So, last Saturday, biggerwife had something to do, so I asked a few guys that live in my condo complex to go. They all live where I park my boat and always ask me to take them. I've been meaning to for a while, but honestly I like fishing with my wife so I just haven't.
Anyway, we head out Saturday. Our first task is always to find bait. This time of year it is not all over the bay. It is generally concentrated around the 3 piers near my place.
We headed to the first pier to look for bait. The pier is basically T shaped. The bait is usually on the inside of the T. The pier is sideways to the current so it is very tricky driving the boat. The area isn't that big and the boat is very difficult to maneuver with current, wind, and a tight space. Biggerwife struggled a lot at first but through a lot of practice she's does very well. Even then she gets really nervous.
We arrived at the pier and I asked the guys who could throw a cast net. None of them could. Ugh. It was my plan to drive the boat while someone else threw the net. So, I asked who was comfortable driving the boat. One guy chimed in immediately. He is a diver and is out on the water a lot so I trusted him.
I told him we needed to putt along the outside of the T first to see if anything was there. I should have picked up right then and there this was a bad idea. He got the boat sort of sideways and had to gun it to keep from hitting the pier. But, I really didn't think things through.
There was no bait on the outside, so we headed into the inside of the T. I told him how I wanted the boat positioned and where I wanted to throw the net. He gave me the thumbs up.
Throwing a cast net is not easy. You have to "set up" the net before you can even throw it. This setup takes a couple of minutes.
So, I'm setting up the net when I hear one of the guys say "stop!". I look up and we are heading to the pier at a high rate of speed, sideways. Once you get in that position, there is nothing at all you can do. Bot the other guys could lean out and push on a pier to try to slow the boat down, but they were no match for a 3 ton bot. We hit it and we hit it hard.
Here is what happened.
There was a loud crack, and I knew it wasn't good. My first thought was the hull was structurally damaged. But, looking at it I don't think it is too too horrible.
I called a boat repair place and sent him the picture. He thought there were two possibilities. He can simply repair the white outer coating, which shouldn't be too expensive. However, he felt like there was a possibility that some more structural damage was done. If that is the case then he will have to take the entire top rim piece off and fix the inner fiberglass. He thought this might be about $2,000. That is a lot, but I really thought it would be even worse.
I'm taking it in tomorrow so he can look at it up close.