Jet Boat Safety

[jdmidwest]

Or a stiff crowbar. 

We jetted up a creek arm at Pickwick a few weeks ago. Floods had moved gravel around alot and lake was getting near winter pool.  I saw it, my buddy driving did not.  Thankfully we were able to power over it and get back to enough water to float the boat. Choked the grates up good,  had to get out and clean out rocks.   Getting one off a gravel bar is a pain, especially a 17 alum bass boat. Pretty heavy.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I just put a roll of waterproof gorilla tape in mine and getting a folding shovel in there too.  

[BilletHead]

5 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

I just put a roll of waterproof gorilla tape in mine and getting a folding shovel in there too.  

  My Buddy Richard that is now passed and I put a hole in the back of his boat. Back at the truck I had some medical tape.  We used a tool to peen the hole shut as best we could. Cleaned the spot and applied the tape. Went back and this time missed the rock and began to spank the hybrids on the fly rod. A man has to do what a man has to do :),

  BilletHead

[fishinwrench]

16 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

Or a stiff crowbar. 

We jetted up a creek arm at Pickwick a few weeks ago. Floods had moved gravel around alot and lake was getting near winter pool.  I saw it, my buddy driving did not.  Thankfully we were able to power over it and get back to enough water to float the boat. Choked the grates up good,  had to get out and clean out rocks.   Getting one off a gravel bar is a pain, especially a 17 alum bass boat. Pretty heavy.

I need to make you one of my (yet to be patented) Grate clearing tools.  😊

[fishinwrench]

If you've ever been victim of a jammed impeller and wanna prevent that from ruining your day again, throw one of these in the boat.  

A counter-clockwise spin of the flywheel will free it up 90% of the time.....but you'll never be able to do it without the flywheel wrench.

[fishinwrench]

I also keep one of these in the boat for reaching over the back and easily clearing leaves/weeds/ect. without having to get out of the boat.

[jdmidwest]

Little hand rake is a good idea.  I keep a stick of Water Weld in my bag for holes.  2 part epoxy stick that sets up in water.  Have not had to use it. 

Running on 11 Pt one day, we ripped a hole in the transom at the seam of the Panfish Special.  We had also sucked some sand in earlier and clogged the cooling system, the little red light was screaming at us that it was getting hot.

I grabbed a plastic bag out of the cooler and poked it into the gushing hole with my fingers and told my buddy to get on plane.  I then pulled the plug and started draining water faster than it was coming in around fingers.  Did I mention the bilge pump had failed also.  That little red light on the Merc 4 stroke was going off and the motor kept going in safe mode.  I would have to slip the plug in and idle till it cooled off enough to get back up on plane.  I thought we were going to lose it around Boze Mill.  I sure was good to see Riverton that day.

[Al Agnew]

Good emergency plug for holes of any shape or size (as long as not TOO big) is a piece of closed cell foam that you can tear or cut off to stuff tightly into the hole.  A length of pool noodle works about as well as anything.  I didn't know that when I put the hole in mine, but it's been in the boat ever since.

When I put the hole in my boat, I was four miles upstream from the access and almost out of gas.  I took off downstream wide open, pulled the drain plug so that the water would drain out as I was running.  But the hole had a flap of aluminum that was guiding water right back into the boat almost as fast as it was draining out through the drain hole.  So I was sweating bullets heading downriver, hoping I wouldn't run out of gas before I got to my truck.  In all the excitement, I took the wrong channel around an island, and was going so fast into such shallow water that there was no way to slow down enough to turn around, so I just kept it cranked and hit the end of the channel, where it narrowed down to a 2 inch deep chute not much wider than the boat that went for about 25 feet.  I hit it hard and scraped over it without even slowing down much, and kept on going.  Made it to the boat ramp, slowed just in time to keep from running the boat too far up the rocks beside the ramp, ran up to get the truck and back it down, and by the time I got the trailer in the water the boat already had 6 inches of water in the back.  But I got it onto the trailer and breathed a big sigh of relief.

[Blazerman]

Even after you get to be an old pro and run the rivers all the time you will still have mishaps. Ask any old river runner and they will tell you it is not a question of if only when it will happen.

Most of them have many stories about the times they have crashed or ended up high and dry. The rivers change after every flood and things move around a lot. Like everyone is saying boulders are the worse and logs and stump can do damage so try to avoid them. Running shallow many times means you will beach or at least suck some gravel so get use to that.

Only way to learn is to get out there and do it. I would say take it slow, but you normally want to stay on plain to run shallow so slowing down is not the best option in most cases.

Good luck.

 

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Blazerman said:

Only way to learn is to get out there and do it. I would say take it slow, but you normally want to stay on plain to run shallow so slowing down is not the best option in most cases.

Chris at Troutt insisted I put a whale tail on and if I didn't like it he would take off.  I had been running without one for probably 3 months.  I'm glad I did it.  I can run on plane slower than without it.  Never hurts to beach it and take a walk up the shoal before you just run it blind.  Saved me a lot of issues. 

I'm with Blazerman.  It's like wading streams while fishing.  It's not if you will fall in, but when.