Bad day on the river.

Put the boat on the big river for the first time this year on Thursday. Nice warm day for a boat ride and maybe a little fishing. A mile upstream from the boat dock I started to do a little casting. The wife asked why her feet are wet. I look back and see right away what is wrong. I turn the bilge pump on and go back to put the plug in, [somebody broke the first rule of putting the boat in the water]. Maybe that was why I couldn’t get on plane. The water is full in the bottom of the Lund. I decided to try to get the boat going to get the front up to help get water to the back, no big deal. That problem mostly solved. Problem #2,moto starts running like crap and shuts off. Luckily I get it back to the dock get the trailer backed in. IP had put a rope hooked to the front to pull it on the trailer so I can winch up. Two hour drive each way from home. But we did get to visit some friends in Harpers Ferry. Boating is fun. A good hour of fun, the scenery was pretty though.

The beauty of forgetting the plug is it will be a long time before you forget again. My guess is the next time you are ready to launch you will check 2 or 3 times to be sure the plug is in.

Its happened to me once or twice before. And I can tell you it’s a few years between the two.

A few years ago MN DNR had a short lived aquatic invasive species program that required putting a decal on your trailer to remind you to remove the drain plug. The program went away but I put the decal on the dash below the ignition to remind me to put the plug IN. (could be because I forgot to put the plug in up in Canada one time) Dutchboy is right, you’ll check it from now on.

Attachments:

1. drain_plug.pdf

Bearcat89 wrote:

Its happened to me once or twice before. And I can tell you it’s a few years between the two.

Cool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…oh, you know the thing!

Dutchboy wrote:

The beauty of forgetting the plug is it will be a long time before you forget again. My guess is the next time you are ready to launch you will check 2 or 3 times to be sure the plug is in.

Been there, done that. I now have a short checklist on an index card I go thru before EVERY launch. Good luck.

Yup-donnit, no fun. If I take someone out they have to remind me, the one guy though I have to remind him to remind me.

The easiest way I have found to avoid a problem is to handle loading and launching myself. I don’t want anybody doing anything regarding the boat. That includes friends, family or strangers. I have a set routine and route around the boat that I do. At the pre-launch anybody with me is responsible for their gear that’s in the truck. They need to get anything of theirs from the truck into the boat, that’s it. From there go sit on a stump, go for a walk, take a pee or just stand back and watch. Once the boat is launched, tied to the dock and the truck parked hop in and away we go.

No forgotten plugs, no failure to unhook a tie down, no forgetting the boat key, no stepped on rods, none of that. Well, of course unless I do it.

Don’t take it personal, it’s just that trial & error has proven this works for me. BTW, if we take your boat….you will need to tell me what you want me to do otherwise i’ll be the guy sitting on the stump waiting.

I’ve heard there is a new plug out that doesn’t have to be removed. It has a ball valve inside so the water pressure seals it and when out of the water no pressure so it’s open. I haven’t tried locating one yet but was planning on it before next spring.

Last summer on lake Reilly in eden prairie this guy in a wake boat comes screaming back into the launch with water shooting out of the bilges. He beaches the boat on the launch and is screaming his boat is leaking and needs to get it in the trailer. I ask him about the plug….he gets mad at me because “he’s never forgotten the plug in his life.”

Well, the boat is full of water and his wife and daughter don’t know how to drive the boat. I jump in and get it on the trailer.

No plug…..

Everyone has forgotten a plug at least once.