queensland Boat Ramp Chaos

[GregOug]

Went down to the Pinkenba ramp today and couldn’t believe my eyes. There must have been fifty or sixty trailers parked up, including right back up the access road and in the side street off that. This at a ramp that usually has half a dozen trailers at most. People were reversing down trying to launch a third boat on a ramp where two can be a struggle, especially at low tide and with the ramp’s steep and slippery sides. So much for social distancing. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi GregOug

That's really annoying, especially considering how hard it would've been to get all the boats in. We may go to the POB this weekend just to test out the sounder (it will probably be the local park but to take the kayak out we want to come home with a feed), so thanks for the warning. I couldn't imagine what it would be like on weekends!

Cheers Hamish 

[Old Scaley]

I reckon all the ramps would have been busy today. I am so glad I can get out on week days now, although the mid week se3ms to be busie4 now than it used to be. Probably more people not working. I hope everyone can get back to work soon, for many reasons. Did you put th3 boat in @GregOug? When I used to be restricted to weekend there were more than a few occasions when I have turned around and gone home rather than tackle the madness of overcrowded ramps and parking areas, especially if fishing solo. Still, can’t blame people for taking advantage of this weather.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Old Scaley

[GregOug]

Well. I was hoping no one would ask about the boat. But now that you have I suppose I better fess up. Lol. I did put the boat in and promptly started drifting away because the engine wouldn’t start! Luckily, my son had the quick thinking to get me to toss the anchor rope to him at the end the ramp. My throw just reached and he was able to stop me from going further out. Between him and the slight wind that there was he managed to pull the boat up onto the beach next to the ramp. Tried various things but the motor just wouldn’t turn over. I realised it must have been flat batteries. That’s right. ‘Batteries. Plural’. I specifically specified twin batteries when I ordered the boat so that I wouldn’t have battery problems! They were both flat. 
 

After pondering for a while I decided that I needed to get help because it would have been impossible to get the boat back on the trailer. Firstly, because we wouldn’t be able to pull the boat round the steep ramp sides, against the incoming tide and the wind. Secondly, because I honestly didn’t think we would be able to get it back on the trailer using only the winch. She’s a heavy boat and I drive it on and off normally.

i ended up calling the Brisbane Coast Guard who turned up after an hour and a half only to discover they hadn’t bought any power startup packs or even jumper leads with them, despite the guy on the phone asking me exactly what they needed. They ended up just tying up to my boat and manoeuvring it over to the ramp, where luckily we were able to get it out using the winch. Thankfully I paid for a yearly membership to the coast guard when I got the new boat.
 

i rang the guy who I bought the boat off and he said it must be because I hadn’t turned the batteries off at the isolator switch and various electrical devices had drained my batteries. I usually turn the switch off when getting back from a day out but hadn’t this time because I was in and out of the boat adding useless marks to the gps. 
 

Hopefully this might prevent someone else on here from going through the same thing as me. Modern boats, at least those with smart gauges, Bluetooth stereos, gps’s etc draw power if you leave the switch on! 

 

And it’s also why I was able to enlighten Old Scaley about charging his batteries, because I just finished the operator manual for the new battery charger I bought today! Lol.

 

cheers

 

Greg O
 

 

[Old Scaley]

Good lessons there @GregOug. Why don’t those things  happen when there is no one around?  I bet you got plenty of advice and encouragement from the peanut gallery at the ramp. 

[GregOug]

More than that Old Scaley. We got abused by a guy because he couldn’t get his boat down between my trailer (while we were having the anchor rope saga) and another boat being launched at the same time. He got an earful back! He had his young daughter about eight with him so I had to tone it down somewhat!

Otherwise no one else commented on us just sitting there and sitting there, probably because they thought one of us was trekking the mile back to our car to retrieve our boat! Lol

[GregOug]

Actually sitting at a very busy boat ramp for an hour or so really gives you time to notice things. There’s the newbies who take ten tries to try to reverse the trailer down then there’s the one guy, who I kid you not, reversed down quicker than I normally drive forwards! A real pro. At least 20k’s an hour backing a trailer.! Then there were the emergency service vehicles that pulled up and checked things out while we were waiting. First a police car, then a few minutes later Port Security and then, even a large fire and rescue truck. Who knows what they were doing there?

It was also interesting watching the different launching techniques. The single occupant ones were the best to watch. Some reversed down, pushed the boat backwards still attached to the winch ( always a dodgy idea in my book - especially given the removable winch handle spinning at a thousand miles an hour while they do so.), jumping on the front of half cabins and pulling themselves up by the bowrail, quickly starting the motor and beaching it next to the ramp, all the while being abused by some other idiot like the one I encountered for blocking the ramp with their car and trailer, stopping them from IMMEDIATELY launching their boat. Lol

It went on and on.

cheers

Greg O

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi GregOug

Well, after the whole battery issue, I'm sure you've learnt and you'll always have them charged.  

It is a shame about the imbecile at the ramp, and it is really bad for him to be yelling out at you when he had his child around, bad habits much! It would've been good to see the launching techniques though, and it amazes me how you waited so long around the ramps, the longest I've waited might've been 10 minutes... Saying this, I've only been to 3 different ramps with the intent to launch something in my life... If I ever get a boat I suppose it'll be something I need to get used to  

On another note,  on the fishing charter I've been on, the skipper could put in his boat in a jiffy, and then beach it ready for us to hop on. I guess it must be a skill you develop after doing it heaps.

Cheers Hamish  

 

[kmcrosby78]

Unlucky with the battery issue Greg, glad you got help when needed. Yes it is easy to forget to turn the isolator off. I normally launch at the north ramp at Manly Harbour but my wife got there first today to inform me it was overflowing so I sussed out the south ramp and luckily there were still a few trailer parks (not taken by cars with no trailers ..... grrrr!!!). Got the boat in quickly but on the way back in about 2pm was a different story, boats/jetskis everywhere!!  Really bad ramp set up there with only two lanes and the pontoon is on the side (like it is at POB), then there is a second pontoon on the other side with a walkway bridge out to it but water separates it from the ramp, so only really suitable if you need to drop someone off and then can drive straight onto the trailer.

Luckily for us everyone was behaving (mostly) and we probably only took 15 minutes to get the boat out. As I did so (on the outside lane) a large trailer got reversed in (not belonging to the fibreglass boat that was next in line on the pontoon) and a guy in a large fibreglass boat delicately steered it in between mine (he was well clear of mine) and the fibreglass boat tied up on the pontoon - I had a bad angle but he must have been VERY close to nudging it and I can't imagine the owner of it would have been real impressed if he had .....     Ahh the joys of beautiful weekend weather .........  

[GregOug]

Yes. As I said. Chaos. I obviously never got out of the river but I imagine the normal boat parking areas like Mud and Harry Atkinson must have been teeming with boats.

[rayke1938]

I would say you had the battery switch turned to both. There must have been something left turned on to drain the batterys.

Also check what type of battery switch is installed . Must be make before break type and NEVER turn the battery switch off when the motor is running as you can damage your alternator on the motor.

If you are certain that you did not leave any accessory turned on you need to investigate to see if there is a problem with the wiring.

Cheers Ray

[bicter]

Cant recall which motors you're running but the majority of outboards have the capability of being pull started once you remove the cowling.

[GregOug]

4 hours ago, rayke1938 said:

I would say you had the battery switch turned to both. There must have been something left turned on to drain the batterys.

Also check what type of battery switch is installed . Must be make before break type and NEVER turn the battery switch off when the motor is running as you can damage your alternator on the motor.

If you are certain that you did not leave any accessory turned on you need to investigate to see if there is a problem with the wiring.

Cheers Ray

Hi Ray,

Yes, the isolator was turned to both. There are certain electronic pieces in the boat which are always lit up, albeit small blue LEDs, such as the USB charging ports in the glovebox.

cheers

Greg

[GregOug]

2 hours ago, bicter said:

Cant recall which motors you're running but the majority of outboards have the capability of being pull started once you remove the cowling.

Hi bicter, 

There’s only the one motor but I wouldn’t like to try to pull start it. It’s a 200hp 4.6L V8.

cheers

Greg O

[Angry51]

1 hour ago, GregOug said:

Hi bicter, 

There’s only the one motor but I wouldn’t like to try to pull start it. It’s a 200hp 4.6L V8.

cheers

Greg O

Ya need more cement in ya diet.

[aussie123]

To have items in your boat that are only running led's and internal memories drain 2 batteries there is something seriously wrong with your wiring or with some item in the boat.

Twin batteries should last for weeks like that before they are dead flat, especially if they are reasonably new batteries.

I would definitely be investigating things a bit further to find out what has drained 2 good batteries.

 

 

[GregOug]

Hi Aussie, 

I have them charged now and the isolator turned off. I will keep an eye on things over the next couple of weeks. If it happens again I will certainly look into it further.

cheers

Greg O

[aussie123]

37 minutes ago, GregOug said:

Hi Aussie, 

I have them charged now and the isolator turned off. I will keep an eye on things over the next couple of weeks. If it happens again I will certainly look into it further.

cheers

Greg O

If nothing was definitely left turned on I would be looking into things Greg as you may have a dead short somewhere.

The last thing you want out at sea is electrical failure or even worse, an electrical fire.

Do you have an automatic bilge pump under the floor as they can be a cause of flat batteries if left turned on.

[GregOug]

Hi Aussie,

I’m not sure what to do. The boat dealer seems to think it is quite possible that they have discharged with the isolator switch left on. Not sure why. For background it was about a month since my last trip and I probably spent around two and a half hours in the boat in the garage in that time. I have had the gps/sounder on during that time learning how to use it and putting marks in. I also had the stereo on for about an hour total. 

cheers

Greg O

[GregOug]

Oh, and there is a bilge pump which I believe is automatic. It also has a manual switch on the dash which I pushed to check and you could hear the bilge pump kick in, which was loud enough for me to know that it wasn’t on before.

[aussie123]

Hopefully then you just flattened them with everything you did.

I'd say you will be ok now knowing what actually happened leading up to this.

[GregOug]

Just as a bit of a follow up to the flat batteries issue, both the battery in our Lexus and the one in the Camry gave up the ghost in the last couple of weeks. The guy from RACQ said it is happening a lot at the moment due to cars not being used during Covid19. The Lexus battery was even still under warranty. Imagine that, something giving out while still under warranty! Anyway, before he left, I thought to ask him about the boat batteries. He said it was definitely possible that batteries could flatten over a month or so if a circuit was open. He said modern devices have a discernible drain if left on.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey GregOug

Thanks for writing about the follow up, that is surprising about the Camry and Lexus, I would've thought they'd be fine if left for a long time. I guess not! It's good that you have a strong possibility to what happened with the batteries in the boat though, hopefully it'll never happen again.  

Cheers Hamish

[GregOug]

39 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hey GregOug

Thanks for writing about the follow up, that is surprising about the Camry and Lexus, I would've thought they'd be fine if left for a long time. I guess not! It's good that you have a strong possibility to what happened with the batteries in the boat though, hopefully it'll never happen again.  

Cheers Hamish

Well, I’m definitely turning the batteries off each time I use them in the boat now so we will see.

[rayke1938]

Would have been hectic at the ramps this weekend. I went to Victoria point yesterday afternoon and there were trailers parked in all the side streets and nearly up to The Pelicans nest on the main road probably at least 1.5 ks away. Almost as bad as boxing day or easter.

Cheers Ray

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 hours ago, GregOug said:

Well, I’m definitely turning the batteries off each time I use them in the boat now so we will see.

Hey GregOug

Alright, sounds good. Let's hope it works. 

2 hours ago, rayke1938 said:

Would have been hectic at the ramps this weekend. I went to Victoria point yesterday afternoon and there were trailers parked in all the side streets and nearly up to The Pelicans nest on the main road probably at least 1.5 ks away. Almost as bad as boxing day or easter.

Cheers Ray

Hi rayke1938

That is crazy, especially considering they were parked up more than a Kilometre away. Must've been absolute hectic (I don't think there'd be another way to describe it).

Cheers Hamish 

[Hweebe]

Been there done that . Over time I’ve changed my pre boating routine from always turning over the motor the night before to avoid ramp embarrassment to investing in a Ctek trickle charger as I don’t get to use the boat as often as I’d like. I now also have a cheap eBay Bluetooth battery monitor that I can pair to my phone and check the battery Is charging from my lounge chair. As a final strategy When launching I always start her up before She is off the trailer (one less thing to do if she doesn’t start). If I see someone struggling to start their boat I’ll always offer some reassuring words, simple things like kill switch, neutral gear, fuel bulb. Sometimes in the panic at the ramp people forget the basics.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Hweebe

That looks like a great set up there, and the set up for charging (the Bluetooth battery monitor) seems very helpful. Does the trickle charger slow the flattening rate? (Excuse my amateurism in this LOL). 

Cheers Hamish  

 

[GregOug]

Thanks Hweebe

[Hweebe]

2 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Does the trickle charger slow the flattening rate? (Excuse my amurturness in this LOL). 

 

 

I wouldn't be without a trickle charger for my boat because i  only get out once per month. What the trickle charger does in summary:

1) Bulk charge your batteries post a session out.

2) Once it charges the battery to about 90%-95% capacity it transitions to a slow rate (trickle) charge to 100%

3) Once it hits 100% the charger will stop charging (to prevent overcharging)

4) A lead acid battery typically loses ~2% capacity  per week (sitting isolated) once the capacity drops below 90-95% the trickle charge kicks in and repeats the cycle.

Thereby always leaving your boat battery topped up between 90%-100% without overcharging.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Hweebe

Thanks for that, it seems like a very good investment to stop malfunctions and technological problems, etc. 

Cheers Hamish  

[GregOug]

On 11/05/2020 at 12:47 AM, Hweebe said:

Been there done that . Over time I’ve changed my pre boating routine from always turning over the motor the night before to avoid ramp embarrassment to investing in a Ctek trickle charger as I don’t get to use the boat as often as I’d like. I now also have a cheap eBay Bluetooth battery monitor that I can pair to my phone and check the battery Is charging from my lounge chair. As a final strategy When launching I always start her up before She is off the trailer (one less thing to do if she doesn’t start). If I see someone struggling to start their boat I’ll always offer some reassuring words, simple things like kill switch, neutral gear, fuel bulb. Sometimes in the panic at the ramp people forget the basics.

Hi Hweebe,

Thanks for that. I just ordered two of these on eBay. I presume you just connect them up to the battery and leave them there. And you can just check on their status at any time with the app?

cheers

Greg O

[Hweebe]

32 minutes ago, GregOug said:

Hi Hweebe,

Thanks for that. I just ordered two of these on eBay. I presume you just connect them up to the battery and leave them there. And you can just check on their status at any time with the app?

cheers

Greg O

The instructions say they can be connected straight to the battery but I don’t recommend this. Good practise Would be to add an inline fuse in case of any shorts. I had a spare 3amp inline fuse from a previous sounder install which I just recycled.

My boat batteries are dual terminal so it was a straight bolt on as the second set of m10 terminals were not being used.

Not that I have needed to switch the Bluetooth monitor off but the ones I purchased have no way of turning off (outside of disconnecting them from the battery) so an inline 12v switch may be handy.

[GregOug]

42 minutes ago, Hweebe said:

The instructions say they can be connected straight to the battery but I don’t recommend this. Good practise Would be to add an inline fuse in case of any shorts. I had a spare 3amp inline fuse from a previous sounder install which I just recycled.

My boat batteries are dual terminal so it was a straight bolt on as the second set of m10 terminals were not being used.

Not that I have needed to switch the Bluetooth monitor off but the ones I purchased have no way of turning off (outside of disconnecting them from the battery) so an inline 12v switch may be handy.

So you leave them on all the time, but with an in-line fuse as a precaution?

[Hweebe]

Just now, GregOug said:

So you leave them on all the time, but with an in-line fuse as a precaution?

I do leave them on all the time, the current draw is 1mA (negligible) which is more than compensated for by the trickle charger which I have always connected.

Not saying I know enough about wiring but the fuse is a no brainer for me. I’ve played around with enough 12v wiring starting with my teenage years with car audio, speakers amps to complete rewire of my last boat and trailer. The fuse has saved my bacon and potential fire a few times. You can never be sure with eBay electronic components in a marine environment.

[GregOug]

3 minutes ago, Hweebe said:

I do leave them on all the time, the current draw is 1mA (negligible) which is more than compensated for by the trickle charger which I have always connected.

Not saying I know enough about wiring but the fuse is a no brainer for me. I’ve played around with enough 12v wiring starting with my teenage years with car audio, speakers amps to complete rewire of my last boat and trailer. The fuse has saved my bacon and potential fire a few times. You can never be sure with eBay electronic components in a marine environment.

So how did you decide on a 3 amp fuse and do you put it on the positive or negative lead?

[Hweebe]

54 minutes ago, GregOug said:

So how did you decide on a 3 amp fuse and do you put it on the positive or negative lead?

The theory is the fuse blows before the wire connected melts due to a short. The wire that came with my battery monitor was around 1mm or 18awg which over the short 30cm would be good for 5amp+ (Easily).  I used 3amp (Under the 5amp) as recycled, plus it is a fuse size on some of my other electronics already. I carry spare fuses for all my boat fuse sizes, could have chosen 1amp or 2amp but it is not a fuse size on the boat so would need to add more fuse spares) 

Fuses always on the hot side (positive).

[GregOug]

Okay. Thanks Hweebe. Much appreciated.