@kthrash I found it was easier to copy and paste your questions and or concerns and address them in blue below. This is from my years of being on boats and things we ran into that will hopefully help all who take the time to read this.
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.
Agreed on the placement. I also believe I read somewhere you had everything so tied in that you found it difficult to undo to move. Do not over kill load securement. Its easy to do but keep it simple. I like to tie things with a half hitch and thread the tail back through so if I need to release, just grab the tail and yank and they come undone.
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..
An easier thing to do is to either shut the seacock off and leave it off or unplug the pump in the engine room rather than trying to get behind the dash etc. I will be removing my bags for the trip next year and capping the lines and disconnecting the pump as I do not want to haul anything that will not be used and take up the precious space. I will be adding a sureflo washdown pump and T it into the ballast intake so I cannot shut the seacock off.
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..
You had sufficient bilge pump ability however the plugs I think caused the majority of your problems. I would run a 2000 gph pump in the rear bilge and connect it to a high water alarm as well as the switch on your dash. Assuming you are going to get another Yamaha I will be doing a mod for that in the near future making it all plug and play by buying the same Deustch connectors etc. The automated bilge will be on whenever I switch the batteries on, the back up bilge will be connected to the existing bilge switch but also activated if the high water alarm is tripped.
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..
All of the internal plugs should be out. In fact the ones that seperate the engine from the fuel area will be completely removed on mine for the trip. Use them as normal for trailering, lakes etc. to keep any potential fuel leak contained but when you are doing a trip like that, a fuel leak you want out of the bilge regardless and the water needs to flow all the way through the hull. I just pulled my internal plugs this weekend for the first time and there was a few gallons trapped ahead of the engine compartment. Now for the ewer boats, there is no plug between the engine compartment and rear bilge under the back deck. The rear hatch over the fuel tank lets a lot of water into the bilge, this needs to flow to the pumps in order to be discharged. All small boats manufactured in the US since 1973 are required by federal law to have adequate foam cast into the hull that will stop the vessel from sinking to the bottom. These boats, you can pull all the plugs and it will sink so far and thats it, it will not go to the bottom. All of the plugs allow you to close off an area but once the water rises to a certain height it spills over into the next compartment so keeping the plugs in is not what kept you afloat. I plan on keeping the plug in on the ski locker because that will be my dry box. The fuel lid seal is not seamless on my boat leaving gaps at the corners for water to flow into. I will be buying new foam and making it seemless like they did on the ski locker hatch.
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.
This is the biggest reason for your troubles. With a nose down attitude the water runs to the bow, there are no pumps up there and as the water increased, the bow would sink further. This is why weight loading the front is a bad idea. weight load the stern and add trim tabs. Excess weight in the back will make the bow ride high and this is where the trim tabs will come into play. This is a mod I will be installing on my boat this winter as well and the controls will be trick so be on the lookout for that write up.
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..
You summed this up well. I would add that I would attach the hand-held to the life jacket you are wearing. Unless it is dead calm, on a crossing like that I would have jackets out and possibly on depending on the conditions. Jakcets serve 2 purposes when its rough out as it will provide your guests a form of a security blanket and lowering stress all around.
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..)
Noted and Agree.
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...
Agree.
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..
Questionable. If they stalled out due to water being up to the intake then the valves would have done nothing, however if they did not then absolutely they towed the water right into 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.
Hearing you say YES this will not deter you has my hat off to you. The fact you are taking the time to do this and accepting the criticism, which sounds harsh but it is a lesson you learned and education for those who are only familiar with calm/protected waters. I don't know you personally but I am proud of you and how you handled this whole experience. So start your thread on your new ride, what you are getting ( I will be biased and hope you get a new 212X) and I hope to see you next year!
