This could of been ugly!!!

[wildmaninal]

We went to the river early last sunday morning. It was me, my cousin, and his son. We got the boat launched with no problems. I went to start the motor after everybody and everything got situated and got nothing but a click the starter would not turn over. This isn't the only time this happened, but it makes the 2nd time the starter or soleniod acted up. So my cousin ties the boat off to the dock which is right at one of the ramps (which nobody was trying to launch at at the time). Much to my surprise the city ramps were busy though especially for around 5am in the morning. The past few times we have launched down there and be the only ones there even when we get back to load.

Anyhow I took the cowling off and asked my cousin to get ready to turn the switch when I give the starter a little tap. I have the old 2 handle control installed for my 85hp E'rude, and I had the throttle bumped up to where the cold start would be on the modern controls.

My cousin was turning the key over as I was doing the tap dance on the starter , I moved from the starter and bumped the soleniod one time then the starter finally kicked over. Motor started right up as normal, then I look up to see my cousin reach after the wrong lever on the control box , I started hollering "no no no no" as fast as I could but it was to late. He put the boat in forward gear with the motor still reved up and tied up (thankfully). The boat takes off, the rope's slack comes to an end and the bow jurks to the port side. I'm standing up at the back of the boat durring all of this, and I don't have very good balance due to a past injury but I held my spot and I didn't fall off.

My cousin quickly puts the boat in neutral and then idles the motor down which he was wanting to do in the first place. Now my cousin has driven my boat for a little bit in the past, so I thought he would remember how my controls worked, boy was I wrong. I have no idea what these people at the big dock where thinking and I really could care less but I'm sure that somebody got a good laugh.

No damage to the city dock and nobody was hurt thank goodness.

 

[rndn]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

As your title stated, that could have gotten really ugly and I know you realize how lucky you were that someone or something didn't get hurt or broken.

 

[Windykid]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

I was thinking how lucky you didn't fall over on the spinning flywheel.

Glad you are OK:redface:

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

Thanks Guys. I imagine the flywheel would be just as bad as the prop, especially if I would of landed hands first on it to brace myself from a fall.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

Windy & Wild get the blue stars on this one. The usual scenario in this type of situation is that the boat lurches forward, the hand goes out, and fingers end up in the flywheel. I've seen it before and its not pretty!

When the boat is out in open water and there is a scenario like this, one or more people usually end up in the water. This happened to an off-duty firefighter here in New Orleans, who was fishing with a buddy. If I remember correctly, both ended up in the water and neither one of them had a PFD on. The buddy was able to swim/tread water until rescued, but the firefighter drowned.

 

[Xrider]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

something simillar.

I own a 08 seadoo jet ski. so I had my 3 year old nephew around a few laps. he loves the water. so I come back to show my sister the controls. she climbs in the back, my nephew is still in front of me. I show where to start and stop the engine. so I push it and bam we take off like a bullet. my nephew had the throttle all the way down when I started it. my sis was in back thankfully holding with one hand and I had my one hand on handlebar. it took me few secons to grab his hand of the throttle.
the ski I have is rxtx 255hp sc and from stand still with trim all the way it will lift the front nose up really high. scared me a lot, and there was a kid behind the ski that ended up in a lot of foam for a few seconds.

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

may just want to get the controls fixed, and the starter too. its a safety thing. lucky this time.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

may just want to get the controls fixed, and the starter too. its a safety thing. lucky this time.

Yes I consider myself lucky. Nothing wrong with the controls though, I just have the old 2 lever setup still allot of boats out there with them old 2 lever controls. I sorta like it like it is, I did have the newer control box on there at one time but it was in bad shape and needed to be rebuilt. TD gave me the idea of installing the 2 lever control, which I already had on hand. Now what I could do is mark them, mark the one throttle, and the other shift. I can't afford to get the starter fixed unless it turned out to be the soleniod, maybe I can buy that. Been busy working on other parts of the boat (that hasn't required money), also been working on other projects.

That would scare the heck out of me to xrider.

Jay that's hard to believe a firefighter drowned but anything is possible. I thought they would be trained for water rescues etc etc.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

I'm not completely sure of the circumstances re the drowning. He was an older guy, as I remember. If he was a poor swimmer, he may have exhausted himself quickly. He may also have hit his head on the way out of the boat.

On your dual handle system - while marking the handles isn't a bad idea, I think I would not allow anyone to operate the boat who needs to look at labels to know which one to use. Really, if manipulation of the controls requires concious thought, the operator isn't ready to "go solo."

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: This could of been ugly!!!

On your dual handle system - while marking the handles isn't a bad idea, I think I would not allow anyone to operate the boat who needs to look at labels to know which one to use. Really, if manipulation of the controls requires concious thought, the operator isn't ready to "go solo."

You make a good point. In reality my cousin really didn't have any business touching the controls, all I asked him to do was to turn the switch over, I did not tell him to idle the motor down once it was started. I was thinking that all along, but I wasn't going to get on to a 30 year old man especially sense nobody was hurt and he knew that he screwed up. The motor should of ran for a moment in high idle anyway, it wasn't going to take long for me to put the cowling back on then switch places with my cousin at the helm.

I'll say this, I feel sorry for anybody that attempts to steal my boat because first off they are not going to figure out how to start it, second my controls are setup beckwards (which I'm use to). In other words, I pull the shift handle back toward me to go forward, pull the throttle back towards me to throttle up. My uncle has driven my boat a few times without a problem after I explained to him how the controls and ignition switch is setup.