Thoughts and observations from my failed Bimin Crossing

[kthrash]

So, as many of you know, on the initial crossing over to Bimini in 2015, I took a wave over the bow of my boat and proceeded to flood it to the point that both motors seized and none of the electronics works.. How you might wonder... well the following are my observations and recollections

1. I had way to much stuff and people on the boat.. we had 4 adults and 4 kids on a boat built for 9. That in and of itself is not a big deal, however when you add a backpack each, food for a week and various other supplies, I was on the ragged edge of the weight limit for the boat. Crossing a lake or even a calm ocean and we would have been fine but loaded down in 3-5' seas it was not a great idea.

2. If you attempt this crossing in a 212X with the ballast tanks, I would advise disabling the ballast switch.. somehow along the line, in all the chaos, my knee hit the ballast tank switch filling up the bags.. yet more weight on an already full boat.. simply remove the negative wire from the battery that controls it should be fine..

3. Make sure your bilge is up to the task of bailing your boat. In my years worth of planning I installed a 11ooGPH bilge in the main bilge (not the engine compartment) wired properly etc... what I did not do was take into account, is if all of your plugs are in the boat, very little if any water gets into the main bilge.. and the 500GPH bilge in the engine compartment does not stand a chance in hell of bailing a boat with a few thousand gallons of water in it..

4. Plugs, the comment above brings up the plug debate.. I firmly believe that with the plugs in, there was enough of an air cushion in the boat (main bilge) to keep it afloat... I intend to upgrade the bilge in my engine compartment to either a single 2500 or twin 1100's and put the 500 in the lower bilge.. and keep my plugs in..

5. Weight placement on the boat.. we weighed the nose down after being told that it would make the crossing smoother.. in hindsight all the weight should have been at the back of the boat, keeping the nose up! yet another reason we took one over the bow.

6. VHF.. if you install a permanent VHF (I had a Lowrance Link 5 installed and tied to my GPS) think about using it.. I registered for a MMSI number yet in all the chaos I forgot to punch the distress signal! Crazy I know plus where I put it (Behind the throttles) the radio was covered in water and when the electronics shorted out, it went out.. in hindsight I should have wired it directly to the battery.. Keep a portable VHF handy, I had to dig through all my crap when the main radio went out to keep communicating with the USCG..

7. DO NOT LET TOWBOAT US put a bilge pump in your boat.. pump it out yourself.. unless you are prepared for a HUGE BILL (I'm still fighting this BS..)

8. Buy adequate insurance.. I was covered 100% on all my loses (except the Towboat bill).. I got paid for the boat, my lost property (Shoes, camera, phones, ipads, etc... that all got damaged by water or washed away never to be seen again) as well as MedPay for my BIL who dislocated his shoulder.. I'm out the time and effort of dragging the boat to FTL and back but I'm back to even otherwise...

9. I installed tow valves the week before going.. did I use them? no, I forgot about them again in all the chaos.. I don't think it would have mattered after the engines got hydro-locked but I still forgot about them..

Any questions or comments, you are not going to hurt my feelings.. I was there, I know what went wrong with me and the boat..

I have been asked a bunch, would I do it again? The answer is YES, provided my insurance does not cancel me.. Next year we plan to fly the women/children and me and my BIL will bring the boat over. that cuts 6 women/children and their luggage out of the equation.

 

[Scottintexas]

thank you for posting this, hopefully we can all learn from it and make our families and friends safer and if we do face such a scenario we'll know how to react,

how did the water enter the engine compartment? just by going through the factory poorly sealed engine hatch ?

You took a wave over the bow, did it immediately fill the boat up to the seat tops like we've seen others do on a sub move? I'm wondering about the amount of time from having a boat full of water until the engines stopped working?

 

[kthrash]

the first wave filled the back of the boat up to the seats.. the second wave filled the boat up over the seats.. it took all of 5 seconds..

Im assuming when the water was up to the top of the seats (over the compartments) in the boat, the poorly sealed engine compartment did not take long to fill up..

 

[JetPowered]

And where were the occupants seated during this time?

 

[haknslash]

Thanks for posting this and I hate it for you boat. After I read what happened during the bimini trip it has made me think about getting trim tabs installed if I ever plan the crossing. With the low bow on these boats any ability to raise the bow might be real beneficial to minimizing taking a wave over the bow, not to mention help smooth out the ride if it gets rough.

 

[kthrash]

And where were the occupants seated during this time?

4 adults and 2 kids in the back and two kids up front..

 

[McMark]

Trim tabs won't raise the bow, only lower it to help cut through the waves/chop. To get your bow up, just get in a good plow speed. That's about 4500-5000 rpm for me. Balance the boat with people if necessary to get the bow up.

 

[GTBRMC]

Thank you for posting this info, @kthrash ... swallowed pride, honest & detailed assessment, and freely sharing it so others may learn from your tough experience. Who knows, you might have just saved someone else's boat or perhaps even a life.

Props to you!

Best wishes with the new vessel, too.

 

[haknslash]

Trim tabs won't raise the bow, only lower it to help cut through the waves/chop. To get your bow up, just get in a good plow speed. That's about 4500-5000 rpm for me. Balance the boat with people if necessary to get the bow up.

Is there something inherently different with trimming a jet boat? I can see trimming up wouldn't raise the bow if the trim tabs were mounted in a "pocket" of the hull where in the up most position the trim tabs are inline with the hull surface but I was thinking some trim tabs are mounted to extend beyond the hull surface acting as an extension to the hull but with an upward wing.

Sort of like this \--------

I guess I will have to take a closer look at them but I was hoping trim tabs could also raise the bow . That's one of the small nags I have about these boats is how low the bow sits to the waterline. I understand having that low slung front boarding area is a nice feature but personally I would rather use the rear platform for boarding, even if I beached nose first. If these boats could have a deeper traditional v hull, man that would be so nice!

 

[Gym]

Thanks for the honest self diagnosis @kthrash. I'm sure we've all learned from your harrowing experience. Kudos to you for getting back in the saddle for next year's trip.

 

[McMark]

Trim tabs can only lower the bow. You can't get it higher with trim tabs than without the tabs.

 

[Gym]

Hmm. Is there something inherently different with trimming a jet boat versus a prop boat with the same trim tabs? Trim tabs should be able to raise and lower the bow to alter the attitude of the boat. Even a trim nozzle on my XP made the bow raise and lower.

The trim tabs I've seen for our jet boats mount flush against the underside, stern part of the hull. When actuated they move down from the hull forcing the stern up thusly bow down. When retracted they are out of the slip stream having no effect on the bow so they are only able to lower the bow.

 

[haknslash]

I've added more to my original post. Yea I can see it not raising the bow if they are mounted like that. I was thinking I saw a post on here or maybe another forum where they installed trim tabs that looked like they had full adjustability both up and down. Oh well I guess that's one less mod to worry about buying

 

[McMark]

Yes, I see what you're saying and that would be great. I too would love a more traditional bow although I've yet to take a wave over the bow. A little spray out in the ocean, but never even close to a wave.

 

[Julian]

I'm not sure loading up on bilge pumps is the answer to taking waves over the bow. Better to work on ways to prevent a wave over the bow, and/or increase the size of your scupper or even add another scupper or two. Keeping the bow up by driving slow is key.

Do you think a bow cover would have survived the waves you took?

 

[Julian]

I'm not sure loading up on bilge pumps is the answer to taking waves over the bow. Better to work on ways to prevent a wave over the bow, and/or increase the size of your scupper or even and another scupper or two.

 

[Britboater]

Were you in heavy seas, they must of been big waves? Think I would of shat myself! So glad your all ok, except for the dislocated shoulder.

 

[kthrash]

Do you think a bow cover would have survived the waves you took?

Yes i believe a bow cover would have shed 95% of the water.

 

[treeskier]

So, as many of you know, on the initial crossing over to Bimini in 2015, I took a wave over the bow of my boat and proceeded to flood it to the point that both motors seized and none of the electronics works.. How you might wonder... well the following are my observations and recollections

1. I had way to much stuff and people on the boat.. we had 4 adults and 4 kids on a boat built for 9. That in and of itself is not a big deal, however when you add a backpack each, food for a week and various other supplies, I was on the ragged edge of the weight limit for the boat. Crossing a lake or even a calm ocean and we would have been fine but loaded down in 3-5' seas it was not a great idea.

2. If you attempt this crossing in a 212X with the ballast tanks, I would advise disabling the ballast switch.. somehow along the line, in all the chaos, my knee hit the ballast tank switch filling up the bags.. yet more weight on an already full boat.. simply remove the negative wire from the battery that controls it should be fine..

3. Make sure your bilge is up to the task of bailing your boat. In my years worth of planning I installed a 11ooGPH bilge in the main bilge (not the engine compartment) wired properly etc... what I did not do was take into account, is if all of your plugs are in the boat, very little if any water gets into the main bilge.. and the 500GPH bilge in the engine compartment does not stand a chance in hell of bailing a boat with a few thousand gallons of water in it..

4. Plugs, the comment above brings up the plug debate.. I firmly believe that with the plugs in, there was enough of an air cushion in the boat (main bilge) to keep it afloat... I intend to upgrade the bilge in my engine compartment to either a single 2500 or twin 1100's and put the 500 in the lower bilge.. and keep my plugs in..

5. Weight placement on the boat.. we weighed the nose down after being told that it would make the crossing smoother.. in hindsight all the weight should have been at the back of the boat, keeping the nose up! yet another reason we took one over the bow.

6. VHF.. if you install a permanent VHF (I had a Lowrance Link 5 installed and tied to my GPS) think about using it.. I registered for a MMSI number yet in all the chaos I forgot to punch the distress signal! Crazy I know plus where I put it (Behind the throttles) the radio was covered in water and when the electronics shorted out, it went out.. in hindsight I should have wired it directly to the battery.. Keep a portable VHF handy, I had to dig through all my crap when the main radio went out to keep communicating with the USCG..

7. DO NOT LET TOWBOAT US put a bilge pump in your boat.. pump it out yourself.. unless you are prepared for a HUGE BILL (I'm still fighting this BS..)

8. Buy adequate insurance.. I was covered 100% on all my loses (except the Towboat bill).. I got paid for the boat, my lost property (Shoes, camera, phones, ipads, etc... that all got damaged by water or washed away never to be seen again) as well as MedPay for my BIL who dislocated his shoulder.. I'm out the time and effort of dragging the boat to FTL and back but I'm back to even otherwise...

9. I installed tow valves the week before going.. did I use them? no, I forgot about them again in all the chaos.. I don't think it would have mattered after the engines got hydro-locked but I still forgot about them..

Any questions or comments, you are not going to hurt my feelings.. I was there, I know what went wrong with me and the boat..

I have been asked a bunch, would I do it again? The answer is YES, provided my insurance does not cancel me.. Next year we plan to fly the women/children and me and my BIL will bring the boat over. that cuts 6 women/children and their luggage out of the equation.

What an informative analysis of your experience. It is truly admirable that you have chosen to pass along what you have learned from a horrible occurrence so others may learn from it. I had been following the thread since the first post of your crossing experience and felt terrible that what was certain to be a dream trip went so wrong so soon but was very glad to hear all but for a some minor injuries everyone was ok. Your experience has caused me to dive into the fine print in my insurance and make sure I know what I am covered for and what I am not....even though my little Yamaha won't be anywhere near the ocean.

 

[4x15mph]

@kthrash , didn't you say that the jets were clogged and that you didn't have power due to the seaweed and cavitation? Once you lose drive power that makes all techniques pretty difficult. Thanks for writing up your lessons learned