Need A Tow?

[G-Daddy]

On our first outing of this spring, my son and I took our Sportcraft 252 to the Chesapeake for some striper fishing. We also took a couple of my grandkids along anticipating a good day on the water. We just got to the area to set up a trolling spread and my son reached for the throttle control to get us down to idle speed. Just as he touched the control handle the engine died - just like someone had hit the keyswitch. We cranked a couple of times, but no start. Everything that worked through the ignition switch was dead. Everything else worked - GPS, VHF, Sonar etc. I could see there was nothing I could do to perform an on-the-water repair, so I called the TowBoatUS number. It took about two hours for the towboat to reach us and another 4 hours for them to tow us the 24 miles back to the launch. They made sure I had the boat securely on the trailer before they departed for their home port.

Turns out the guy we bought the boat from had bypassed the kill switch and had spliced in a piece of automotive wire with no heat shrink or anything else to protect the wires. The wire parted at one of the butt connectors and we were dead in the water.

I have the unlimited towing package and am certainly glad for that. I received my copy of the towing invoice and BoatUS paid $1,480 for that tow. Since my waters are the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and coastal Atlantic, I pay $125 per year for unlimited towing. You do the math.

Our favorite port on Lake Ontario is the Oak, and they also have a TowBoatUS service. I can recommend them as cheap insurance if you ever need them.

[FX]

Good to know Glad everything worked out for you, especially with the crew you had on board.

Shawn

[JR]

[CaptSpike]

X2 on the recommendation.

Our local Towboat owner is top notch. The price is well worth the $100 a yr.

Spike

[Wolfhound]

I have the insurance too for the oak....38.00 per year. Good piece of mind...

[mmcsparkey]

I just bought that insurance. Glad you were safe and it worked...

[ericjeeper]

I just purchased towing Insurance this past week.. I fish the Gulf and the great lakes. so it was 163, including roadside trailering.

[BAZOOKAJOE]

Good stuff!! I just purchased last week.

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