T&T: Boat sunk at dock, need advice

[Cole on Voyager]

I definitely agree with the other advice you got. My first thought went 
to dockside water supply also.
I was minutes too late to stop a boat in our marina that sank because a 
fitting failed in the fresh water system and the boat was being fed by 
the local city water which can be as high as 90 PSI. I strongly 
recommend against anyone using dockside water to pressurize your system, 
fill your tank(s) then remove the hose.

As for recovery, with luck you will not be bad off. I had an accident in 
my last boat ( a woodie) that tore out a strut and damn near sank her. I 
had water over both starters. They are still fine 4 years later. I 
didn't even remove them, just rinsed out the salt as best I could and 
sprayed most of a can of WD-40 into each of them. Now here's the amazing 
part. I had a friend check the oil for water and not until after I 
started both engines did I find out he had only checked the starboard 
engine. When I started them the port motor did not raise any oil 
pressure, so I shut her down after maybe 1-2 minutes run time. When I 
checked the oil, it was almost pure salt water!, no wonder it wouldn't 
make any pressure. I drained the water, filled her with oil and 
amazingly enough, when started pressure came up to normal and no 
problems were noticed. I ran her up to temp and then changed the oil 
again as it showed signs of water still in it. Again, that was over 4 
years ago and the engine is still fine, other than routine maintenance 
the engine has had no problems. Don't tell me Detroit Diesels are not 
tough SOB's. Hopefully  your Lehmans did not take on water, but even if 
they did, don't give up, just get them cleaned and oiled ASAP.
Best of luck,
Cole


Ken Tischler wrote:
> Our marina called late yesterday to tell our boat was sitting very low in
> the water. By the time I got there 20 minutes later she was almost on the
> bottom. Fortunately the water is only 8' deep at the dock. Nevertheless, we
> had four feet of water in the engine room, and 2-3' in the master stateroom
> and bow stateroom.
>
> TowBoatUS arrived a couple of hours later with a gas powered pump. It took
> about 5 hours to get all the water out and refloat the boat. What a mess!
> Worst part is we cannot find how the water got in the boat. Once it was
> pumped out no more water was coming in. All through hulls checked out fine.
>
> My question is what to do to about engines and transmissions. Tranny's were
> completely submerged, engines (Lehman 120's) got water up to about half way
> up the starters. What is the best process to use to ensure to clean and
> preserve the engines and transmissions?
>
> Looks like we are going to be spending the weekend ripping out sodden carpet
> and trying to dry the boat out.