Steering goes away...........

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by bgreene

I wrote a complaint and submitted it to SEATOW, plus called them and posted on Bass Barn.

No joke...... waited a total of 3 hours while the tow captain originally told me 1 hour.

Better hope they don't try and say it was a salvage, and they take your boat through a backdoor title lien for the tow. Theres PLENTY of cases of seatow doing just this to MANY boaters who were in no danger, but seatow called it a salvage instead of a tow, and stoal there boats in the process. You might not even know about it for several weeks while they file the paperwork. Do a search if you don't think it's happened before.

[bgreene]

Originally Posted by THEFERMANATOR

Better hope they don't try and say it was a salvage, and they take your boat through a backdoor title lien for the tow. Theres PLENTY of cases of seatow doing just this to MANY boaters who were in no danger, but seatow called it a salvage instead of a tow, and stoal there boats in the process. You might not even know about it for several weeks while they file the paperwork. Do a search if you don't think it's happened before.

A. I have the SEATOW receipt showing the word written by the captain as TOWING .
B. We remained on the boat at all times - no claim of salvage possible.
C. Boat didn't sink so no salvage issue.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by bgreene

A. I have the SEATOW receipt showing the word written by the captain as TOWING .
B. We remained on the boat at all times - no claim of salvage possible.
C. Boat didn't sink so no salvage issue.

They've been known at least down here in S Florida to not give receipts, just the tow. They don't have to remove you from your boat to consider it a salvage, all they have to say is you were in eminant danger, and the tow was for your safety. There were a couple of documented cases of boats that were not taking on water, but they put a pump on board just in case and claimed it was a salvage operation. If you do some searches on it, you will drop SEATOW in a blink of an eye over there shady tactics they have used.

[spareparts]

around here it was the complete opposite for a while, the Boat US guy were crooks and the Sea Tow guys were the way to go. Boat US was getting ready to yank the franchise(the guy was actually up on piracy charges) when he sold the operation. Now Boat US is pretty god and we have a decent Tow Boat as well. I think it charges from area to area. There hour wait is about normal, you're lucky it wasn't longer.

AS far as getting in with out steering, I put a full hitch knot over the cowl of a Johnrude with a broken cable once, cleated each end of the rope off and idled back in. We turn the boat by shifting our weight from one side to the other. I drove a Mastercraft ski boat with a broken cable by putting an adjustable wrench on the rudder arm and steered it like a tiller

[macojoe]

My first boat had the old pully & cable system, that lost a mounting bolt on one of the pully holders one day in the canal, my buddy sat on transom hugging the motor all the way in to steer us!! lol

[bgreene]

Likely going hydraulic....and that should be that....

[Destroyer]

On one of my previous boats the cable snapped. Tied the engine so it was pointing/pushing straight ahead and used my emergency paddle as a rudder to steer the boat. Worked perfectly.

[phatdaddy]

i've had hydraulic fail also (split hose), ended up lashing a jbl magnum spear gun to the motor and tiller steering in