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Wayne.B

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:20:41 -0400, wrote:

If you just want to limp home at hull speed I bet you could just drift
over a submerged poly tarp and pull it up to the gunnels all around
then bail the boat out. If you had a huge hole, pull a PFD cushion (or
something similar) up under the hole first to support the tarp.
It would be easier if you could actually get in the water to align
things but that assumes you are somewhere warm.
That won't help the guys with straight inboards, tho you still might
be able to keep the boat from sinking, even if you can't use your
engine to go. That is when it is handy to have that skiff on the
davits to tow you home. or just a kicker on a bracket.

Only once have I seen a boat with a large hole threatening to sink.
We were at Cuttyhunk Island south of Cape Cod 4 years ago when the
coast guard and SeaTow brought in a 40+ motor yacht that had banged a
rock and put a shaft strut up through the bottom. They had three
very high capacity pumps onboard keeping it afloat. I believe SeaTow
had a diver who was eventually able to slow things down but don't know
what they used.