Help! My Seacraft sunk!!!

[bitsamonkey]

I'd like to thank everyone for their input.
I too have thought of using the gas tank to help float it by putting a valve on the vent tube and blocking the filler. Inner tubes are also on the list. It seems like keeping it from turning over is a real challenge. Another thing we're considering is salvaging the outboard first. We have a hookah and it's only in 20 feet. Then we could take our time with the hull, as well as making it a lot easier to get the transom out of the water. I just don't know how well I'll be able to work under water to unbolt the motor etc.
Now this is how this happened, though I still can't believe it:
Two things; I always kind of joked about the boat sinking, and that was because I really was afraid that one day it would. I just thought it would be at the dock while unattended.
The other is that no matter what the guy in the boat when it sank failed to do or not do, as the owner, it's my fault this happened.
Now the story: towards the end of a beautiful day of spearfishing the patch reefs off of Miami Beach, including the biggest red grouper any of us had ever shot, I went for the last dive with a buddy while a third friend stayed on the boat. Seas were less than 2 feet with a light NW wind. We were in 25' and on a hookah, which means we're attached to the boat by a hose. The bottom didn't look that great so I surfaced and asked my buddy on the boat to pull the anchor to drift over some new bottom. The current was going North at a trickle so we ended up North of the boat. At one point while pursuing a big gag we were at the end of the hose and listing felt some tugging, but nothing unusual as it felt like the boat pulling us south.
About two minutes later we felt some tugging, and now it was obvious the guy in the boat was tugging on the hose. I surfaced to see the boat listing beyond recovery and by the time I swam to the boat it was upside down.
We detached ourselves from the hookah, grabbed the life jackets and a hand held VHF and started swimming the ~2 miles towards shore. I tried to give a mayday on the vhf but it crapped out before getting anyone on channel 16... so much for water proof vhf (older icom). We all had wetsuits, life preservers and fins so we were not really afraid for our lives but not looking forward to a long swim in the dark after a full day of diving.
Several boats passed close enough to see the people on them without seeing or hearing us as well as a Coast Guard chopper and a really slow moving sailboat. My dive partner had poked our 6' pole spear through a life jacket and was swinging it back and forth the whole time.
After about half an hour and minutes before dark a crew out fishing on a 28 Whitewater spotted us, picked us up, and dropped us off at the beach a half a block from our buddy's house. They were nice enough to go back to the sunken boat and get some gps coordinates for us (I'd tied a life jacket to the anchor line as a float).
I guess a malfunctioning bilge pump float allowed water to flood the bilge. The guy in the boat was not paying attention to much until he said he noticed his flip flops floating around at which point he decided to bail the cockpit with a bucket. He told me a yacht came by and three waves washed over the outboard well and he kept bailing. He also says a little water had steadily been coming in but he didn't think much of it. At this point he said he could bail anymore because standing at the back of the boat was making more water come in. He says he hit turned on all 3 switches (the boat had a 2500 manual on and 1500 automatic bilge pump). He says he didn't hear any wirring so, I don't know turned them off? He says everything happened real fast and that's when he thought it might be a good idea to get my attention!
I'm sure everybody reading this is thinking of all the key things that would have made this a non-event:
- drop anchor and point bow into waves
- turn bilge pump on and leave it on
- pull up the hookah hose until my regulator is in his hands
- as a last resort, disconnect hookah start the motor and run the boat
Why none of those things happened:
- I did not specifically tell him where the bilge pump switches are (there are 3 switches on the whole boat lights, bilge and bilge)
- I didn't tell him what could happen if water started breaking over the 20" transom
- total pothead
Lessons learned:
countless, I need to write them all down to not forget any of the little details that occur to me as I replay the scenario in my mind.
I've had a boat my whole life starting at 9 years old with a 10' john boat and 4.5 merc. Plenty of sailing, offshore fishing and way to much info on boats, boat designs, safety, boat handling and on and on. My boats have not all been pretty, but always in very good working order, and until the 30th have always taken me home. My buddy has been fishing at least once a week for the last 15 - 20 years so when I was laying on top of my upside down seacraft I could not understand how this happened.
As an aside, I don't know why there hasn't been a class action law suit against all manufacturers of automatic bilge pump switches.
And finally, I'm really glad we all made it back and those guys from the Whitewater are definitely having some drinks on us once this salvage stuff is taken care of.

[Capt Chuck]

Thank God there was no human injury or tragedy ending this story

CSC member and Moderator "Finster" has the knowledge to give you some pointers with your salvage efforts ......I wish you the best of luck.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Sorry to hear your bad luck story and like Capt. Chuck said Thank God there was no human injury or tragedy ending this story other then the work and $$ to retrieve the boat and get her back and running again. Those automatic bilge switches don’t last for ever. I have had them go faster than the bilge pumps go. I try to test my pumps before each trip just to make sure there are working. One time I almost sunk a New 18’ Hydrasport on the second trip out. I was taking in some water on a 20” transom and decided to turn on the pump to find out that the builder didn’t remove all the small chunks of fiberglass from the inside of the hull at the factory. Well as luck would have it those chunks got stuck in the impeller of the pump and now no working bilge pump. Well the day of fishing was over and a ride back in with lots of water in the bilge began. I was luck that day and the next day the second bilge pump was put in the boat with its own separate switch.


FellowShip

Just for the Grins

[Ryank]

If you were about 5 hours closer My friend has all the liftbags, hoses, pumps, and connectors you would ever need, he is out of the salvae business and may sell all his gear. I have helped him do several salvages almost all were sail boats which are lots of fun. All I can say is I am glad you are safe and had wetsuits on and were rescued quickly, even 78 degree water can kill some in less then an hour.

[reelclassic]

I am here in Miami/Homestead if you need some help let me know and i'll see what I can do I am a scuba diver as well, Let me know I am off work today and tomorrow!

underwoodbrad@colliergov.net
786-255-0349

[bitsamonkey]

Thanks again everyone for your input and help. I got six truck and four large inner tubes, tomorrow I'm renting a 3" pump and I'm putting my other boat (25' Whitewater) back together to go out there on Sunday. The weather looks like it might cooperate and I'm starting to feel better about our chances. Whether or not the engine will be worth a damn after 5 days under water is another matter.
I'll be posting again tomorrow to let anyone willing to lend a hand know when and where. Thanks a lot for the support!

[NoBones]

Good Luck bitsamonkey..
If at all possible take some pics of the salvage
to share with all of us..
I'm doubtful the motor will be salvageable other
than the lower unit, carbs & block.
The crank, connecting rods etc. will be gone..

Keep us posted and we will be thinking about you.

Ken

[Blue197320]

i heard that its not the saltwater that destroys metal its after when air gets on it with the saltwater the rust and corrosion starts??

[McGillicuddy]

The Merc manual has a section on what to do after complete saltwater submersion. I'll be happy to send you the page via email if you can't read this. This is for my I-6 but it can't be too different...

Good luck!

[Caymanboy]

Not for nothin, but, usually if the engine stays submerered you can salvage it,(it,s once it hits the air it starts to deterorate) probably need to replace all the electrical, but the block and everything else should be fine. Just a matter as to whether is is financially better to just get a newer one.
Once you get the boat to the surface, upside down, tie a line to the bow tow ring, then in a strong boat tow the sunken boat backwards, as fast as it is safe, the bow will come up, roll over the transom, keep going, then the water will run out of the stern, tow this way till you can safely stop and pump out the rest, seen this done a couple of times.
Any single acident is never the result of one incident, it is the result of many different incidents resulting in a castastrophy.
Glad everyone is safe, use a Ultra Safety Systems bilge switch next time, you won't need to sue them