letting the motor tilt all the way back down after each intake cleaning helped cut down on the number of times we were having to shut the motor down and chance not getting it re-started.
We made it all the way to the lighthouse pool. As we chugged past the dock, Eric grabbed the handrail and jumped without me slowing down. This changed the weight system we had worked out and the boat began to roll from side to side. I managed to make one lap of left hand turns around the pool without stalling or rolling over. At the end of that lap, I aimed for the ramp and Eric backed the trailer in about the same time. I hit the trailer just fine, but I believe the weight of the water in the boat would have flattenned the trailer tires, so we moved up the ramp a few feet at a time letting the water drain. It really didn't take all that long. About midway up the hull and slightly to the starboard side was a gash about 18 inches long by 1 inch wide. Here's a pic of the damage, but you can't really get a scale on the size of the hole.
The rock collision took place about 9:30 am, and we arrived at Jerry's Bait and Tackle about 11:30. Brian was not there, so I gave him a call and told him our story. We were well on our way to a decent stringer for the tournament.
The boat is insured and the insurance adjuster is supposed to make an appointment with me some time before Wednesday. I am shocked that the motor kept running at that level of stress with weeds continually plugging up the water intake. Also, that the battery kept re-starting the motor despite being submerged in salt water. I could feel the electricity shocking me slightly when I would grab the motor to clean the weeds out, but it always cranked back up.
So add me to the list of sunk boats this year, and be careful out there. Andrew and I may be fishing our last couple of tournaments out of the kayaks....I'm just glad that he wasn't with me on this trip and I had Eric there to lend a hand.
Steve Stinson
President
NFGFC
We go almost every weekend, so feel free to let us know.
