Taking on water..

I have no idea what's going on this year but I've had a bunch of friends who've taken on water while kayak fishing recently. I wish I could say that they're all newbs and made simple mistakes but most are pretty seasoned kayak fishermen and the chips just fell. Spot's recent story a perfect example.

I thought I'd start a thread about what to do in the event of such a situation and the idea of kayak floatation. What better way to open this can of worms than to hear another account from another kayakfishing OG. Here's Agarcias story from NorCal:

Agarcia: "[Disclaimer] I just wanna preface this by saying that I'm sharing the story so that others can add one more thing to their checklist before launching. I've practically grown up on the water and have logged countless hours on the ocean, bay, delta and lakes in boats canoes, prams, kayaks, surfboards, diving, swimming in conditions ranging from FAC to downright scary. During the ordeal I felt the situation had not yet escaped my control but very easily could have if I lost my head. I'd also like to add that I can take the ribbing if your gonna dish it out but piling on and on with safety lectures is just gonna prevent other people from posting similar experiences.....#$it can and will happen to anyone. [/Disclaimer]

Despite the crappy tides I hit OP, the conditions were windy, steady 10 knts outta the nw, no white caps, small chop but fishable.  Pt San Bruno offered some protection in its lee so I decided to make it a short day with a couple rounds of trolling in the area.  Minus tide at the launch meant I had to launch through the mud and rocks and I definitely felt my yak scraping over them in the skinny water.  The tide was incoming and working somewhat in relation to the wind so I planned to troll south, reel in my gear and fast tack back toward the launch and then troll south again. 

I finished my first run, reeled in my gear and started to turn my boat.  As I'm doing that I get hit broadside with a wind wave and it almost knocked me over.  After that my balance felt a little off and my boat was tippier than usual.  I instantly thought back to the swamping threads so I popped my center hatch removed the little pouch  and seen my hull almost half full of water.

At this point I figured a scrape from the rocks penetrated the hull or a scupper leak.  I attached my radio and gps to my life jacket then fished around inside the hull for my pump but couldn’t find it, crawling up to the bow to look into the big hatch was not an option cause the yak woulda rolled.  Took a split second for me to figure the best thing to do is hail a nearby boat before it got serious.  I got the attention of a boat that was roughly a quarter mile inside of me.  I paddled at him as he tacked back to me.  He pulled up and I told him what was goin down and he offered to tow me back to the harbor.  I hopped up on the boats gunwhale and transferred my gear to the boat.  After I got everything off I wanted to see how much water was in the hull, I reached my feet out to the boat and put some pressure on it and before I put all my weight on it the tankwell submerged.  I’m fairly certain the only thing keeping it afloat was the 2 noodles and the aired up drybag I had my jacket in.  It woulda held me up out of the water but would have been way too unstable to paddle.  

So we get back to the harbor and I pull the titanic up the launch ramp anxious to see what happened.  I pull the boat about halfway out, was way too damn heavy to get it any further and flip it upside down to look for a gash, nothing.  I popped the hatches and dumped most of the water and hauled it the rest of the way out and seen a stream of water coming out of the damned drain plug.  Of all things…..the drain plug was out.

Hindsight....

This yaks been on about a half dozen trips and I’ve yet to remove the drain plug cause I hadn’t had a  need to rinse the inside of the hull. In fact I really don’t like ever removing drain plugs since it took me 2 days to find the lost drain plug on my first ok prowler.  When I got home I checked it all out and it fits snugly, the little gasket is still good, I do not think it backed out.  I don’t recall unscrewing it after my last op trip cause I didn’t wash the yak off, I don’t know if the kids were screwing with it or the boogeyman got to it….but it was not in when I got back to the ramp that day. 

With my PB I always remove the drain plug and toss it in the bait tank at the washdown when flushing the engine and developed the habit of plugging it back in before removing the stern straps at the ramp on the next trip.  With my yak, actually with all my yaks, I’ve gotten in the habit of not taking it out so I never really check it to make sure its back in.  This was never really an issue with my OK or my Cobra but on the Tarpon it was my downfall cause it sits only about 2 inches above the waterline. 

PS My pump now has a leash that’s tied off on my hatch string so its easily accessible and I’m giving serious consideration to installing a real bilge pump."

Now off to pack a few more pool noodles in my yak..

Z

Excellent idea Zee.  I vaguely remember reading some chatter I think on here about cracks developing around some of the older Hobie drive mounts, or was it a scupper hole?   Either way, developing a crack that can't be seen while in transit has me a but more concerned than a leaky hatch lid.  Looks like pool noodles, float bags, and bilge pumps are a given necessity if any of the above mentioned failures/design flaws are even possible.   

Excellent idea Zee.  I vaguely remember reading some chatter I think on here about cracks developing around some of the older Hobie drive mounts, or was it a scupper hole?

Yeah there were problems on the older Hobies ('06 and previous). Cracks around the scupper holes can be a problem area for all yaks. Good idea to give your hull a once over every now and again.

Z

pool noodles!! You just can't have too many of them!

 Well, actually I almost do. I seem to collect a few more every year when they go on sale at the dollar store. Now I have a bunch of them. Cheap beach balls work well too, but pool noodles can never leak.

Cracks around the scupper holes can be a problem area for all yaks.
Z

I've noticed a few sot's with flat bottom cockpits that make a sharp angle up where it meets the gunwale tend to crack there as well.

Here's a great illustration of cracking at the scupper area. The yak is a Cobra Marauder.



To those interested here's a link to the whole story: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,17910.0/topicseen.html 

Z