This is copied from my post (Sept. 2007)on the old forum when I almost sunk my boat.
Ok, now that yesterday is over, I can breath a sigh of relief and talk about the situation. I have a 1802 Trophy WA. I am the second owner of this boat. Yesterday was rough as hell but we went out to Ft. McRae anyway. Well we decided to put in at the old Nichols Seafood ramp over here in Milton and make the long journey to McRae. I live in Milton. Well about the time I passed NAS Pensacola, I had to pull the throttle back a bit to slow down because the chop was getting a little much for my boat. And I noticed the boat was running a bit sluggish. As a slowed down, all of sudden I felt water come rushing by my feet. I look back and about pissed myself.
There is water (about 4" worth)on the back portion of thedeck. This means that my entire bilge is full underneath the deck. The 1802 Trophy's are not a self bailing deck. I throttle back and then think, what the hell am I doing throttling back. I should be heading to the nearest shore NOW. Try to power back up on plane and she almost does not make it back on plane due to the weight of the water in my boat and I had to leave the helm and go to the bow just to get back on plane. Then I make it to Ft. Pickens and beach the entire boat. Open my cabin only to find a foot or more of water in there also. The bilge was going but wasn't doing it's job good enough. Reach down into the bilge only to find a bunch of junk in my bilge pump. Clean that out and the water finally starts to go down. It took over 20 minutes to get all that water out.
Now, where the hell did that water come from. I wasn't about to go anywhere without knowing where the water was coming from. Well the previous owner had re-rigged a washdown pump at one time. The pump no longer worked, so he simply pluged the hose coming from the pickup underneath the boat. Well, because of the beating I took from the choppy waters, that makeshift plug that was in that hose came out and the water pickup underneath just started to fill up my boat from who knows when on my trip yesterday.
Got the water out, pluged the hose with a more permanent solution and enjoyed the rest of the day at McRae with the family.
I never again want that sinking feeling while on a boat. That was the worst day on the water that I have had yet and hopefully I will not have to experience something like that agian on the water. So just a friendly reminder to check all avenues of water entry into your boat often, like livewells, raw water washdowns, etc...