Public Service Announcement

[Byram]

This happened to a family members boat last October. 2000 222 fisherman 250 4stroke. Grady dealer serviced , launched and hauled from date of purchase. I wanted to post now as many of us northerners boats are still on the hard. Will explain. Boat was hauled and grady dealer took it to their facility. (10 mins away). Motor promptly pickled and boat drained and washed with fresh water. Without going into crazy detail, after some pretty forensic examination by dealer and insurance company the cause of the sinking was the motorwell inspection plates. Not the pry off plate but the actual round frame itself. Most people check or clean and lube the black rubber O ring. How many of us have unscrewed the whole assembly and rebedded each one in new 4200 etc.. Please please check yours. Thats on my list before launch this year.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Hope it works out well with the boat.

I absolutelty HATE those deck hatches in the motorwell. My 265 had the original POP-Out ones when I got it. Scary!. Changed them to screw in and sealed well but I still don't like them.
Now that I have new motors I'm tempted to seal the frame and threads permanently with 4000uv

BTW they aren't for "inspection", they are for accessing the motor bolts. Thats the only reason they are there.

 

[Fishtales]

Going out on a limb here. I'm thinking the dealer did not install the garboard plug. If not that I'd say the boat was improperly tied and when the tide changed it was swamped. For the plate to be the issue, water has to get into the well, which only happens in a rough following sea. Even if this happens, a crap ton of water is required for that to happen. I'm having a difficult time thinking it as due to water getting past the sealant. Could be the dealers way of trying to shift root cause away from something that clearly is their responsibility.

That being said the OP points are valid for both deck plate seal and screw or pop in O ring. I have the screw-ins and never had a leak. The pop-in model is not the best design for ports outside the cockpit in my opinion.

 

[Ky Grady]

Sorry that happened.

I'm with Fish on this. No way waves swamped the boat into the splash well. This boat's stern is facing a breakwall, even if wind was up, no way for waves to build enough to flood the splash well to sink it. Another thought, defective bilge pump, a bunch of rain, leaking hatches into bilge, push stern down, water in splash well, then seeped around non sealed ring. In either of these scenarios, the automatic bilge should have come on. Looking at the pics again, just saw this. Pop in inspection plate is gone. Would have to sink fast for water pressure to pop it out.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Well, it's the internet and let's speculate. The dock boy did it with the owners daughter in the snack stand behind the live minow tank. Wait, that's not in the picture . we clearly need pictures of the owners daughter. Wait, this ain't THT.

KY , initially I thought bilge pump but that ride should have two ,so at least one would kick on. Then I thought , what about having low voltage on the batteries so neither kick on? Then you got why would they need to be on and you come up with drain plu forgot to be put in likely scenario or the motor well inspection plate wasn't actually on and boat was tied too short and tide goes out dropping the stern . if the it's tied too short at low tide then it comes in the boat floats and with verticle rise the dock lines be ok. I saw pontoon boat at St. Joe Peninsula State Park on Cape San Blas tie his lines too short on the bow and tide goes out. His stern and motor well went under as the bow couldn't drop too. Then you could have flooding over the inspection port if something happened similar in this scenario.

So, why was the bow line too short? Again,dock hand got distracted by the owners daughter behind the live bait tank. That's a classic story that we have all seen playout at every marina we have been at. Am I right? the other moral of the story here is only use marinas where the owner has no daughter so the deck hands can stay focused on your boat. And ,make sure your batteries are fresh, bilge pumps work, the inspection plates are the best they can be and don't tie your boat short at high tide.

 

[seasick]

My fist thought was also the short lines but in this case the dock appears to be a floating type and short lines should not have been an issue. I also highly doubt that leaky deck plates were the issue but to be fair, without knowing a few things, like how much rain fell, how long was the boat in the slip, did the bilge pump work before slipping, and finally, did anyone periodically check the boat, pump and battery state

I am not sure but I would also expect drain scuppers in the motor well and those would drain a lot more water than the deck plates would leak.

 

[PointedRose]

Seems to me that the starboard stern edge of the boat might have got caught under the edge of the dock. That stern line is quite short and could use a fender squeezed in there.

 

[ElyseM]

docks are floaters. i'll cast for missing plug, broken thru hulls, etc.

 

[seasick]

It might still be possible that a wake caused the gunnel under the dock lip with those short lines. That might have been enough for the scuppers to be underwater and backflow filling the well and eventually deck.

 

[Uncle Joe]

Yikes!

 

[Fishtales]

Regardless - that SUX!

 

[Byram]

Heres the skinny from what I understand and speculated on. Dont forget the hull is 21 years old. That 250 on full tilt up half the skeg was wet. Transom might have been on the heavy side. The motorwell scuppers were close to the waterline. The boat saw daily use till the incident. Im thinking with running and slowing down the stern would take the wave. If the deck plate sealant was compromised, water would start to migrate into the bilge. Im guessing the float switch or the pump failed and that saturday night when the boat was tied up the scuppers were even with the waterline and it just keept coming in. I got the call sunday morning when the dock master notified the owner and they called me. The short line u see is my work to keep the stern up. I had been the caretaker of that boat for 12 years. Just this summer some younger family boaters took it over. (not mine). Hard lesson.

When we trailered the boat I took the drain plug out myself and crawled under suspecting the thru hull ducer..nope. No water leaking anywhere except the drain. As you can see from the pix the top end of the motor is above water. That saved it. It was running the next day.Wires and electrics replaced etc. Boat was dried out and floated for days with no water migration. Dealer said when they filled the motor well, the water came right in around the plate frames. The dealer wanted me to run it and see what family wanted to do . Family elected to keep it, Insurance paid , All harnesses and wires etc have been replaced. I said " A new 236 is gonna run 130k+ If you get a few more summers out of this.... thats fine". I know it will never be 100% but let the kids learn and become more responsible and aware of boats and the attention that needs to be paid to them.

 

[Ky Grady]

Thanks for the follow-up Byram.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

My 3.3 liter F250 on the 228 could never get the skeg out of the water even when new. I don't think it is an indicator of a wet or heavy stern ,but more so mounting height and how Yamaha makes the motor and tilt mechanism.

I think based on what you know Brian is the bilge pump /float switch failed and all the running that day filled the bilge and as you noted when they put the boat in the slip ,the motor well drains were submerged and it kept filling ever so slowly.

Now that the mystery is solved , Scooby and the gang are off to pull the mask off of Old Man Smithers for chasing people off to get a better real estate deal on the haunted marina .

 

[SkunkBoat]

Zoiks!

 

[Punchline Cap]

With only a few years boating experience i have a question not just about this incident but about mooring. Because of the lack of a port side stern line, wouldn’t a port side springer line tide to the dock be helpful? I see just a fender tide to the port mid cleat. Wouldn’t this be helpful in keeping the boat away from the finger dock?

 

[Fishtales]

Watch the core closely. I'm guessing it had to have gotten wet.

 

[Uncle Joe]

It is a little funny that nobody mentions the Offshore in the background of the first picture. You can't take a picture of one Grady in a marina without getting another in the frame. Say what you will about certain aspects of their construction....they must be doing something right.

Hope it all works out with your boat Byram.

 

[Byram]

As long as were solving mysteries..heres another. This happened on a july afternoon this past summer. He was out in the morning and came back. I walked by the boat around 2pm and came back a little later and this is what I saw. Me and some of the guys couldnt believe it. He had to have compromised the hull . It happened so fast. The boat was removed and he didnt return for the rest of the season. I hope to see him this year and find out what happened. As shaggy would say "Its like weirdo man".. Seems my marina likes GW walkarounds better than center consoles

 

[PointedRose]

As long as were solving mysteries..heres another. This happened on a july afternoon this past summer. He was out in the morning and came back. I walked by the boat around 2pm and came back a little later and this is what I saw. Me and some of the guys couldnt believe it. He had to have compromised the hull . It happened so fast.View attachment 19552 The boat was removed and he didnt return for the rest of the season. I hope to see him this year and find out what happened. As shaggy would say "Its like weirdo man".. Seems my marina likes GW walkarounds better than center consoles

This one seems caught over the edge of the dock. Unlucky marina