FS14 -The Ana Marie

[OrangeQuest]

Thanks everyone. I am very proud and lucky to have the employees I work with. And yes Fuzz, it gives me hope, but the employees I have are few and far between.

Ana Marie gets a chance to relax the next few days as we wait for warmer weather.

Most of us have done and I planned on something like this happening. Since it was a last-minute outing in the boat, I didn't take the time to double check everything was ready to go into the water. Since it is a state law to remove the boat's drain plug at the ramp when removing her from the water. I have an emergency bucket, with screw on lid, that holds the tools and spare drain plug. The plug I normally use is brass and requires an Allen wrench to remove/install it. When returning from an adventure, I lay out all tools, lines, fenders and PFDs so they can air out/dry. Then flush the motor and wash out all the lockers, leaving all locker doors open to dry out well. After a few days all gear gets stowed away.

The spare plug is PVC and can be hand tighten. Since I trip both circuit breakers to kill all power when in storage, I was leaving the two bilge pump switches to auto. For some forgotten reason, I turned the bilge switches to off.

I excitedly launch the boat, tied her up to a slip, as I was getting the stern line tied I noticed water coming slowly out of the floor drain. Then looked for the green lights at the bilge control switches, no lights! First thing I did was turn them both to auto, both instantly sprang to life. Then found that there was both a brass plug and the spare PVC drain plugs in the bucket. It was clear what I didn't do.

My first thought was to put the boat back on the trailer, with all eyes on Ana Marie, or just tilt up the motor and screw in the spare plug. Which once I hand tighten the plug, both bilge pumps finished clearing the bilge shortly after. And we will never speak of this part of the adventure.

[pee wee]

" . . and we will never speak of this part of the adventure."

No, we won't.

[Dougster]

Oh yes, I've sure done that...and:

Got to ramp and had no drain plug.
Got to river with canoe and forgot paddle
Dropped little bass in canoe and flipped it trying to get ahold of said bass.
Not secured ratchet of little 14' aluminum boat to trailer--slid off trailer, dragged behind boat a 100' No big damage.
Put wrong ball on hitch, LB22 popped off going 60 mph down hill and somehow the chains held. No damage.

Being a glass half full guy I figure I'm lucky instead of cursed

Dougster

[cape man]

all I'm going to say...

[Fuzz]

That is why my dory is built to install the plugs from the inside. Helps that all holes are above the waterline when no one is in the boat

[TomW1]

This has gotten to be a fun post. I bet all of us have had a boo-boo of some sort. Tom

[OrangeQuest]

The thing is, I "planned" this sort of thing to happen when I was building the frames for the tanks and the two bilges. With the small 500GPH pump being the main and the 900GPH pump being the aux. The thought was the small pump could work for day to day water from splash/spray, wet people getting in the boat and so on. There is a 3" space, full of foam, below the two tanks to allow the chase tubes and two drain tubes to pass through. The two drain tubes are 1/2" on the very bottom of the hull and a 3/4" tube at 2" higher for excessive water coming in. There is also a 1.5" tube under the tanks for the 3/4" hose from the 900GPH pump to discharge water out the port side beside the other pump. But all unwanted water that comes into the boat is channeled to the very rear of the boat where the smaller pump discharges it. If it cannot handle the amount of water coming into the bilge, the bigger pump then kicks in.

But the thought was, the unwanted water would be coming into the boat via the cockpit not a forgetful old man taking two young women out for a spin.

[Fuzz]

1 old man plus 2 young women = brain dead Gee who would have ever thought that could happen

[narfi]

@OrangeQuest I thought I had commented here, congrats on the launch, you did a great job!!

Being a glass half full guy I figure I'm lucky instead of cursed

I always figured angels guard the ignorant. I just have to figure out how to do things without losing my ignorant status.

[OrangeQuest]

We had an "off" afternoon with a chance of rain, so we took the Ana Marie out! Took the crew that was there through our slow dead winter and I think they all had a blast. Only time I got behind the wheel was to put the boat back on the trailer. Seems only a matter of time where there will be no need for me to even do that. My crew are workers and are very camera shy. I did talk them into letting me take this shot on the condition no faces.



Since we are just putting hours on the motor, which we reached 20 hours, it's great to have workers that just want to drive the boat. Even though one of them likes WOT or no throttle and needs to work on going easy from one to the other. But they all gave the Ana Marie a chance to show off how well her hull was designed. There was also plenty of space in the cockpit for all 4 of us to just drift and eat lunch in comfort.

This was the final test with extra weight in to see how well Ane Marie handles the weight and the choppy seas. Which there was no surprise she passed, but knowing she can handle that much weight, when needed, will not be the norm. But it may not be long I will be left on shore and the "crew" takes her out without me. but it was nice to see the girls having fun and if it means me being left on land from time to time, I would still enjoy it. I told them all to do so, they need to take a boating safety course online and I would pay for it. See how much they want to do it.