Free Yacht Chapter 5: It's sinking and it's on fire.

Continues the saga begun at How to Get a Free Yacht

The phone call: "Are you the owner of a boat with a beer keg on the deck labeled "diesel"?
Me: "Yep. Isn't she a beauty?"
He: "There's a problem with your boat."
Me: "Oh-oh. What happened?"
He: "It's sinking. And it's on fire."
Me: "Oh no. Wow. At the same time?"
He: "How soon can you get here?"
Me: "Ten minutes?"
He: "See you there. ."

Click on the mp3 file below to hear the similar message left on Captain Pat's answering machine.
He was climbing in Yosemite at the time.

Here's the table of contents of the whole saga:
Chapter 1: How to Get a Free Yacht
Chapter 2: Maiden Voyage of the Free Yacht
Chapter 3: Fix Broken Stix and other Trix
Chapter 4: Outboard Motor Mutilates Foot
Chapter 5: It's sinking and it's on Fire.
Chapter 6: How To Give Away a Free Yacht
Chapter 7: Get an Even Better One and Fabulize it.
Chapter 8: Celebrate Freedom
Chapter 9: Technicolor Dreamboat
Chapter 10: Privateer Knot
Chapter 11: Dismasted!
Chapter 12: Kiteboat!
Chapter 13: Mast Raising

sinking_on_fire_40kbps.mp3184 KB

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Step 1: How to sink and burn your boat without doing anything

Captain Victor and Captain Kenny were already at the boat.
We got out the pumps and started working.
Here's the boat with most of the water pumped out. The water was shin deep above the floorboards when we got there. It took us about half an hour to pump it out with the two hand pumps. The "gusher" lever/diaphragm pump was a lot faster than the pvc piston pump.

How did it happen? The boat has a slow leak through the rusted stern tube. When the water gets high enough to lift the flap on a float switch it turns on an electric bilge pump which runs for about ten seconds and pumps out the water. Those little pumps are the size of half a beer can and work really well. Until they stop working. One of them died and we didn't notice, because the other pump kept working and the boat stayed dry. Each pump is wired to a separate battery. Eventually the other battery died a natural death.

We went sailing on a sunday. Everything was fine. Some time after that the remaining pump quit doing its thing. The boat slowly sank at the dock. When the water got high enough it reached the end of an extension cord that was hanging off the side of the counter.
The 120volt AC started arcing and fizzing, making clouds of steam and smoke. The neighbors noticed the burning smell and came to investigate. It's actually a really lucky thing, because without the fire, no one would have noticed the boat sinking until much later. We don't know how low the boat could have gotten, would it have sunk to the bottom and flipped sideways hanging from the dock lines? Fortunately we didn't have to find out.

edisonofthefuture says: May 4, 2010. 10:13 PM

funny, and i don't mind finding it in an insrtuctable blog because it makes it less boring and makes the blog more lively.

from my view its an intructable on how to make your boat seem like its on fire. lol

rbbiggs says: Apr 19, 2010. 4:39 AM

A marine shore power cord and an electric bilge pump would work for next time.

Smeeon says: May 28, 2009. 5:14 PM

now I'm not a boat owner or anything, but wouldn't it be wise to put something like a water level detector circuit which can probably be found somewhere on here and wire it to an annoyingly loud siren to get neighbors etc to complain enough to get you out to your boat? just a thought.. probably a <$20 project.

dagenius says: Sep 2, 2009. 3:41 PM

Ah, but the real problem was the battery stopped working. So Even if there was a siren, it wouldn't work for lack of power.

altontoth says: Apr 19, 2010. 12:08 AM

And yet there was electricity for arcing and burning? I see a bit of a discrepancy here. By the by, those type of cords have only one use: taking up space in a trash can. Even in a house.

TikiTime says: Mar 30, 2009. 11:12 AM

Are you kidding? why are you not using a marine grade cord ? this kind of cord has NO place on a boat. I know this is done on the cheap, but Please.. PLEASE read Nigel Calder's fine text on boat electrical systems. P.S. Kudos on being resourceful & putting a boat together for cheap. Use your savings on safety first though, K thx

Del says: Apr 1, 2009. 6:02 AM

"I know this is done on the cheap, but Please.. PLEASE read Nigel Calder's fine text on boat electrical systems." Heh. Two things: 1) if Tim hadn't had that cord, he might have lost the boat (which he mentions) 2) It's cool to see a web-reference to someone you know; Nigel's an interesting chap. Sounds what Tim really needed was a marine version of the Leak Frog, often seen over at www.woot.com during their wootoffs.

theburn7 says: Feb 14, 2010. 11:43 PM

lulz, woot.com

superhornt says: Aug 26, 2009. 8:55 AM

"Are you the owner of a boat with a beer keg on the deck labeled "diesel"? "Yep. Isn't she a beauty?" "There's a problem with your boat." "Oh-oh. What happened?" "It's sinking. And it's on fire." lol!

Thelonelysandwitch says: Apr 26, 2009. 2:15 PM

This is funny, last summer a boat in our local boat slips caught on fire and sunk. The guy was telling us about most of the things you covered, and to fully close the gas tank before starting the engine. teh

hydrnium.h2 says: Dec 29, 2008. 9:05 AM

He: "It's sinking. And it's on fire." Me: "Oh no. Wow. At the same time?"

RgrMedic says: Nov 28, 2006. 10:14 PM

Farley Mowat would be proud! Is it flagged in Basque? Excellent post.