jeffnick
Well-known member
Planned to go out on a New Years Eve cruise overnight. Loaded her up with 40 gallons of non ethanol fuel, got myself a dinghy to get the dog ashore for potty...
and the next morning I woke up to find 20 gallons of gasoline in the bilge -- with the electric space heater running because we didn't winterize in anticipation of the launch.
The bilge pump emptied about 10 gallons of gas onto the cement and I sucked 10 gallons out of the bilge and another 20 out of the leaking tank.
The boat didn't come with a garboard drain plug but I put one in after the fiasco. Fittings to be installed later.
The day after I got all the fuel out of the boat/bilge/tanks, the shore power and heater quit working. Now I had to fix that or winterize.
Found the shore power inlet had burned through the hot wire.
and the cord was toast
might want to check yours?
My electrical engineer son-in-law said that even though the inlet and cord were 30 amp, the wire from the inlet to the fuse panel was only 20 amp rated.
So we fixed the wiring and shore power cable -- and left the space heater on so none of the water left in the bilge would freeze and do damage. I guess having gasoline in the bilge would tend to inhibit rot anywhere if there was any?
I've gotta pull the engine to get to the fuel tanks. 'Been working on something that will let me do it myself. A tow truck is the fall back option, but being retired, a schedule, if only to have the tow truck over for 10 minutes or so, just isn't palatable.
I'm working on a pickup crane on deck to get the motor out...
then I have a cherry picker to get the motor off the deck to the ground
...then we'll start to work on the aluminum tank removal. You can see the tank here, peeking into the engine compartment.
This isn't a "Poor, poor Nick" scenario - I'm enjoying every minute of it, and it appears that Big Duck wants the upgrades rather than burning herself down!
and the next morning I woke up to find 20 gallons of gasoline in the bilge -- with the electric space heater running because we didn't winterize in anticipation of the launch.
The bilge pump emptied about 10 gallons of gas onto the cement and I sucked 10 gallons out of the bilge and another 20 out of the leaking tank.
The boat didn't come with a garboard drain plug but I put one in after the fiasco. Fittings to be installed later.
The day after I got all the fuel out of the boat/bilge/tanks, the shore power and heater quit working. Now I had to fix that or winterize.
Found the shore power inlet had burned through the hot wire.
and the cord was toast
might want to check yours?
My electrical engineer son-in-law said that even though the inlet and cord were 30 amp, the wire from the inlet to the fuse panel was only 20 amp rated.
So we fixed the wiring and shore power cable -- and left the space heater on so none of the water left in the bilge would freeze and do damage. I guess having gasoline in the bilge would tend to inhibit rot anywhere if there was any?
I've gotta pull the engine to get to the fuel tanks. 'Been working on something that will let me do it myself. A tow truck is the fall back option, but being retired, a schedule, if only to have the tow truck over for 10 minutes or so, just isn't palatable.
I'm working on a pickup crane on deck to get the motor out...
then I have a cherry picker to get the motor off the deck to the ground
...then we'll start to work on the aluminum tank removal. You can see the tank here, peeking into the engine compartment.
This isn't a "Poor, poor Nick" scenario - I'm enjoying every minute of it, and it appears that Big Duck wants the upgrades rather than burning herself down!
