I just thought I'd post up my recent experience that recently occurred to me when fishing in a mates boat offshore from Jurien Bay.
The boat is a Quintrex Freedom Sport 570( 2006 model) that has been kitted out for fishing. These millennium's are sweet hulls and it gets up and boogies with a 150 Yammie 4 stroke on the back
BUT......while we were anchored around 10 k's offshore, my mate's wife noticed some water beginning to splash around her feet on the back deck. My mate suggested that there was probably some water flowing back from the scuppers that happens from time to time.
It should be pointed out here that these boats aren't self draining in the true sense of the word, but have a small opening on either side of the deck towards the transom that runs to a skin-fitting on each side of the boat. The skin fitting sits very close to the boat's waterline, and water from the ocean is prevented from flowing back into the boat's hull due to a small plastic flap.Any extra water from the deck ends up in the hull of the boat where it can be pumped out with the automatic bilge-pump
But back to the story now....... As soon as seeing the water I quickly realised that something wasn't quite right, urging everyone on board( 3 adults and 2 kids)that we had to get going IMMEDIATELY. Lines were wound in as I pulled the anchor as quickly as possible. By this stage there was water starting to be ankle deep towards the stern of the boat despite the bilge pump running and buckets being used to bail out as quickly as possible.
It was about now that I instructed everyone to put on their life-jackets and one of the kids grabbed the EPIRB. We radioed sea rescue and informed them of our predicament,and they readied a boat on stand-by By now we'd realised that something was seriously wrong with the skin fitting/one way valve and we were taking on water fast. So far only a few minutes of time had elapsed and it proved impossible to somehow plug the hole.
Fortunately for us we just managed to get the boat on the plane before it was too late, albeit with a belly full of water. Once on the plane the hole was just above the waterline, and combined with more bailing and the bilge pump action, we were able to keep the boat on the plane and stem the tide. We arrived back at the boat ramp probably 20 mins later where we were met by a group of willing helpers who had been following our radio contact with Jurien Sea Rescue.
We managed to get the water laden boat onto the trailer where it drained for a good 15 minutes on the boat ramp !
On closer inspection back on dry land, we found that the skin fitting had completely broken off on the inside of the hull, effectively creating a hole of around 2 inches diameter that was taking on water at an incredible rate. These skin fittings are below the deck of the boat and cannot be checked regularly without lifting up the floor And what is more frightening is that the exact same thing had very nearly happened on the other side of the boat !!
Why any boat manufacturer would put a hole in the side of a perfectly good boat so close to the waterline is beyond me completely.
I'm writing this post so that any Quintrex owners on the forum or anyone who knows someone with one is aware of the potential disaster that may be awaiting them. I would advise everyone with a similar style set-up to regularly check there skin-fittings, or better still block them up completely like we have done since.
Our story had a happy ending but we were only a matter of minutes away from a completely different outcome.
