Flood, Foam, and Advice

There was a flood at my lake this week. The water came up about 6'. The next door neighbor floated my 75 SN out of the boathouse and tied it off so that it didn't destroy the boathouse by floating in it. That was very kind of him, but my boat hangs without the bottom plug in it. I guess I don't have to explain the rest... It could have been worse: there were quite a few $70K boats bobbing down the lake towards certain death going over the dam.

My boat is back on the lift and supposedly drained. The flood water was muddy and silty. Apparently the swim platform never went below the water surface, but the floor was wet (it was raining though). Beyond that, I don't know a whole lot at this point.

My main concern is that the water level rose as high as the starter and silted its insides. Maybe the same issues with control cables. What else should I be looking for when I head out there this weekend?

Note: I had planned to re-string the boat in the next couple of years and the plan was to do it sans foam. If my boat had been foam-free this week, I'd be limited to collecting an insurance check. Hmmmm.

Shawn,
If you feel the starter is the only thing affected, you're lucky. Yes, your neighbor did a good deed.

Pull the starter ASAP and open it up. Clean the insides, blow it out and regrease the bushings. It should be fine.

Do pull both the trans and engine dip sticks and check for water. Then, keep a eye on them.

OK, I was lucky. Here's a sample of what it looks like here.

horkn wrote: HOLY CRAP!!!!! You were totally lucky. That sport nautique looks to be unscathed, but only because the roof didn't collapse from the pontoon. Looks like those pics were taken from a boarding boat. Did someone else get lucky too?

The Sport needs a new windshield, at least. It, like all the others, floated to the boathouse ceiling and bashed against it for a few hours, totally submerged.

These photos are pretty representative of the carnage, but there are a number of people who live there full time. Most of those folks did OK because all you really need to do is float your boat while the water rises and falls, and push away the boats, houses, trees and garbage that came blasting down.

Lake is officially closed 'till after the 4th.

That Sport is going to be in tough shape... motor underwater for hours, and untouched since it came up....   ouch.

Yeah, McQueeney. Dunlap and Placid look like that too.

Pete: Down here, if it has a lift and a roof, it's a boathouse. Most have a concrete patio deck on top, and almost all are built on oilfield well casings. The boat cradle is suspended from above. Almost none have sides, and the reason, well . . . When my in-laws first bought a place out there, there were mainly just fishing cabins and modest weekend places on the lake. Boathouses had sides back then and were built on wood poles. It's a constant level lake, but it's a small lake. So small that every third year or so, heavy rains raise the water level a couple feet.   Then there was a huge flood in 1972, and boathouses with walls fell to the hydraulic pressure of the current and the wood structures snapped. So there's your explanation for the colloquial use of "boathouse."

Subsequently, there have been huge floods (+/-500 year) in 1998 and 2002. This was probably a mere 100 year flood. lol. Crazy thing is that property values have risen by about 500% since '95 or so . . .

GottaSki wrote: Crazy. looks like you did ok. skfitz wrote:    If my boat had been foam-free this week, I'd be limited to collecting an insurance check. Hmmmm. Although there are foam skeptics here, i believe nobody has recommended rebuilding without a flotation system.

Really? Cool!

Folks have other non-foam flotation systems? You mean air? Or something else............?

GottaSki wrote: Crazy. looks like you did ok. Although there are foam skeptics here, i believe nobody has recommended rebuilding without a flotation system.

This is correct at least with my comments. I've always suggested getting more foam in under decks just don't put it back in the bilge! However, with a carefully done stringer job with epoxy, there's really no reason foam can't go back in the bilge.

What a nightmare! My 73 skier has 2 large blocks of styrofoam glassed to the underside of the deck. I am only refoaming up in the front where the stringers end in the box. The cavities outside of my bilge will be completely sealed with epoxy and short of a breach in the hull should provide plenty of buoyancy in a flood situation. I like the idea of packing empty 2 liter bottles with the caps on into the cavities too.