TOPIC: My stupid season ending boating mistake

Bone head mistake #1, know your Nav. Charts.



Here I was, having a great boating day on the Niagara River with Steve G.



(Sorry Steve, the Iii-Paaad cut the bottom of your face off...)

So we were having a blast, photo-bombing the wood boats on the Around-the-Island run, jumping wakes, getting air and generally having a good time.

After we left the group, we decided to head up the river to the Buffalo Harbor. I know the area well enough to know better, but I don't go up that way that often so I just wasn't thinking...

Well, next thing you know we go from 45 to 0 in about five seconds after the most disturbing sound one can hear when boating...

Stuck in the middle of the Niagara River in what can only be described as an "oh-Sh*t" moment...

We called the Coast Guard, and some friends and ended up floating down under the Peace Bridge and getting a tow to Rich Marine.

Got an earful from the wife and an "I-told-you-so" from Mr. 88.

Doh...





Watch out for that group of rocks known as Bird Reef...

Dude....that sucks bigtime
repairable ??

Thats nuthin' We got so stuck in Lake Decatur, Illinois we almost spent the night. We should of asked locals of lake condition.Damned drought. Fire Department almost gave up due to overheating his engine in the mud! We lost a prop and had to head in to ramp backwards.Nice ending was they did not charge us.

Oh Yeah, totally repairable. The wife wants me to work on the Sun Ray next though. It's just as well, this one is not a great family boat. I've already got a short shaft motor for it, which is what it really needs. She'll be back!!

Your lucky you didn't pull the whole transom off. Did the motor kick up when you hit or just stay down? Looks like it should be repairable. Good luck with it. Skip.

Yeah, those knee braces did the trick. Whoever told me they weren't going to hold sure was wrong! Everything but the knee braces got busted! That was all put in with good polyester resin and mat too by the way...

CC when I warned you last year about the forbidden zone you did not tell me you were trying to make a jet drive out of the Tower,nice job !! Now you can skim right over Roses reef and not worry about any abrupt stops.

Some people will do anything so that they can work on there boat more. Skip.

Ouch Dave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been lucky, left motor loose and only bent the prop, while the motor jumped/tilted up! Got damn lucky actually. Very sorry but sounds like you were looking for an excuse to switch out that motor anyway!

Bob

OMG!!! you sure did a number on that. lookin at that map it sure get's shallow down in the narrows. should of towed it right to paradise boat works. ron

vuyosevich wrote:

OMG!!! you sure did a number on that. lookin at that map it sure get's shallow down in the narrows. should of towed it right to paradise boat works. ron

Got a new lower in the works from Tim, the new motor is coming from him too. Motor was just fine, knocked the lower shroud loose is all.

Here's another picture of the reef situation on the Upper Niagara near the Buffalo Harbor, not good if you're not familiar with the area...



Chart 14832: www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/14832.shtml

Rose's Reef over on the Canadian side, Bird Reef with path of boat and point of impact. Also Horseshoe Reef and Middle Reef if you're not careful...

Good fishing, bad boating.

I'm just glad you and Steve are alright Dave. That could have been much worse, ya know!?

I'm happy you got her back and out of the water. Good thing you had not snapped the transom clean off. Smile, repair and be happy your not sleeping with the fish. We have a shoal down here I fish off of strewn with skegs and broken props. I tried to wave a guy off one time and he just waved back right up to impact. He must of torn the teeth clean off all the gears. It sounded good but no turning prop.He limped back on his trolling motor.When I got back to the launch he was just putting it back on the trailer. Seems it was not his boat but his neighbors who had it for sale. He said it looked like he just bought a boat. Funny thing was it was his first trip onto the water just to try it out.