Well ELMO.

[Skipper]

I went ahead a typed elmo in on my own.

As I mentioned in that Bass Pro thread, they bought Southeast Marine. It took effect Jan 1st. Since tracker and Mercury are heavily tied together, Southeast will discontinue working on JohnnyRudes. I'm getting ready to go to Okeechobee the 18th, and was checking out the rig this afternoon and hit the starter to see if the batteries were up, NOTHING. Battery is not dead, it's the starter, switch or solenoid. I don't know which yet. Did I mention, my engine is a 200 hp JohnnyRude Looper.

Now I gotta find an outboard mechanic.

Skipper

 

[Toliver]

I know a dang good outboard mechanic. I'm just not sure it'd be worth a drive to Acworth, Georgia for you.

 

[Skipper]

That's what I'm aggrivated at Bass Pro for. DRIVE to mechanic. Southeast is just out the road from here. The next nearest JohnnyRude mechanic is Farris Marine which is really only 5 miles from Southeast, but I can't trust them to put the bolts back in the engine. Allowing my lower unit to fall on my old 40 hp was one thing, but definitely not something I'm willing to risk on an $6,000 engine. The next place is 25 miles away and they are contemplating dumping JohnnyRude to become an exclusive Mercury dealer. When that happens, It's going to be an hour pull to anywhere that has a JohnnyRude Mechanic.

Skipper

 

[Skipper]

Wheww. I's worried. When I flipped it back last March, we just took the starter apart, dried it and put it back on. I assumed that was the problem. Pulled the cowl and got to checking. Loose ground wire. Had me worried there for a bit. I just knew someone I didn't trust was going to see me coming and hit me for $500 for a starter.

Marine dealers are sort of funny about working on a boat they didn't sell to start with. When Farris's had my old 40 in for the rebuilt, they let it sit for 3 weeks before they even started on it because I didn't buy it there never mind I wasn't living here when I bought it.

Skipper

 

[brandon]

OK, I'll bite - how'd you flip it!? :

 

[Skipper]

We were blasting off for the first tourney of the year, and going into the first turn headed up the lake I had 5 boats in front of me (I drew #7 on the ease off). Anyway, 3 of the boats were just about through the turn and as I turned my engine to set up into the turn, I got broadsided by one of their wakes and it was over before I knew what happend. I only knew I was wet and cold. (March 6th surface temp about 48)

The best I can figure is this, the wake knocked the boat out of the water and when it came down stern first, with the engine just being turned to go around the bend, it shot the hindend out from under the rest of the boat. It was a barrell roll spin sort of thing, to be honest I really couldn't tell you.

My rig is a 392 Ranger with a 200 JohnnyRude on it. So it's a 20' Lead sled heavy boat not a Norris Craft or Bullet. Of course I was running as hard as I could, probably about 55 or so mph. I'd actually cut it back just a tad and trimmed it down to keep from sliding in the turn as I had another boat beside me. I'd just turned and looked at the guy beside me and let him know I would keep it from sliding on him, the next thing I knew I was experiencing a heck of a lot of G force to the point I couldn't see or tell what was going on. Royce who was beside me said it threw water 40 feet over the top of his boat when it came down.

There was no correcting whatever happened, I was more or less white knuckling the steering trying to hang on. When it went over, it drug me under water for a good ways. I guess I was fortunate to have had a dip of snuff in my mouth so I had my mouth shut tight. Finally, I sucked out the back of the boat.

I'm no rookie driving these rigs. Been doing it since I was 6 years old. I'm 36 now. I've never had anything even close to that happen to me and I've been in rough water and many tournament blast offs.

Skipper

 

[Jim Thompson]

Sounds like a tough day on the water....

Jim

 

[Skipper]

Oh, it was fun all right. Have you ever seen that commercial with the Ranger Boat with the side cut out of it, 6 men and 3 or 4 weights in it and it floats "Level". I can tell you from experience they don't float like that full of water. The float exactly like every other swamped bass rig, Bow up and Stern down. It never did sink, but we tugged, pulled swam under tied off winched drug, wrestled, and kicked that rig from 9 am to about 4 pm before we managed to get it on the trailer. It would not stay upright. It kept rolling over upside down on us. We actually had it flipped back over 30 minutes after I rounded up a crew to help and another boat to work on it. We towed it back to the dock and were prepping it to tow it across the bay to the trailer when the bow went straight up, it did a ballet spin and back over again. It went to heck in a handbasket after that. We broke both our ropes, pulled the dock's anchor loose and finally broke the cable. We went and got new ropes, a bigger boat to do the towing, got everything re-tied, got some advice from a Yankee that didn't know up from down, Got balled out by my wife for wrecking the boat, and finally got it upright and pulled up on the bank.

By then, they were coming back for the weigh in. Of course we were blocking the ramp with my truck and another one we were using to tie off to. One of the other bigger boats and Dad's 20' Ranger We tied both off to each side of mine and began easing it across the bay to the ramp.

I'm here to tell you, a 20' boat chock full of water is one heavy son of a gun. It was all that Diesel F250 wanted trying to pull that trailer up the ramp. We'd move it up a couple feet at a time and drain/pump, a couple more and drain/pump. It took about 40 minutes to get it up the ramp once it was on the trailer.

One thing I know certain. Deka's sealed Gel Batteries are the cat's meow of boat batteries. They ran upside down in the water the whole time. When we flipped it the last time, the running lights and 1 depth finder were still on although the depth finder didn't last long when it came out of the water. Still the batteries had enough in them to run the pumps for the 40 minutes we were putting it on the trailer.

You talk about one whipped puppy when I got to the house.

Skipper

 

[QuakerBoy]

Dang Skip....I think you had the toughest year of anybody I know

here's hopin 05 is a better one for ya



of course if it is....I'll sure miss these stories

 

[Skipper]

I'm just glad I got that starter problem fixed without having to pull it to who knows where for service.

Skipper

 

[Hunting Teacher]

Now I gotta find an outboard mechanic.

Skipper[/QUOTE]
Sorry Skipper,
I don't know any. I own a Yamaha!!
Just kidding.
Glad to here you found the problem. Used to own a "looper" myself. The thing was bulletproof. My brothers and I put hundreds and hundreds of hours on it. It was still running perfect when the boat was sold.
Teach

 

[Howard Roark]

I bet algore could have written you a ticket for polluting the lake for messin in your drawers when that happened (or at least If it was me it would be the case.)

 

[Skipper]

I didn't have time to pollute the lake as it was happening. It's hard to explain how quick it happened. I know I looked over to see how close I was to Royce going into the turn, waived at him and the next thing I knew I was sideways with enough g-force to sling me across the lake. My right arm went in the water up to my shoulder and I could not pull it out of the water, then my face, then it stopped fast like, and I slithered out the back from underneath. Having your face drug through 48 degree water at 50 some mph is an experience for sure. Once I bobbed up I saw the rig upside down, but I couldn't even pee if I'd have wanted to. It was so darn cold my thing had retreated back to my kidneys I guess

The fortunate thing with the cold air, cold water, and cold rain that came later, the forest service never did come down to see about some gasoline that might have been dispersed although I really doubt I lost more than 5 or 6 gallons. I don't carry a lot of fuel most of the time because it's just extra weight. When Chet got ahold of it, he siphoned off the water, and I actually ran the gas in it the next weekend out.

My game warden buddy did come by after someone called fish and wildlife. It was sort of funny. We were in the process of lining up for another attempt to flip it over when he showed. Rolling this rig over was a rather involved piece of redneck engineering. We had 2 ropes ran under the boat tied off to the anchor cleats on one side and 2 over the bottom of it tied on the other. We had to get all the ropes just the right length, the boat positioned in the wind just right, the 2 tow boats just right and all the helpers knowing what their part to do was because it wouldn't stay upright long enough to explain it later. I had just come out of the water from swimming under to tie off a rope and was working a come along to take out some slack when Tom came down the trail behind me. He hadn't seen me yet and didn't know who it was. I said, "Fising License is in my bilfold in the glove box, and I ain't swimming down there to get it. He asked, "Do you have insurance?"

I just handed him a rope and lined him up with one of the positions.

Skipper