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So, after a long weekend of detailing my baby, I am raising her up on the lift Sunday evening. Cable breaks on the rear sling support and the butt falls five feet to the water. Front still in the sling, and boat is at some like a 45 degree angle. I was standing right next to the cable when it broke. Went off like a gunshot.

Luckily (i) hull did not stike the dock or bulkhead, and (ii) the snapping of the cable did not cause me any bodily injury. Sure, overwhleming mental anguish, night terrors, and near continuous bed wetting, but nothing physical.

Lower the front of the hull and moved her to another slip, but did not crank the engines. No observable water leaks Sunday evening or over night.

That said, what would the faithful do to evaluate or test the boat to make sure nothing is broken from the fall? Obviously, monitor the water levels to make sure no leaks. Going to check my engine mounts to make sure they are not torqued and still are tight. Also going to run her to check for a vibrations and whatnot. Anything else that comes to mind?

On the one hand, its a Bert. Gets slammed around alot, and so I'm thinking, the hull is likely fine. On the other hand, the slamming part is generally the front of the hull, and not the back end.

i would say your ok, hell i take hits like that just going out the inlet on occasion, like you said keep an eye on the water , and check engine mounts, if loose check alignment

A couple years ago I was down in Key West. I have a friend who was keeping his Hydra Sport up on a rack. We pull into the yard, and there is a rack on the right side of the yard, with no boats, that looks like a pretzel. All screwed up, bent, broken...

He murmers something. I say "What?" He says "Stop..."

He just stared for about 15 seconds. 15 seconds is a long stare.

Then he says...

"MY ###### BOAT WAS RIGHT THERE ON THE TOP YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!"

Rack was loaded with boats, and it rained. Hard. Like it does in the keys.

The rack collapsed, fully loaded with boats.

We found his boat, looked it over, threw duct tape over the cuts in the above board fiberglass, dunked it, watched to make sure she was not taking on any water, and then went fishing.

That was the day I heard the antenna vibrate from the lightening, remember that?

I say look her over. Start her in the slip. Drop her into gear front and back. Take her for a ride. Start slow. No visible damage, and you should be fine!

Dug

you mean you never got five feet out of the water and slammed down?


my bet is she's fine but i would surly pay attention for awhile. the first thing i would do is check to make sure there was no backflow up the exhaust pipe. at least turn the engines over. actually starting them up would reveal a bunch of possible problems.

One more thing...

I am sorry for the heart attack when the cable snapped! I would freak!

Dug

Ernest-The only thing I can think of from what others have said is the possibility of your being thrown a bit out of alignment from the twist that might have taken place. Also look for stress cracks in your Gelcoat that you didn't have before. Since you hit the water stern first, check your rudders and steering mechanisms. Walter

I built a lift for my old B25 at a camp we had on the central La. coast at Cocodrie. Used a big ole' surplus worm gear driving a 4" galvanized pipe thru a one inch roller chain and giant sprockets to wind up the cables. Worked great until one day as I was lifting it one of the sprockets shed some teeth and the boat came crashing down from 5 or 6 feet in the air into the slip, missing my head by inches. I know the feeling Ernesto....shock, and yes the bed wetting is normal. Mine went down level and had no damage, even tho the outdrives stabbed the muddy bottom up to the hull bottom.

Assuming the water was deep enough that your props & rudders didn't hit the bottom, I'd do as others suggest and check alignment and for water backflow.

But you know your heart is good.

UV

I did not even think about water forced back up my exhausts. If I had thought about that, I would have cranked her at the dock.

And, here is the rest of the story - I fished with Brian B. last summer. He looked at the cables, raised an eyebrow, and says, I would not trust those cables.

Then, I looked at them real close over the winter, and for the last month or so I had been bugging my Dock Master for new cables. I didn't think they were about to let go. I was more concerned about them dropping rust specs on my hull. The detailing over this weekend consisted in large part of removing most of that rust.

I finally cornered the Dock Master Friday evening, and he said he would check them out. He came by to check them out no more than an hour before the incident on Sunday. His inspection naturally revealed that the cables needed to be replaced.

So, once again, my big screw up is not listening to the wisdom provided by a member of the faithful last summer.

Thanks again.

Earnest

I have a 28 on a lift and I change the cables when ever I find more than 3 burrs in a 3 foot length. these cables are rated at 9,000 pounds a piece, but when they start showing rust or having burrs up and down them, it is time to change them. I guss it takes about 4 years of life span and then they should go.

Dick

See if they'll replace the cables with stainless and not galvanized.

Doubt you got any water flow back up the exhaust.

Had many a cable snap operating lifts over the years.

The special ones are the ones that let go when your on the boat.

First a mirror, then this...........scary. What else have your seen?

I use stainless and then wipe them down with grease because they pick up rust from the pulleys. I try to wipe them off periodically, but some times they just need a good scrubbing. But still, if I run into a burr, I start looking at replacing them. the stern ones seem to go the fastest because that's where the most weight is.

Dick

Ernest,
It seems like most of the new boat lifts come with galvanized cables...still can't figure that one out, but, the cables that I used to lift my bay boat out with, lasted 3 years and then were replaced with stainless. I had a 25 Blackfin do the same thing that Lil Bert did about 20 years ago at the new Matagorda harbor. I was in a dingy swapping out props, and as soon as I got out from under her, the back cable snapped. I would have been crushed for sure. Thank God that the cable didn't cut you in half...it sure could of happened that way. Let me know if you need to tie her off over at my place.
John.

Some would argue, not me mind you, that a certain Hyena neighbor inacted some payback for stealing said neigbors satellite dish.

Over the winter, I had a friend replace my bay boat lift cables and minor electrical work. He failed to tighten the clamps and shorted a wire such that it backfed juice down my cables come to find out later.

So, I went out one evening on a real low tide and caught/kept a somewhat short of legal redfish for dinner. I raised the boat, plucked the fish out of the livewell and grabbed the rear cable as a handle to exit the craft. The cable shocked me, I fell to the deck, boat lift cables came undone, boat crashed into water, redfish makes one little flip and swims away.

I don't keep short fish anymore. And I wouldn't let the Bridge Harbor democrats fix your cables without you being their either.

John - Thank you for your offer. The Hyena is currently in a covered slip at the marina. Looks like she will be out of the water today or tomorrow at the latest.

Tom - I don't believe the recent unfortunate victim of an alleged sat. dish theft has any leads. Certainly no leads which would connect me or the boat to the alleged theft. But, it sounds like you have access to the same "skilled labor" which frequents my marina.

Andre - Yeah, another brush with death. I'm thinking about upping the life insurance policy. More accurately, the wife is thinking about upping my life insurance policy.

Others - Thanks for your comments.