Yeah, Jeremy pretty much told the story, and that's pretty much how it happened so I'm told. Someone there recorded a video of it burning and then sinking (I guess it's a little over 45 minutes or so). By the time I saw it it was down to below the waterline, still burning. Didn't see it go down, but I guess the DVD the guy's sending me shows that part, lol.
Someone sent my brother a picture in his e-mail box (He hasn't forwarded it to me yet) with the heading, 'Dude, check out what happened at Saguaro, lol.
Yeah, VERY fortunate noone was hurt, was just filled up with 40 gallons!
Another thing to remember is if some else is operating your boat, make sure they know where the fire extinguisher is! (That wouldn't have hepled in this case, the boat was almost immediately consumed I'm told, but my brother couldn't find it mounted to the gunwall beside the engine cover, and had someone throw theirs to him, which went right into the lake about 10 feet short of him).
My best guess is a cracked fuel tank, somewhere low on the tank was leaking fuel. It had a bad gas smell after running it awhile that jeremy and Terry fixed (Leaking fuel lines at the carb), and that seemed to cure it. But yeah, I have run the boat all day and trailered it at dark with 1/4 tank in it.
We put it in yesterday full, ran about 5 trips across Saguaro lake, through the channel to a beach and it was on fumes. Shoulda taken note on that, but did find another cracked hose and loose clamp on the fuel pump, which I fixed before they went back to fill it up.
I'm going to assume that all that gas leaked out and prolly soaked into the foam under the floor. After filling it I guess they could smell a little gas, but assumed it was from just filling it.
But yeah, right at the channel entrance is where she exploded, burned, and sank. Dunno how deep, dunno if worth even trying to salvage anything from it, but the only thing left would be the flamed engine, pump and diverter (Being aluminum, dunno if that would even be salvageable). Water should be pretty deep there, I mean it's in the MIDDLE of the channel entrance from the main lake across from the marina.
Sherrifs dept hauled all the people and stuff in from the beach, as well as the 9 people I had on the Moo (Way overloaded, and just happened to be heading back to see what was taking so long. Another big boat flagged me down on the way, and then everyone jumped in the Moo and we went to see it).
Had the Moo tied to the dock for about an hour while they questioned my brother about the whole thing, so I sat on the dock with my feet holding the boat out from it so it wouldn't get beat up, pulling beer outta my cooler, lol. Deputy standing there too, laughing as I threw the empties in the boat!
I'll post the pic as soon as I get it at the end of my "Is there a 12 step program thread" on this boat, RIP, lol
Ray
