# WTF?!?!?! My brand new boat has a hole in it!



## NorthernRedneck

Got a new 16 ft princecraft boat with side drive, subfloor, 40 hp 4 stroke yamaha engine two weeks ago.  First, the bilge pump on it stopped working.  Followed by constant blown fuses for the livewell pump.  the boat would take on an unusually large amount of water in a short time and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from till I pulled it out of the water last night.  I had taped off the water output fitting on the outside of the boat to see if that was where the water was coming in.  The boat was half filled with water in only an hour.  When I pulled out full of water last night, I left the water drain plug in to determine where the water was leaking in.  It took only a matter of seconds to discover a hole the size of a small drill bit on the underside of the boat just behind the driver's seat.  There is a bit of a metal burr surrounding the hole facing outward which leads me to think that whoever installed the subfloor at the factory screwed up and drilled right through the bottom of the boat.


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## Melensdad

Did you call the dealership???

Seems to me there should be a warranty to cover this type of problem!


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## NorthernRedneck

Called the dealership as soon as I found the problem.  Normally, I would get pretty vocal with a dealership when it comes to this type of thing but the problem is that my godfather and cousin own the dealership.  He was just as baffled as me to find out that he sold me a boat with a hole in it.  I will be calling him quite frequently this week demanding that they either fix the hole properly and give me a substantial discount on the boat, get me a new boat to replace this one, or give me back my $$$ and I'll go buy something else.  I also had my eye on a lund 16.25 classic ss for within dollars of the price I paid for this one.  If he can't find a way to make me happy in this deal, then he'll be stuck with a slightly used new boat with a hole in it and I'll get a Lund instead of the princecraft.


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## NorthernRedneck

Here's a picture of the hole!  It's kinda hard to tell but that black dot right beside the outer rivets is where a drill bit peirced right through the hull during assembly while installing the subfloor.


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## Snowcat Operations

Im sorry but thats pretty damn funny.  You bought a new boat and it has a hole in it?  AND it was done at the factory!  Some guys right now are having a few cold ones and are laughing that they drilled a hole in the bottom of a boat! Are you sure there are no more holes?  If thats the only one get some cash back and put a rivet in it.  You should have bought a nice snowcat instead!


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## Doc

I agree with SO, that it should not be hard to fix .... but buying a new boat with a hole in it sure makes you wonder about the quality control at the factory.  How in the heck could they miss something so obvious?  If they missed that, what else has been overlooked that will get you down the road?  

Good luck with getting this taken care of to your complete satisfaction.


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## daedong

Groomerguy I take that it is an aluminum tinny, A hole like that on aluminum would take about 5 minutes to fix and you would never know it was there. 
I think us Aussies could teach you folks a thing or two about building tinnies, we stopped using rivets 20 years ago.


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## Bulldog1401

I dont know the meteric term for "dozen" but isn't there at least that many rivets in the picture of the panel with the hole in it? Or is that a picture of a cooking pot that you slipped in there to fool us ignorant yanks?


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## DaveNay

Bulldog1401 said:


> I dont know the meteric term for "dozen" but isn't there at least that many rivets in the picture of the panel with the hole in it? Or is that a picture of a cooking pot that you slipped in there to fool us ignorant yanks?



Eeerrrrrmmmmm....that picture is from GGNWO, not from daedong.


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## mtntopper

groomerguyNWO, use some discretion when talking with the dealership or they may send you an additional bill for the accessory hole that was not included and billed on the original invoice....my luck.... 

Good luck, I am sure they will work with you as it is just a minor repair to make. Too bad the factory does not check for those problems before shipping to the dealer.


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## NorthernRedneck

I agree......it's not a big problem to fix but I'm still not impressed.............go out fishing for 1/2 hour and my feet are getting wet from water coming in over the subfloor.  Then to make matters worse, the bilge pump stopped working so I had to make my fishing trips short and sweet and pull the boat out of the water as soon as I get back to my campsite to let it drain.  I mean, I've got a screw in the hole now to plug it up but that's just bullsh-t I should have to do on a brand new boat they just got in from the factory a month or so ago.


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## NorthernRedneck

mtntopper said:


> Too bad the factory does not check for those problems before shipping to the dealer.



I'd think that they would at least have a test tank where they could water test each boat for leaks.


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## mtntopper

This reminds me of a something that happened to me back about 25 years. I picked up a new Mercury Grand Marquis at the dealership as a new company vehicle. After about a week I opened the trunk to find it half full of water. Being a slow learner, I thought the sloshing I was hearing was the fuel in the fuel tank. I went back to the dealership and told them I had a water leak in the trunk of the new car. The service manager came out and opened the trunk and announced "the trunk does not leak it holds water very well." They did end up fixing the water leak into the trunk but were never able to fix the problem of the trunk holding water....


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## Snowcat Operations

NOW this is too funny!  We have a new boat that lets water in and a car trunk that doesnt let water out!


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## Junkman

Snowcat Operations said:


> NOW this is too funny!  We have a new boat that lets water in and a car trunk that doesnt let water out!



and I am taking Lasix, and can't hold my "water"!!!


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## NorthernRedneck

Update...............just got off the phone with the dealer and they are going to send the boat back to princecraft in the fall where they will completely remove the entire bottom of the boat and replace with a new floor then test for leaks and such.  Apparently princecraft is none to pleased that something like this slipped by in their quality control.


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## Melensdad

Are they also going to replace the damaged bilge pump and get you a dry pair of shoes too?


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## bczoom

groomerguyNWO said:


> Update...............just got off the phone with the dealer and they are going to send the boat back to princecraft in the fall


Sounds good.  What do you do until then?  Did they approve a patch or ???


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## DaveNay

groomerguyNWO said:


> Update...............just got off the phone with the dealer and they are going to send the boat back to princecraft in the fall where they will completely remove the entire bottom of the boat and replace with a new floor then test for leaks and such.  Apparently princecraft is none to pleased that something like this slipped by in their quality control.



From a statistical point if view, that is insane.  Properly drilling out several hundred rivets, removing the bottom skin, placing a new skin, transferring the hole locations, drilling the new skin, and installing new rivets sure seems to be to have a huge potential for error.

A good operator with a TIG welder, a grinder and a buffer could fix that hole with near 100% reliability.

Are they planning to send back the same boat to you?  What are you supposed to do until the fall with a boat with a hole in it?


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## Doc

DaveNay said:


> Are they planning to send back the same boat to you?  What are you supposed to do until the fall with a boat with a hole in it?



I agree with Dave's analysis of the situation.  That is crazy.
And ...what are you to do until then?  Knowing what they plan to do I would push for another new boat, rather than this one with the hole in it.  If it were mine I would feel better with them patching the hole than sending it back to the factory and all.  JMHO


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## mtntopper

Doc said:


> I agree with Dave's analysis of the situation. That is crazy. And ...what are you to do until then? Knowing what they plan to do


 
Gum, do not leave home to go boating without it..... 

If the factory let it slip by the first time, I would be really careful of the ass chewing that the person took the first time around for letting it out the door. How do you think he might now get even after redoing his first screw up?  

I would just fix it myself and not take a second chance of another screw up if I was happy with the boat....


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## NorthernRedneck

Well, for now, I found a screw that was about the same size and shoved it in there with some silicone.  It's a temporary fix that doesn't leak.  They said at the dealership that it would take about 3 weeks for the repair.  That's why they said if I could get it patched in the meantime to use it this summer, they(princecraft) would do it in the fall.


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## Wannafish

Didn't anyone ever tell you that "a boat is just a big hole in the water you keep throwing money into"?


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## American Woman

groomerguyNWO said:


> Update...............just got off the phone with the dealer and they are going to send the boat back to princecraft in the fall where they will completely remove the entire bottom of the boat and replace with a new floor then test for leaks and such.  Apparently princecraft is none to pleased that something like this slipped by in their quality control.


To me, the problem with patching it or even replacing the bottom is the fact that you paid for a NEW boat. By the time they do all the patching you will have a used boat. I'm with doc, and would push for what you paid for. A NEW boat with no leaks.


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## ddrane2115

this is on the line of a new car and the engine blows up after 10K miles.  They would want to put a rebuild in it................I dont think so, it was new, it is under warranty, it gets new or you get to meet the legal dogs I have on retainer.................


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## California

ddrane2115 said:


> ... it was new, it is under warranty, it gets new or you get to meet the legal dogs


Good luck. Long ago we (Large Government Agency) bought our first two Apple laptops. Apple's final assembly plant was within 20 miles of us.

One of the laptops was stone dead. With two identical units it was easy to test everything and verify it was DOA. I called Apple's Government Sales franchise, then Apple Corp, the same day. At $3,500 each this shouldn't happen. I requested their approval for an exchange.

Tough luck, Apple said. It's yours now. We don't buy used computers. You can send it in for warranty repair. And by the way these are the first of this model we've sold so it will be a while before we know how to repair them. 

I think it was a month before the junker was fixed and put in service. Your Tax Dollars At Work.


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## American Woman

California said:


> I requested their approval for an exchange.
> 
> Tough luck, Apple said. It's yours now. We don't buy used computers. You can send it in for warranty repair. And by the way these are the first of this model we've sold so it will be a while before we know how to repair them.
> 
> I think it was a month before the junker was fixed and put in service. Your Tax Dollars At Work.


 That's a lot of nerve! How does a business grow with attitudes like that?


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