On 6/9/2017 2:28 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 6/9/2017 12:42 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2017 15:26:58 -0400,
wrote:
He was thrown into the water yesterday in a boating accident,
apparently caused by a sudden steering failure. Just talked to his
wife and she says that he's in intensive care and not doing well.
Be safe out there.
===
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/former-northfield-center-trustee-brent-sommer-dies-following-boating-accident-1.772306
Too bad, nice guy who had only been our neighbor for a short time.
It's not clear what malfunctioned on the boat but most likely some
sort of steering failure.
Sad. I had an old Century that was prone to bow steering. Under the
right conditions it could be very scary and dangerous. The problem was
a hydraulic leak in the outdrive tilt/angle plumbing. I could get up on
a plane but the leak would allow the leg to slowly be pushed fully down
(towards the transom) due to the prop force. The result would be
clipping along, and suddenly the bow would dig in and violently turn,
usually to starboard.
Ol' Justin diagnosed and fixed that problem.
I liked the old Century lapstrakes with the straight inboards...
They were nice. Unfortunately mine wasn't one of them. I think it was
an '82 Century 2700 Express. Top heavy to begin with. Bow steering was
an exciting experience when it happened.
This was only my second "ocean" boat. Bought it in 1993 or 1994.
It had been repowered and it never really ran right. The rubber
coupling burnt up soon after I bought it because whomever did the work
didn't align the engine correctly. Then it wouldn't shift without
stalling. Then the outdrive started leaking, collecting water in the
leg. Then one day I was going to take my dad for a cruise from Scituate
down to Plymouth harbor. Got out of the harbor channel, got up on a
plane and I had my dad take over the helm while I opened the engine
hatch to make sure everything was ok. There was water ****ing out of
the side of the engine like a race horse. One of the plugs they put in
the side of the engine blocks had let go and it was pumping water in as
fast as the bilge pump could pump it out. Back to the slip.
Fortunately, I knew a guy (FlJim) that is pretty sharp on all those
issues and he got them all straightened out. Well, except for the four
barrel Rochester Quadra-bog carburetor. Rebuilds didn't help, soaking
to clean didn't help ... float adjustments didn't help. Sometimes it
ran fine. Most often it "bogged" as those carbs are famous for. Ended
up giving that boat to my brother. He used it for several years just
put-putting around the harbor and spending weekends on it. It was his
summer cottage.