Don't forget put ALL of drain plugs!
 

Maybe not Happy Easter for one guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPscBxMS51Q

Well that's unfortunate.

When I was test driving a boat, the owner forgot to put in the T plug in the motor box area. I say forgot, but that is not technically correct. He never knew there was a plug there. His mechanic took it out when winterizing and he had no idea. While on the test drive, my friend noticed the carpet starting to get wet. I asked the owner, "did you put in the plugs"? He said, "plugs... I thought there was just 1". We started the bilge immediately, but had to turn the boat off for about 20 seconds while I put the plug in (which I noticed was in the glove box) while water continued to pour in. This was on Lake Tahoe, which as some of you might know is fairly big and crazy deep. We saved it, and fortunately nothing was damaged (not even the starter). That seller's day was almost ruined big time, and considering I had just driven thousands of miles to pick up the boat, so was mine. I ended up still buying it and fortunately had no problems since (bought it in 2007). Still turns over on the first crank every time. Gotta love Nautiques with EFI.

^ You've got more luck with the same problem. This baby had only mooring cover over water in the morning.

Maybe he will get lucky and it will be fine once it dries out.

That boat floated all night and was salvageable. If it had 500 lbs of lead in the bow like a lot of people's boats on here it would have gone straight to the bottom.

You don't have to forget the plug necessarily either. A raw water hose or fitting below the water line could fail and have the same effect.

Are there two drain plugs in every v-drive? I have a sanger v210 2004 and only noticed one in the very back. Where should I look for the other one?

And you know this from experience?

We've had a handful of situations where people's boats have sunk in their boat slips. From a variety of reasons, eg; damaged hull from bangin on the dock, rain collecting on the cover, exhaust flange, prop packing, outdrive baffle, etc. I admit none as nice as that LSV. But one that I can think of was a pretty nice Supra. The guy abused the boat all the time. Had a ton of lead in it. The cover had torn from all the rain it collected all the time. And the exhaust started leaking. The boat sank to the gunnels. I don't know if it would have kept goin down or not. The guy decided not to risk it & pulled the boat out. Untied it & floated it in to the beach where he used a basement sump pump to pump the boat out. It floated again. And after a grand or two in repairs it even ran again.

I have a feeling that a few hundred pounds wouldn't be the deciding factor from going to the bottom.

But if your boat is sacked out with the rubrail draggin in the water, accidentally takes a wave & floods the boat to the point that it is "only" sank to the gunnels, and not to the bottom, are you going to drain it & be OK with it?

At Lake Powell if your boat sinks then you HAVE to pay for the recovery, and it WILL be recovered! I was in a joint owned houseboat several years ago. It was on buoy at Wahweap and sank during a storm. The recovery cost $27,000 and we had to pay. The boat was total loss and the insurance company paid the bill.

So if my boat sunk to the gunnels at Lake Powell versus sinking to the bottom, would I be ok with it? Yes!

No. My guess only some big ones now. But old ski DD were all with central plug and many with the back one also.

You will first who will know... We hope it was first but not last day for this Mali this summer

My 2009 Nautique only has one.

I didn't know a Malibu could hold 4000lbs of ballast :)

True, recovery is going to be cheaper & easier. But the boat is no less damaged. Your still going to have a world of issues to make use of the boat again.

Lucky he is a fresh water boater.

A sea water flooding results in never ending corrosion issues that never seem to completely go away.

My 2006 Nautique only has one plug I know of, a T-plug in front of the Walter gear box. What Nautiques have a second, and where?

Good news - this Mali is again on the water!

did he just drop the boat in and jet, otherwise how would he not notice before it reaches the rubrail? I always spend some time in the boat to make sure everything is gonna be ok if it is left on the water.

^ Problem was done by man of customer service...

Ouch! So the customer service / mechanic pulled the plugs and did not put them back in? Did the customer service guy put the boat in the water, or was it the owner (who assumed the plugs were in)?

even assuming plugs were in and then having them not be, how did it make it even 10 minutes without the person that put it in the water noticing it was taking on water. in a usual situation, somebody would be occupying the boat immediately after launching. did it ionk after they launched and they just left it in overnight or did the plug somehow unscrew itself overnight. Otherwise, i can't see an situation where a boat that was just launched would end up sitting underwater overnight because of a drain plug. I've launched a boat without the drain plug in as i'm sure most on here have. It didn't take long for me to realize and i got it back out pretty damn quick.

Don't forget to close the ball valves on your ballast when your leaving your boat overnight too. I had one pop off while we were riding and it took me a little while to notice but water was pouring in through the pump. Now I always close mine while camping/houseboating.

Yep. One man has done winterizing Fall 2010 , but another one launched boat Spring 2011. Boat was put in the water in evening time by person known as "empty head guy". My guess service wanted to cut money on this procedure and did not use properly person for launching.:confused:

ahhh, gotcha. so it was on a marina and they literally just dropped it in and left it to sink. that makes a lot more sense.