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 Posted - 03/01/2012 : 09:01:14 AM
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Last week I had a good friend call me to go fishing on Thursday. Hed just received his brand new boat and was itching to put it on the water and see how the boat performed. Hed taken the boat out for a short run on Wednesday just to make sure everything was working ok. We planned to fish the reefs for sheepshead, but as Thursday came closer the weather forecast changed from 5-10kt. Winds to 15-20kt gusting to 30kt. So we decided to fish at the jetties and stay inside the south jetties shielded from the wind and waves. We were able to anchor up and caught one fish had a few more bites and then things slowed down. We eased up to the rocks with the trolling motor and pulled the anchor so we could move to another spot. We lowered the boat motor, went to crank it and nothing happened. The check motor light on the dash flashed, we had good batter readings, but the motor would not turn over. Now we were at the mercy of the wind and current that was rushing out of the jetties.
We were drifting quickly and the anchor would not grab and the trolling motor could not fight the current. He was able to get the company that rigged the boat on the phone and after several different trials we were able to figure out that when the boat was rigged the wiring going to the starter was just a little to tight. When the motor was trimmed all the way up, it caused the wires on the starter to pull loose. We were able to get everything hooked back up and get the boat started, but during the 15-20 minutes it took us to get everything straight we had drifted all the way across the shipping channel. There was a pretty heavy fog just outside the jetties and had we been pulled outside we would have been in some pretty rough water with no power. I was just getting ready to get on the phone with his tow service when the motor was cranked, but things could have still gotten ugly quickly for us. When we got back inshore and were talking about what had happened, he said one thing he had not done since receiving the boat, was to trim the motor all of the way up.
I tell this story as we get ready to hit spring with plenty of people getting ready to hit the water and in many cases, they will be going 40+ miles offshore. Many will be fishing a boat that is brand new and thinking that nothing will go wrong with a brand new boat. Many will be fishing a boat they have been fishing for years and have confidence in their boat because they have fished it time and time again and it has always been reliable. Many people will not take the time to take their boat on a trial run to make sure everything is working like it should and making sure they are totally familiar with their boat. This can be a costly mistake and one that can lead to terrible results.
Take the time to take your boat out on a shakedown voyage. Run it through the paces with everything you can think of, even simple functions. Make sure your electrical system is working properly, your bilge pumps work and you have properly serviced your motor. I mentioned earlier people going offshore, but this also pertains to people fishing inshore. You dont have to be out on the open ocean to find yourself in trouble if something on your boat fails. For us, we were lucky and were able to get our boat started. We also had several people that knew where we were fishing and he had necessary safety gear and tow insurance, but things can happen very quickly when you are out there. Taking the extra time to make sure everything is as it should be can keep you from getting in trouble and avoiding a possible tragedy.
Andy Pickett
CharlestonFishing.Com |
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Shakedown Trips
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