Birthdays & Boat Fires

FlatsNBay · August 02, 2018, 03:32:15 PM

The last 2 birthdays that I had were eventful. Two years ago my boat broke down 5 minutes in to my birthday fishing trip and then last year I had to save my little nephew who almost drowned in the pool at the timeshare that we were staying at. This year I was prepared for anything.

Went out on the St. John's for some birthday fishing. At the end of my trip, I had the trolling motor down in the water and began storing my rods and tackle. I walked to the bow of the boat to pull the trolling motor up and low and behold the head of the TM was smoking as well as the battery cable for the TM! I pulled the TM up and the prop was wrapped up with weeds. I untangled the weeds and the head of the TM was now really smoking! I grabbed my pliers and cut the hot wire going to the TM so that there wasn't any power. The TM stopped smoking so I turned around to walk to the console and Oh No! Thick black smoke is pouring out of the console!! I grabbed my fire extinguisher and tried to figure out where the smoke was coming from but it was too thick to tell so I doused the entire battery compartment and wires underneath the console. I used up my fire extinguisher and thought that I stopped any fire. A few seconds go by and I heard a crackling sound! The wires coming from deck to the console were on fire! I grabbed my spinnerbait box, dumped it out and used it to poor water on the fire!! The flames FINALLY went out and I idled back to the ramp. I disconnected all of my batteries and was finally in the clear. Pretty scary!!

Happy birthday to me once again! LOL. I did end up catching one fish so all was not lost! The boat is in the shop. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. Crossing my fingers!

Capt. BassinLou · August 02, 2018, 03:37:30 PM

Holy Crap Flats!! That's a crazy story. Fortunately you were able to put out the fire.
I almost I had a fire on my boat once with my previous TM. Fortunately we smelled the smoke and it didn't catch fire.

FWIW... happy bday bud.

FloridaFishinFool · August 02, 2018, 03:38:14 PM

Glad you saved a life! And then your own!

Happy birthday!

Mike Cork · August 02, 2018, 03:54:57 PM

Wow, not cool. Awesome quick thinking and preparedness though

could have been much worse. Hoping for a less expensive fix

BarryFL · August 02, 2018, 04:50:56 PM

Pictures?

Just kidding.

Boats and marine batteries scare me. The whole serial to get 36v out of 12v batteries, etc is PFM to me.

Glad you were able to get it out and on the trailer. Water and electrical fires is not a good combo.

Happy Birthday!

~Barry~

LgMouthGambler · August 02, 2018, 06:47:46 PM

Good Lord man! Glad youre OK. No more outings on your Birthday. As a matter of fact, stay home and wrap yourself in bubble wrap. Lol. Happy Birthday despite thw madness.

<")))>{

Lipripper · August 02, 2018, 07:16:02 PM

Sorry for your boat trouble but glad your OK and maybe you should not have anymore birthdays.

big g · August 02, 2018, 07:18:19 PM

Wow, that's the nightmare, fire on the boat! Glad you got it out and home safe. Now the job starts, new wiring. I hope the rest of your Birthday goes flawlessly. Sorry to hear!

Capt. BassinLou · August 02, 2018, 07:20:55 PM

Flat's did your TM fuse fail?

SteveTX · August 02, 2018, 07:36:35 PM

Well everyone knows to get ya a fire extinguisher for your b-day now.

Happy b-day and glad everyone is safe.

Pacific NW Ron · August 02, 2018, 07:43:52 PM

Pretty scary. Sorry it happened especially on your b-day and glad you're OK.

Princeton_Man · August 02, 2018, 08:10:14 PM

Dang!
I'd suggest staying in bed on your birthday but, maybe an isolated place in the desert would be best.
Hope your insurance will fix the the boat.

Happy Birthday.

FlatsNBay · August 02, 2018, 08:26:49 PM

Thanks fellas. My wife said to now stay away from any water for my birthday.!

Lou, im not sure what the cause was. We'll see what the mechanic says.

On the brighter side, I did have a great rest of the day. I even scored some new tackle and gift cards.

Donald Garner · August 02, 2018, 08:40:27 PM

Happy Birthday buddy. Sorry to hear about the fire issue. Hopefully the insurance will take care of it.

SFL BassHunter · August 02, 2018, 08:59:43 PM

Happy Birthday, and WOW you have some serious bad luck on your BDAY! You should skip it from now on. LOL. That way you won't get any older, and maybe no bad luck.

Deadeye · August 03, 2018, 08:01:16 AM

Well Happy Birthday anyway.

Oh and remind me never to go fishing with you on your birthday.

topdsm0138 · August 03, 2018, 10:49:46 AM

Happy birthday man.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

cport · August 03, 2018, 12:13:32 PM

Man, when you said your birthday was gonna be a hot time, you weren't kidding! 🚒

Happy belated and hope it doesn't break the bank. Glad you are OK.

big g · August 04, 2018, 01:27:14 PM

Flats did you find out if you had a circuit breaker failure on that T/M. Seems like it should have gone out before that much heat built up.

FlatsNBay · August 06, 2018, 06:18:38 PM

Well the diagnosis is in. Here's what my mechanic figured out had happened. The power cable for the trolling motor got caught and pinched in the bracket of the trolling motor when I put the trolling motor in the down position. This caused a short and come to find out there was no in line fuse or circuit breaker for the trolling motor. My guess is it was because the boat is 17 years old and the boat manufacturer didn't put one in during the original install. Lesson learned fellas, check your trolling motor! The entire cable melted and caught fire in some places. The cable actually melted through the plastic on the starting battery that it was touching up against causing battery acid to leak into the boat. Going to need a new starting battery, new battery trays, all damaged wires replaced along with safety fuse breaker for the trolling motor. $$$$$
Overtime here I come!

I was lucky it wasn't worse.

Capt. BassinLou · August 06, 2018, 06:25:35 PM

Quote from: FlatsNBay on August 06, 2018, 06:18:38 PM
Well the diagnosis is in. Here's what my mechanic figured out had happened. The power cable for the trolling motor got caught and pinched in the bracket of the trolling motor when I put the trolling motor in the down position. This caused a short and come to find out there was no in line fuse or circuit breaker for the trolling motor. My guess is it was because the boat is 17 years old and the boat manufacturer didn't put one in during the original install. Lesson learned fellas, check your trolling motor! The entire cable melted and caught fire in some places. The cable actually melted through the plastic on the starting battery that it was touching up against causing battery acid to leak into the boat. Going to need a new starting battery, new battery trays, all damaged wires replaced along with safety fuse breaker for the trolling motor. $$$$$
Overtime here I come!

I was lucky it wasn't worse.

Wow!! Flats, tough and $$ lesson indeed. My boat is just a little older than yours and like I mentioned before, I had a fuse failure that almost caught fire. Since I upgraded to a MK TM, I installed a 60 amp MK breaker. Hopefully you can get on the water soon.

SFL BassHunter · August 06, 2018, 06:28:10 PM

Quote from: FlatsNBay on August 06, 2018, 06:18:38 PM
Well the diagnosis is in. Here's what my mechanic figured out had happened. The power cable for the trolling motor got caught and pinched in the bracket of the trolling motor when I put the trolling motor in the down position. This caused a short and come to find out there was no in line fuse or circuit breaker for the trolling motor. My guess is it was because the boat is 17 years old and the boat manufacturer didn't put one in during the original install. Lesson learned fellas, check your trolling motor! The entire cable melted and caught fire in some places. The cable actually melted through the plastic on the starting battery that it was touching up against causing battery acid to leak into the boat. Going to need a new starting battery, new battery trays, all damaged wires replaced along with safety fuse breaker for the trolling motor. $$$$$
Overtime here I come!

I was lucky it wasn't worse.

Wow that sucks.
That's the reason I installed a breaker between the TM and the battery.

big g · August 06, 2018, 08:57:06 PM

I too have a 50 AMP circuit breaker for the TM, it has never gone off, but I used to have a in-line fuse which I replaced several times in thick weeds. Regardless of how bad it was, it could have been a lot worse.

Lipripper · August 07, 2018, 01:41:46 PM

That lats but like you said it could of been a lot worse.

FlatsNBay · August 14, 2018, 03:14:19 PM

Boat is repaired and ready to be picked up! They rewired anything that needed it along with the proper circuit breaker for the trolling motor. Speaking of the T M the switch inside of the head melted and was replaced. Good thing that they are an authorized Minn Kota service center. I'll pick her up this week, give her a good detail from bow to stern and I'll be good to go!! Back in action in no time!