6
« on: March 10, 2020, 10:54:02 AM »
Not sure if this is the place to post this or not....
Ok, its been some time since I've posted anything, not that I posted very much while we were building our boat. Anyway, last September my wife and I were headed out for some salmon fishing here on the Puget sound. We usually leave the dock at 4-4:30 am, we want to be on the grounds before light. We have a couple lights on the bow each one is over 1500 lumens, they work quite well but I guess not quite as well as we would have liked. We were going at a slow-ish speed (18mph) and from no where we hit a log. I'm guessing the log was near 25ft long and submerged in the center. The ends of the log were only slightly visible but enough to keep it afloat. We hit it on the bottom just aft the drivers seat on the keel it roll along the hull and then hit the engine, enough to lift it and drop it back down hard. We figured we were F'd! We raised the motor (250hp Yamaha)expecting to see the motor ripped up, but no nothing at all... We pulled the hatches and looked for leaks... nothing. However, we noticed the boxes and the was wash well were cracked away from the transom from the motor coming raising and coming back down hard. We got back in and put the boat on the trailer, climbed under the boat and found nothing. We know we hit pretty hard, but found no damage not even a dent. There was some discolored bottom paint that was slightly scuffed and a few splinters in the motors water intake vent. We inspected at all the main structure knees, stringers, secondary stringers etc. no cracking no damage.
The cracked boxes and wash well were easy enough to fix and clean up and repaint. Just wanted to say this boat is a TANK. We are still in disbelief about the minimum amount of damage. Not sure how we would have faired in a glass or an aluminum boat....