Trapped in engine compartment!!

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PatSea

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I had a frightning experience this week that really got me to thinking about how things can go wrong quickly while at the dock. To make a long story short I was working on my boat at the marina on a nice quiet Monday morning when I began to hear a person yelling. I couldn't make out what they were saying, and it sounded like they were several city blocks off in the distance. After hearing this for awhile, I walked down the docks for a distance and then I realized that the person was yelling "HELP", and that the person seemed to be in our marina, on the other side of the fairway. I immediately ran over to that side of the marina, went out on the floating docks and found a guy stuck in his engine compartment. This was about a 30 foot Sea Ray and he was trapped head first between the engines with his head down near the bilge. About all I could see were his feet! There was no way I could pull him out by myself, so I ran to the marina office and got help. One of the guys was an EMT and he took charge. It took 3 of us about 30 minutes to pull him out. He was cut from trying to free himself and required 3 stitches on his arm. He had been trapped for about an hour before I found him.
He of course was light headed after he got out, and except for the cuts was OK.
He said he was doing some maintenance in the engine compartment and dropped a nut, so he decided to go head first to retrieve it. He got stuck and the more he tried to free himself, the tighter he became wedged.
The one lesson I learned is never go into a tight space like the engine compartment without someone being with you.
I also noted that although his boat was only about 50 yards from mine, his cries for help were very weak and muffled due to being surrounded by all the equipment, the hull etc.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
 
I bought a used boat and found a skeleton wedged behind the engine.

Just kidding of course, but I often think that this could ultimately be the the way it ends for me.
 
No, but if I'm going to be crawling arouhd in the tight spaces in the bilge, I always make sure someone knows I'm there and will come looking if a half hour goes by and he hasn't seen me.
 
Well not as bad...but I was seeing what life vests fit me and I got one of those yellow, sticky, spungy types on and couldn't get it off. It was so tight and cutting off circulation and nobody was around. I relaxed and finally backed into a corner of a wall and used it to free myself.
 
I always try to get someone else to do the work in the engine compartment...
 
Did that at a marina on Antigua. I was fitting a new ham radio antenna on the deck near the stern. I had crawled in the cockpit locker and wormed myself over a seacock to the back to remove some nuts. It was a good thing my wife was above holding the bolts with a wrench. When I had finished I tried to crawl backwards but was stuck over the seacock. The temperature was very high in the yard being it was summer and was sweating and shaking as the seacock was stuck in my ribs. My wife tried to pull me out but took quite a long time. She finally got me out. I remembered telling her to get a chainsaw and cut me out.
 
I had a similar experience. In order to reach to the bottom of my forward bilge (where the drain plug is), I have to lay down on the step that leads down into the forward cabin. It puts my body on an incline going face first into the bilge. I slid in once and just barely got myself out. I remember thinking what a crappy way to die.
I don't do that now without a buddy.
 
Yep. A dockmate had his boat (32' SR) on the hard for winter lay-up and, in the spring, was on the boat alone getting it commissioned and ready for launch. Somehow, and I'm not clear on how, he was wedged in the engine compartment and dislocated his hip. As the boat was in a more remote section of the marina I understand he was screaming for a couple of hours before a maintenance guy found him. I learned to make sure someone was around when working alone on a boat or at least never get into a position where I could not access my cell phone.
 
This one still scares me, not the ER though. a friend was looking for cause of no water flow from his air cond. No one else even at the marina! Jumped in the water swam under the boat with his mask on to look at the thru hull. Looked clear so he stuck his finger in. Yup, finger got stuck. Finally got it un-stuck before he drowned. He said if he'd had a knife, he would have thought about cutting his finger off!
 
Good Stuff that would be a terrible way to die...Thanks for raising awareness.
 
I almost had it happen to me on a 42 Regal behind the guys house. He was gone for a month, nobody else knew I was there and my cell phone was up on the deck (so i wouldnt drop it in the bilge..) Had to fight my way in deeper into the engine room to be able to turn around. had to remove genny exhaust to do it. scared the crap out of me...
 
Clear evidence as to why all boat designers should be required to retrieve their pay from the bottom of the bilge they designed. They should be paid in dimes.
 
I was working on my first boat, a 20' Regal Valanti. I was adding a second battery as I began venturing into the lakes (great) more and away from the inland lakes. I moved the current battery aft, secured the box, added a second batter box and secured it. When I went to strap the aft battery in I droped the strap around the back. I couldn't get to it from the engine compartment or from the battery access because of the new battery. So I jump on the swim platform and raise my trusty (very) little hatch where my bimini stored. Reaching down and a few choice twists later I was in the engine compartment, by way of my bimini hatch to my neck with my shoulder and all jammed into this little hole. My arm was so twisted around things to reach the strap, which I got, that I think when I finished my back was aganst the transom with my shoulder poping out of socket. I pull to remove the arm and..... nothing. Panic ensues, my heart rate rises blood flows to my arm but can't return, arm swells making it more impossible. This is when the 'you idiot' thoughts enter your mind. The wife was out of state visiting the inlaws, boat in the driveway no neighbors around. was thinking I was going to have to dislocate the shoulder, grab the cell phone and call 911. I was so embarsed to be stuck in such a small boat. I pulled and pulled and pulled until my arm bled in a few spots, my arm full of fiberglass splinters. I finally had to pull my selftogether, think calm thoughts for a few minutes and was able to finally get out. I too learned a valuable lesson!
 
I have seen people doing crazy things to work on inboards in my harbor....maybe that's why some people will have only outboards....
 
Watch the first part of the movie "Pandorum". The movie isn't that good but there is a scene like this discussion.
 
This is "No $hit" and happened a very long time ago. A guy who had purchased an older 41' Hatteras Convertible had come down to the YC to do some work in the engine room and bilge. He was a nice, hard working man who pretty much did as much of his own work as possible.

I remember greeting him as he went aboard his boat, securing the door open. We both went about our business, and when I finished mine, I just left the YC.

It was not unusual for him to stay aboard overnight, so it did not seem unusual that the door to the salon was open early the next morning, nor did it seem unusual that it remained open throughout the day. Later during the afternoon, his wife called the YC asking if anyone had seen her husband.

Noticing that his p/u truck was in the parking lot, someone went down to his boat to see if he was there; and he was - dead in the engine room. In this case, he had suffered a heart attack and succumbed on his beloved boat.

A true story and it's no $hit...
 
Never been there but after reading similar tales, I make sure to have my cell phone within an arm's length away when entering the bilge.
 
I remember a scene from the movie "The Abyss" when Ed Harris' character (Virgil Brigman) jambs his hand in the watertight door as it was closing. He was wearing a heavy stainless steel ring which held the door back saving his life. I always thought to myself I want a SS ring like that. The wife got me one and boy did it came in handy. I was in the bilge trying to change the starter on my boat. This required loosening the engine mounts and jacking up the engine. I had about half an inch of room to get the bolts out (Chevy bolts from the bottom) with a crowfoot wrench and flexible ratchet. All the time I'm doing this in the marina right where Wayne (Carver2557) is docked. Weekday and nobody's around. Well stupid me kicked the jack out from under the engine and it falls right on my ring finger. The ring held the engine up but I was trapped with my head in the bilge and my hand under an 800 lb engine. First panic, tried to yank it out, wouldn't budge. Decided I better take a breath and think this through. I got my other hand on a quart of engine oil that was nearby and poured some on my hand. Working it slowly so not to risk swelling I eventually got myself free with my ring holding the engine up!
 
Having a cell phone with you is not always the answer. This gentleman would not have been able to use a cell phone because his arms were trapped.
 
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