"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:48:53 -0400, "mmc" wrote:

Vic,
I met a guy that had holed the hull on a 22' fishing boat (rebar on new
county ramps), drove the boat out to thier (Central Florida, Atlantic
side)
bottom fishing spot on plane (hull hole above water). It was a calm, flat
day.
Once at the fishing spot, boat drops off plane and water starts coming in.
They (owner +2) had time to get and write down a position fix from the
Loran
(this was late 80s), call the Coasties on VHF, disconnect and pack
electronics and fishing gear in a big cooler and don life jackets before
the
boat sank.
2 of the 3 were sport scuba divers. I'd have jumped in and plugged the
hole
with t-shirts/extra life jacket/neighbors cat/whatever, bailed and kept
bailing while motoring home. But then, I'd hope common sense would have
led
me to putting the boat back on the trailer to see what the heck all the
noise was from when launching and hitting the rebar.
He didn't admit it, but I suspect copius amounts of beer was involoved. I
hoped there was an excuse for this dumbassedness.
I don't think it was for insurance, the owner wanted my shop to recover
the
boat, old hull with a new motor and all the bolt on gear. He offered the
hull in exchange for the offshore salvage.
I told him to go find the boat and mark it with a bouy and then we'd talk
about what it was going to cost but we weren't going to do it for an old
hull with a hole in it.
He never came back. Don't know if he found it or even tried to.

Interesting. Were/are you a diver?
Seems most boaters don't think much about hole patch kits.
Common in the Navy and Merchant Marine.
Reminds me of the captain of the Rocket, an old Cleveland Tankers
oiler I did a few trips on as a watertender.
Think we were in Lake Huron when the captain put us dead in the water,
donned his scuba gear and went overboard with oakum and a fid.
Apparently somebody had spotted some leakage from the hull plates, so
he sealed them up with oakum.
A patch kit for a small boat shouldn't be hard to put together.
Maybe a sheet of visqueen and some glue/gunk that will hold it on
under water.
If I had a boat I'd look into it. Nice being prepared.
Of course when the **** really hits the fan it's a new ball game.
"What?!!"
"What do you mean the patch kit is in the garage?!"

--Vic

I was a Navy EOD Diver and an on and off inshore commercial diver for a few
years afterwards. Too many spoiled - college drop out - dope smoking punks
in that business for me. I decided I needed to do something else when I came
up the ladder one night and found the dive supe and standby diver smoking
pot. Me and another diver were relying on those idiots to help us if we got
into trouble. I knew they'd eventually get someone killed but it wasn't
going to be me.
The commercial schools used to turn out good divers, now they're just like
too many things, as long as daddys check clears, junior is going to get a
certificate.
In 2nd class diving school, we were trained to use tooker patches, and use
soft patches, cut and weld .
A friend told me of an instance where he mixed up a bunch (2-3 cups) of
epoxy glue and put it in a paper plate which was then folded in half. The
target was a 4-5 inch hole in a hull caused by rubbing on a piling. He dove
down, unfolded the plate and jammed it against the hole, holding there for
the 10 minutes or so until the epoxy kicked. Afterwards, they raised the
hull to the gunnels by crane and pumped the water out.
I agree that a simple patch kit would be a darn good idea: a piece of 3/8"
plywood could be stowed under a cushion, the cushion itself, a scrap of sail
cloth and line bundled, tapered wooden plugs and a mallet, and some sort of
plan that the skipper has shared with the crew.
Tapered plugs and a mallet are a definite must have. I believe more boats
are sunk by fixture failures than running into things.
So, why not have a boat Vic? Even just looking at boats is theraputic.