High school tournament on pickwick

I saw where a boat sunk during the tournament. The kids and captain are safe they got in another competitors boat. But apparently the cause was a line to the livewell came loose according to the officials. I read over the rules for these tournaments and it states that boats have to have a safety inspection. Do they not do inspections or just look and say it’s good?

I’m pretty sure they just look at the livewell and running lights etc.. and assume you have checked out your own boat and everything works as it should.. at least that was the way it worked when my kids fished high school tournaments years ago.

I doubt they would dig deep enough to find something like that.

The mechanic at a boat dealership probably wouldn't have noticed that.

Schitt happens.

I guess the bigger question is why didn't the bilge pump work??

I'm not sure the bilge pump can keep up with an open hole in the boat, assuming the livewell line came completely loose.

That brings up a good question. What type of maintenance should be done to prevent this type of failure? Boats have a lot of penetrations through the hull now, and the hoses can be difficult to see much less inspect. I've heard of this issue causing several offshore boats to go down as well. It's becoming more common to install a manual valve just inside the hull to help stop the intake of water if something fails.

I had an old procraft that the hose to the livewell came off (at the livewell). Seems like it was a 18-24" straight hose with a hose clamp...no clue how it came loose? Bilge kept up and we got boat out of water. Had to remove gas tank to get to back of well (pita) to even find what the problem was. That's always been a mystery to me.

I check mine through out the year. But I’ve had one to come loose and create problems lol. From the way it sounded. Your boat has to have a actual safety inspection. I’ve never heard of that being required. That’s why I’m asking. It’s just odd the way it’s being handled.

I heard two kids from the DAR school got life time bans as well.

Never heard that before. Just ASABFA?

I don't know about ASABFA but for TBF & BASS High school it's a lights and kill switch check before blast-off.

There have been lots of penetrations through hulls for decades. A loose livewell hose isn't common by any means, though.

However, if the bilge pump was functioning properly they should have at some point questioned WTF the bilge was working so frequently and possibly returned to the dock. In the heat of competition, though, you don't always think clearly.

About 20ish years ago my father and I were fishing a tournament and the bilge was continually going off. We had no other issues and when he got home, he took it to the shop after seeing no noticeable problems. The dealership found that a screw in the hull had penetrated the livewell, thus causing a leak large enough to engage the bilge but not obvious enough for someone to easily find.

It's incumbent upon the boat owner and/or operator to make sure the rig is safe before launching, just like driving a vehicle. The "boat check" in a tournament is nothing more than "kill switch, lights and no fish in the livewell."

Livewells also and most of them are "glance" to see. No hard checks.

Exactly. Just have them open when coming through the line.

Kid Tx or not, this is not a nanny operation. It's up to each boat owner. Chit happens to boats thru normal wear and rough water. Dnolan is right, 99% of boats aren't equipped with big enough bilge pumps to stay up with an open line or hole. I always installed at lease a 1000 gph in every boat I owned. It's up to each owner to insure their craft is in solid running order.

I'm sure ya'll all have a "hold the rope buddy". Back in high school, we forgot to put the plug in my dad's aluminum boat. I had to do everything when he went with me. He's holding the rope as I back the boat in. Boat slides off, and I go park. If any of you have launched at Cochrane near Aliceville, its a fairly long walk back from the parking lot. Well I park the truck, stop and pee, and when I make it back to the boat, he looks at me and says the boat is full of water, but I didn't know what to do. Well I hop in and we get it going. Finally, we get it on plane, and drained all the water out. Stuck the plug in from the inside and finished up our last fishing trip together.

I was at a tx on Guntersville years ago. I traveled with a gang of jokers. I got my boat ready and launched. After a few mins I noticed water in the floor. I ran it up on another boats trailer. The plug was nowhere to be found. luckily I had another in storage. You just can't be too careful. You see all kinds of crazy stuff at the ramp.