Bad News….

[christo15]

Okay, so I've been posting problem after problem with my recently purchased 2003 282 Sailfish!

Well, after finding that we had ALL GAS in the bilge we were in a dire situation and went to the Grady White dealership (thankfully not far away). After getting the boat pulled out right away, the next day the dealer called and figured out the problem. It ended up being the previous owners problem. He had believe it or not grounded the batteries TO THE GAS TANKS. Therefore, the electrical current constantly going through the boat corroded all metal that was down in the bilge and caused all our electronics to work very strangely. I'm very happy the situation was figured out and we'll have a great running boat afterwards, but it's just a huge huge huge expense that we weren't expecting. Never before had I thought that this would have been the problem, but I am very relieved that it will be fixed.

I'm also not happy about the fact that we have to wait 3-5 weeks before we can use the boat again with the short boat season vanishing before out eyes.
Anyways, thought I should share the story. Thanks!

 

[gw204]

Did you have the boat surveyed prior to purchasing it? If so, I would go have a discussion with your surveyor...

 

[christo15]

We didn't have a surveyor unfotunately. :/ we got it from someone we knew so I was surprised!

 

[uncljohn]

well actually you found it to be the current owner's problem, since YOU have to fix it.

He probably replaced the sending unit or a hose, saw a mysterious wire to the tank, and disconnected it. Good thing you didn't have a short somewhere to cause a spark and explosion.

 

[Grog]

When you said grounded the tanks, did the previous owner wire other devices to the tanks or was there just a ground wire from the tanks to the DC common? There should be 1 wire from the DC common to a tab on the tank then to the body of the fuel sender and one wire from the sender to the gauge. If that is all there was, then you may still have a problem elsewhere.

 

[Tucker]

Grog's right unless I'm missing something here. The tanks are SUPPOSE to be grounded to the batteries via the sending units. They're green wires and, on my boat, the grounds are labeled 'sending units" on the lugs that screw to the negative on the batteries. Check you owners manual, it's should be also be shown there. Think something else is going on...

 

[stevblutu15]

I agree with the previous two posts. My tanks are not only grounded through the sending units but also through earth ground to a grounding plate. There is then a 6 or 8 awg wire connecting the battery to the grounding plate. This is how NMEA wants it done according to their book.

 

[Tucker]

Looks like someone's being jerked around by a Grady dealership. Chris where do you have your boat?

 

[cgmiller]

In my experience replacing fuel systems, the heavy green wire goes from the fuel tank to the fill pipe..it grounds the fill pipe to the tank since they are connected with a rubber hose..I beleive that this is supposed to prevent the development of static electricity while pumping gas into the line...

 

[Tucker]

Where does it connect on the tank?? I believe I only have 1 ground coming in near the sending unit.

 

[uncljohn]

If you re-read his post, he said it was NOT grounded

 

[Tucker]

No, don't think so. He left out some commas in his post.

 

[ahill]

So you ground the fill to an ungrounded tank?

 

[christo15]

Hey guys, I totally forgot about the post until now, 4 months later.

Let's just say the boat is safe and sound and all the problems are fixed. In my original post, I did give some false info. Basically, the batteries were hooked up wrong, as far as the specifics, I'm not sure.

It was a really scary moment for us, having just bought the boat. But to answer your question, we dock our boat in Stamford, CT, and brought it to a Grady White Dealer in Greenwhich, CT which is just a 15 minute boat ride away to get fixed. We ended up having both tanks replaced, and she's running better then ever. I just didn't want to leave this conversation without an end to the story.

We're big time Grady fans, and really appreciate all the feedback.

 

[CatTwentyTwo]

Great news and glad to hear that your dealer got it sorted out and you can enjoy your new boat. Thanks for the follow-up report, that's all too uncommon on most of the boating sites that I look at.

 

[christo15]

Thanks, and yes it was a big relief. Now we're anxiously waiting for it to get warmer and to start boating again!