Joe Coons
A number of recent incidents here in the harbor have prompted me to harken back on my days as an active airplane pilot. Just as with boats, I had a healthy interest in aircraft technology including, particularly, the human-interfacing systems. The efficiency and discipline of communications, standard procedures, and "traditional rituals" permeate aviation. It is my observation that this is much less true of boating!
I reflected upon this after asking my son, a shipwright, to align my propeller shafts and afterward he reported to me that the bolts connecting one of my shaft couplings were quite loose! He tightened them, of course, and gently reprimanded me for not checking them myself. (That's the trouble with those sons: they're so often right!) David then related to me several stories to add to the collection of "unobservant owner boo-boos".
One boater went out regularly to warm up the engine on a boat every few weeks during the winter, a good idea! While the engine ran, he'd retreat up the dock to a warm place, then go back down in fifteen minutes or so, and shut it off.
Trouble was, the Diesel engine's "return" fuel line had split, and was pumping a gallon-or-more an hour into the bilges . . . not discovered until spring, when the bilge had a quite a few gallons of Diesel in it and the boat smelled awful (is there anything that stinks more than Diesel?) Cleanups like this are excellent income sources for lots of harbor personnel . . .
Another boater owned a new boat, and had carefully learned where the "Y" valve was for the holding tank, using it regularly when going into Canada, and pumping his tank either overboard, in Canada, or at the pump-outs here. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the plumbing system on the boat had a second valve in it between the tank and the Y-valve, so the holding tank had been full for two years and was discharging overboard through the tank vent whenever it was used, but not at all otherwise. Ugh. The tank was so encrusted with old sewage after that time, the only alternative was to replace the tank, a gross and expensive job. And, of course, he had been fouling the water for two years without noticing. (I guess that's why his boat always smelled!)
What does this have to do with flying? Just this: Be like a pilot! Develop and use a "pre-flight" checklist for your boat, keep it very handy, and use it every time! It should have sections for "startup", "leaving the dock", "after departure", "enroute", "near arrival", "docking", and "shutdown", I would think. In addition, you might add a section with a brief radio usage guide, so all the info is always handy.
Such a checklist will not only possibly save you from a disaster, but it will also prevent that distressing lecture from young whippersnappers who happen to be your offspring . .
See you opening day.
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Last updated 9/12/97 by SCR