Catastrophe at the Lake today

So today we are boating in the Sunsport 242. We are taking off slowly and my wife is ... what was that noise? I didn't hear it and things sounded normal. We are on the other side of the lake about to head back to the ramp. I slowly increase the throttle and start cruising. A minute or two later the engine starts bogging and I can't get any speed. I shut it down and go inspect the engine bay. We are taking on water... big time. I can't find the source of the leak but the bay is just flooded. I proceeded to get the boat to the boat ramp as fast as I could, because it's about to sink. So with high pucker factor, we motor at about 12 mph across the lake, taking on a huge amount of water. I still don't know where the water is coming from.

Get to the ramp and almost can't get the boat out of the water it is so full of water. Get it out and I see the problem. Water is draining out of the bottom via a fire hose sized hole. There was so much water in the boat it take s a full 30 minutes for it all to drain out before I can see what is going on.

Evidently we hit something and it sheared the triducer off, creating a 2" hole where the triducer is supposed to be. whatever it was also hit the edge and bunged the edge of the brass water intake cover for the ballast.

Great. Now I have to see what kind of damage was done and how much $$$ to fix.

Terrible day at the lake, but I guess I'm thankful the boat didn't end up in the bottom of the lake.

Glad no one was hurt but man does that suck... makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it... Who do you have for insurance???

Ski Safe. I'm hoping it won't be that expensive. I haven't had a chance to get under and really look.

Glad it was just damage to the boat...that's the best outcome from a situation like that. Good job getting the boat and the folks on it to safety.

Yikes. Did you change your paddle wheel recently and maybe not tighten up that transducer tight enough? Glad you were able to save it.

No, no work at all. Something hit the bottom of the boat. I saw scratches I the fiberglass.

You can get (maybe you have one?) a plug that fits in that hole, so that if that were to ever happen and you could see that the paddle wheel had been knocked out, you could at least get something in its place to stop the flooding.

Sounds like you were very lucky, despite the obvious damage and ruined day.

OK.. So the damage from the impact is minimal. Hole is still clean ... but need a new triducer.

Here's the worry.... Checked Engine Oil and there appears to be a bit of water in it... not really sure. Engine oil is not milky... but it's synthetic... so I still think it appears a bit too thin.. .or maybe it's just me. . Checked the Vdrive and definitely some water there (milky). I am assuming this is because all of the water swamped the engine bay while I was limping (sinking) to the ramp. Should I be able to flush the engine oil and the V-drive oil and be OK? I have no engine error codes.


/ What a mess. This was the first time out of the year on a fresh synthetic oil fill and vdrive fill.

Headaches...

Glad no one was hurt and you got the boat out in time! Yeah I'd definitely flush the trans fluid and engine oil. Run for a hour or so and change them again. Better safe than sorry-

As the old sailing saying goes:

Your here to tell the tale so you did the important things right :D

How did water get in the trans case? they have quite a tight o ring seal??
Well at least its relatively undamaged and all the expensive stuff is still good.
I was at a local dealer here in the UK for Nautique, MasterCraft and Centurion. He has a Nautique with a broken backbone, where the hull has literally cracked in half.....now thats catastrophic failure. Nautique have replace the whole boat free of charge (i wonder why) :D

That is bizarre the triducer was ripped out as it barely sticks down , if its clean then maybe it came loose and it hit the scupper as it moved back the underside of hull. If you hit something I would think you would have some hull damage. Maybe she heard the triducer hit the prop or rudder as it is mainly plastic .....very interesting. Anyways a new triducer is $235

Yes it's very strange. I definitely hit something...but not a scratch to the prop or rudder.

There's a good scratch in the gel coat starting about 4 inches prior to the transducer, and continuing after to the ballast water intake. The heavy bronze edge was bent up a bit, so I'll replace that. No damage after that. Strange

The actual transducer actually stayed in the bilge...it's the plastic fitting that cracked off. I tested the ducer and it measures temp and clicks. The speed wheel is cracked off a couple arms, so I'm going to do the wheel replacement and give it a go.

I did order the heavy bronze fitting to replace the one ripped out. My hope is that would survive a hit better than the plastic one.

I agree with you...the transducer is so low profile, I don't see how I don't have other damage. Very weird, Whatever I hit was very solid , looking at the metal intake bent.

The water in the v-drive is from the vent in the case from all the water in the bilge

I think I got off lucky!

Oh and I was told the New triducer us an updated revision...$535...wow. I hope mine still works good with the wheel kit!

If you have to go the full pop on the triducer, you may want to check out the gps replacement that goes in place of your paddle wheel, no need to upgrade to stargazer but you get GPS accuracy.

http://www.nauticlaugic.com/nl4.html