Hard lesson learned last week (read this and avoid same mistake)

[Huskerjetboat]

This is a long post, but hopefully educational and not too boring.

we took a family vacation to a friends lake in Wisconsin last week. Pulled the boat about 600 miles, which went well behind my 2001 suburban. His cabin is on an 1,800 acre sand bottom lake. Fairly shallow, max depth 24' with an average around 9' I think. First day after launching I lost my new American flag and pole. It was a 2'x3' flag on an aluminum Rod that I had just installed. It is removable from the base, and in my rush to get going I forgot to tighten the locking screw. $60 down the drain. But that's not the lesson.

Everything else went fine the first day except when I was coming in to dock I heard kind of a thud from the rear and then got grounded. Put it in reverse and got off the sand, found the deeper Chanel, by deeper I mean 3.5', and got docked. Couldn't figure out what thud sound was at this point.

Next day was another nice day, took our kids and friends kids tubing and had a blast. After dinner we decide to all go out for boat ride. We decide to stop at an island and beach it. This is my first time beaching this boat. No problems so far and the kids get out and play on the island until it starts getting a little dark. Time to go. Get loaded up and pull the rear anchor. This is where I made my mistake. We did not push off the sand bar from the bow to get in deeper water. Stupid rookie mistake and will never happen again. Put it in reverse and gave it some power and we were off. But now it will not come out of reverse. It's stuck. End up spinning a circle, shutting her down and re beach so I can try and figure this out. How embarrassing. Brought this new boat up a long ways to show my lifelong friends and we are stuck in the middle of the lake with four kids and our wives, and it's getting dark. Very bad words were running through my head. After trying to figure out what was wrong for about 15 minutes I make the de ion we will need a tow, but there are no boats around and it's getting pretty dark. My friends wife starts calling neighbors on the lake, but it's Monday and most have gone back home. I get out the spotlight and start Sending an SOS towards shore at houses with lights on. My friends wife is able to get ahold of someone but they are not at the lake, however, they know someone that is and will call them. While we are waiting we see flashes back from shore and see boat lights heading our way. Then we get a call back saying another boat is on the way. Things are looking up.

The boat we signaled arrives and we load the women and children onto that boat. A couple of guys who were on a fishing trip. They saw our engine cover up and then saw the SOS and came over. Said they had been rescued in the past so they didn't hesitate. The plan now was to get the women and children back to the cabin and my wife drive the trailer to the boat ramp and pull the boat. Now another error on my part. I had one hose clamp vice grip in the boat, and I had bought a second one but had failed to get it from the suburban into the boat. Stupid. Wasn't long and the second rescue boat arrived. Very nice retired guy who lives on the lake. He said he would tow us to the boat ramp. I told home we had to go real slow, and we went very slowly. Don't think it was fast enough to cause problems, probably less than 5 mph. Haven't had the boat back in yet but I'm pretty confident we went slow enough. Well we made it to the boat ramp and my wife was waiting with truck. We had to run back and hook the trailer back up while my friend held the boat. Got it all loaded up without any problem and pulled her out. Wanted to inspect the jets before we left to see if I could find the problem. After a few minutes of looking and feeling around I found the problem. Evidentaly in with the sand are all kinds of small rock pieces. Not round gravel but kind of shards, and wedge shaped pieces. when I had powered off the beach they got sucked up and wedged between the reverse gate locking it in place. The next day in the light I was able to use a screwdriver to kind off flex the plastic reverse gate and allow the rocks to fall out. Problem solved, throttle now moves in and out of reverse smoothly. While under the boat I also inspected the intake grates and the impeller for damage and I think I found the source of my earlier this noise. My starboard impeller has a ding in it. The small rocks I sucked up probably wouldn't have done the damage so I think I must have sucked up a larger rock when I heard the thud and it caused the damage. I haven't had the boat in since the incident but will this weekend so will find out then if everything is OK. May crawl under and take some pictures in the next couple of days and post on a new thread with questions about the damage.

Sorry for the long story, but hopefully there are lessons for others so that they can avoid what I went through. Luckily we have great understanding friends and had help from a few awesome people, both of which said they had been rescued in the past so where happy to help. All in all, my damage seems minimal, other than me being greatly embarrassed.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

It happens! Please remember if you are in dire need of help while on the water, post a thread with @ help in it(remove the space) and we will get you some direction within minutes usually.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks for sharing. I have had something lodge in the reverse gate before. I just got in the water and removed it. I believe it was a chunk of wood.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Yep along with @Bruce. A simple trip in the water would have gotten you going again in 1 minute. I have it happen almost every trip out on the sandbar.

 

[Julian]

Yup...leverage the help feature...the last I checked our Ave response time was 8 min! I think it may have come down since then!

Pushing off the sandbar is key....also be very careful about beaching! I pulled into a sand beach once only to discover it was only a tiny bit of sand over a huge rock where I pulled in!!! Thankfully only a small chip and I was putting on a keel guard the next week.

 

[Scottintexas]

glad to hear you were rescued, if you spent all day having fun the day after the thud I wouldn't worry about the ding in the impeller very much, make it an offseason repair if you even want to mess with it. I've have a lot of small dings on mine but still am able to go 45mph and it doesn't stop me from having fun so I keep putting it off,

I wasn't even done with the sentence "stuck in reverse" and I was already thinking something was jammed back there, I am a more confident boater after reading everyone else's experiences and not nearly as fearful of breaking down out on the water,

 

[RiverRat]

I too had a rock jam up my reverse gate while on the water earlier this year, I didn't have to get in the water, just kneeled on the deck and reached down and cleared it. I'm not even sure it was a solid rock, it kind of disintegrated in my hand, almost like a chunk of asphalt, or tightly packed gravel.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Even sand will jam the reverse gate.

 

[4x15mph]

I had a similar problem yesterday although I used some force to "figure out" my problem and it only furthered the number of new parts I now need.

My problem ended up being a bolt on the nozzle deflector that fell out. Once that happened, the deflector ripped from the top bolt and caused me to lose steering. With some more fixing, I bent the steering cable and the reverse (gate) cable. $450 for everything

My lessons learned are:
1) if something is tight or doesn't want to budge, do not force it.
2) I needed to add a whole lot more tools to what I thought was an adequate toolkit. I didn't have a socket set???
3) zip ties are one of the single greatest inventions
4) Loc-Tite is important! Red loc-tite is even more important for the nozzle deflector!
5) take a day and retorque important bolts/nuts.

@Huskerjetboat , you are lucky since you are back up and running. I would forget about the impeller since it is probably making very little difference and I can tell you that by replacing it, you can introduce new problems. Ask me how I know? It costs $$ to cut off an impeller that may not free up and if the driveshaft is damaged in the process, by a Yamaha dealer (what???), it costs another $250 for a new driveshaft.

Lesson 6) If it aint broke, don't fix it. I have a hard time with this

 

[Trm1765]

Usually tapping on the reverse gate with a hard object (light taps, not bangs) while someone else is lightly jiggling the throttle will clear it out in seconds... Lessons learned the hard way = lessons learned the best.

 

[Gym]

@Huskerjetboat, @Murf'n'surf had the best solution. There is no way any of us will gain the collective experience of this group so your best bet, especially when you have your family on board and you're loosing daylight, is to send out an @ help (no space) and you'll have a reply in minutes. You can share your cell #, if you like, and we'll walk you through the fix if necessary. With regard to damage it sounds like your ego took the biggest hit. I'm sure the boat is fine. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Huskerjetboat]

Thanks for all the encouraging words and advice. I will certainly use the @ help in the future if needed. After clearing the rocks on dry land I don't think I could have cleared them on the water. What surprises me is I had neve read about the reverse gates getting stuck on this forum or the other one, and I spent a few years just reading before my purchase. May have skipped over those threads also, or forgot about them. Thanks again, will be on the water this weekend with no beaching.

 

[Port0222]

Yet another reason I love this forum -- this has not happened to me, but if it does, I know about it... Bust Out Another Thousand will happen less and less because of this forum.

 

[mgabsa]

Now would be the perfect time to ditch the hose clamp vise grip and install 2 shut off valves. How to instructions are on this site. This is a simple add on.

I would be worried the hose clamp vise grips could puncture the cooling hose.

This is a precaution modification which I did and have never used in 4 boating seasons, but I know its there in the event I need a tow.

 

[txav8r]

Hose pliers are vastly different than vise grips and will work fine. I actually use woodworking ratcheting clamps and they are plastic so they don't rust.

You figured out some important operational considerations right off the bat. Never power onto or off of a shore, no matter the composition...it is damaging. Also, most of us love our swim decks and know how easy the boats gelcoat can get dinged, so we won't beach bow first unless we have a keel guard or similar. I NEVER beach the boat bow first. I always tie up with the bow to deep water and an anchor off the bow, then I back the boat up to the beach by hand after stopping in 3 feet of water. I then tie the boat to the shore via my shore spike, but you could tie to a tree, log, dog stake, secondary anchor, etc.

Glad everyone is ok and nothing hurt but feelings...those will heal and you will be wiser for it as you have already become! Just to help, none of us were born mariners...we learned it through the book of hard knocks. There are plenty of posts on here and the other forum that talk about "stuck" gates with rocks or other debris jamming them. But there just isn't any way to read all the accounts on either, just too many! But we are here to help and share in experience and reward! Enjoy the rest of the summer!

 

[Huskerjetboat]

Just as a side note, when I bought my boat I had a keel guard installed by the dealer. That is why I felt comfortable beaching. You know, I know scratches and dings happen, it's part of getting the most out of your boat. I want it to look good, but unless it's on the trailer and somebody is walking around closely inspecting it...no one would notice that little scratch as you cruising by. All I hear from people is, " that's a sexy looking boat" and I have heard that exact statement from several people. And I agree, the Ymaha is a "sexy" boat!

 

[Noko]

Just as a side note, when I bought my boat I had a keel guard installed by the dealer. That is why I felt comfortable beaching. You know, I know scratches and dings happen, it's part of getting the most out of your boat. I want it to look good, but unless it's on the trailer and somebody is walking around closely inspecting it...no one would notice that little scratch as you cruising by. All I hear from people is, " that's a sexy looking boat" and I have heard that exact statement from several people. And I agree, the Ymaha is a "sexy" boat!

That sexy looking boat comment was about my boat as I docked next to you. But I have gotten that comment or something like it a few times on my lake. When you are the only 24' boat on a lake filled with 40hp John boats, you are king! Its surprising how many 70yr old women love my boat.

 

[OperationROL]

Just a few weeks ago when we were in Shelbyville with 150 of my closest friends for the 8th Annual Friends & Family Boaters' Gathering (yes, that was a plug), a few people were laughing at me when I pulled out a big rubber mallet from my tool bag to aide in fixing one of my tower racks. They said, "Why in the World to you carry around a mallet?" My reply was a similar story to yours. I was once on a popular beaching spot on Rock River here in Rockford, IL, "Pee Island" as we affectionately call it around here. Usually, I have a few fellas push us off and I do not start the engines until I feel the depth at the transom is high enough to avoid the vacuum cleaner effect. This time (for whatever the reason), I used the engines and reverse thrust to get us off the beach. Well, sure enough, one of the reverse buckets got stuck and I could not use the throttle nor my hands to move it. Thankfully, I was a few feet off shore and it was no problem to beach again. Once I beached, I looked for something heavy that would not damage the bucket and found nothing. I eventually, wrapped my hammer (that I always carry as well) with some of the cleaning clothes I had on board and gave it a hit. The bucket moved instantly and all was good. After that I always carry a rubber mallet in case it happens again......And it did happen another time, but that was caused by a friend's kid thinking it was a good idea to shovel sand and pour it over the jet. We were anchored with the transom to shore at Lake Geneva. When we noticed him doing so we stopped him, poured water over the dirty nozzle and thought nothing of it. When it was time to leave, I could not get the throttle to move forward and instantly knew what was happening. Without anyone else realizing what was going on, I grabbed my mallet, leaned over the swim platform and gave the reverse gate one pound to free it up. I returned to the helm and kept going. Moral of the story is add a rubber mallet to your tool box.

 

[treeskier]

Hose pliers are vastly different than vise grips and will work fine. I actually use woodworking ratcheting clamps and they are plastic so they don't rust.

You figured out some important operational considerations right off the bat. Never power onto or off of a shore, no matter the composition...it is damaging. Also, most of us love our swim decks and know how easy the boats gelcoat can get dinged, so we won't beach bow first unless we have a keel guard or similar. I NEVER beach the boat bow first. I always tie up with the bow to deep water and an anchor off the bow, then I back the boat up to the beach by hand after stopping in 3 feet of water. I then tie the boat to the shore via my shore spike, but you could tie to a tree, log, dog stake, secondary anchor, etc.

Glad everyone is ok and nothing hurt but feelings...those will heal and you will be wiser for it as you have already become! Just to help, none of us were born mariners...we learned it through the book of hard knocks. There are plenty of posts on here and the other forum that talk about "stuck" gates with rocks or other debris jamming them. But there just isn't any way to read all the accounts on either, just too many! But we are here to help and share in experience and reward! Enjoy the rest of the summer!

would these work... http://www.amazon.com/Wilmar-W83205...9398024&sr=8-2&keywords=hose+pinch+off+pliers

 

[txav8r]

It appears that they would work. However, I can't tell if the base of the Clamp face is flat or not. You wanted to be flat not serrated or grips in it.