Article: Mercury Verado Lost During Sea Trial - and Recovered!

[Scream And Fly]

In relation to boating, this is probably one of the most fascinating series of events captured on video that I have ever seen. This is an ongoing situation and I will be following up with many more details and developments. For now, have a look at what I feel is an incredible story of events.

Today I spoke with Alfred Montaner, who owns Luxury Rib Tenders, which is a company based in Miami that specializes in restoring rigid inflatable boats. His scope of talents covers seemingly every type of RIB, from yacht tenders to very high-end law enforcement types. He was taking a 36-foot Fluid 10M "Black Betty" RIB for a sea trial, which involved running the boat in the kind of conditions it was designed for. The Fluid 10M being trialed is powered by two 300HP Mercury Verados, however the boat is designed to handle triple outboards, if required.

While running the boat fast over some moderate chop, the port engine became de-mounted, which I think is probably the worst kind of nightmare for most of us. The engine mount itself did not fail - the transom mounting bolts sheared their threads. This was the result of not using the Mercury-supplied engine mounting bolts. The outboard hung by its steering bar, but that soon broke free and the engine went to the bottom.

I want to also make very clear that the failure of the engine mounting bolts was not due to intentional negligence on the part of the riggers. It does however highlight the very serious consequences of that rigging error, and the need to strictly use the required parts without substitution.

I will add more details on that in the forthcoming article, however the video details most of it, and Alfred Montaner wanted to stress that these videos are shared to illustrate what can happen when rigging errors are made:

"The people from Fluid Watercraft were very bold in allowing me to post this video. Easily,it could have been swept under the rug. Once the incident happened, Boyd Tomkies and I both felt that this video can help bring awareness and insight to help others from having this happen again."

The Verado is currently being serviced and we'll probably see more news on that on Montaner's channel.

I encourage you to have a look at the Luxury Rib Tenders website and Alfred Montaner's YouTube channel, because there is a lot of incredible content there.

For now, let's try not to turn this into any sort of 'what they should have done is this' kind of thing. We've all seen outboards lost on YouTube, but how often do we see them being recovered?

This is a collage of several videos and shows an overview of events:



Loss of outboard:


Recover of outboard (full dive video):


Damage assessment:

[flabum1017]

So, his excuse is metric nuts on standard bolts.......... sorry, but you can't get a 12mm nut onto a 1/2" bolt, 12mm is smaller.... unless he was using 5/8" bolts.....

[flabum1017]

Bad riggers are everywhere, even at Midnight Express......

[RSWORDS]

Not rigging the motor properly for it's intended use and/or not using the proper fasteners is 100% the rigger fault.

[RSWORDS]

So, his excuse is metric nuts on standard bolts.......... sorry, but you can't get a 12mm nut onto a 1/2" bolt, 12mm is smaller.... unless he was using 5/8" bolts.....

Plus could you imagine the effort to get it on with the difference in thread pitch? Sure would eat the threads out of the nut as you he-maned it on?

wrench turners aren't techs. Sounds like he needs to have some serious thought about the future of whomever rigged that boat and there employment with his company.

[flabum1017]

Plus, he said he had the engines so high up he had no room for six bolt..... his video shows otherwise, they were in the middle holes.:

I can understand wanting to save face, but don't lie on video and then post it so the whole world can see.

[RSWORDS]

Doesn't appear to be mercury hardware (no brass nuts).

If it is continuous (how it looks in the blurry screenshot) that cap/trim on the top of the transom shouldn't be there either.

[RSWORDS]

I'm sure the guy does great work. Sucks one stupid rigger and one stupid mistake happened. Hopefully they get it resolved.

[powerabout]

One issue with tin boats is in many cases you are clamping a hollow section.
So when the engine is bouncing the bolts might be cycling tight and loose.

[flabum1017]

One issue with tin boats is in many cases you are clamping a hollow section.
So when the engine is bouncing the bolts might be cycling tight and loose.

Not a tin boat....

[flabum1017]

Doesn't appear to be mercury hardware (no brass nuts).

If it is continuous (how it looks in the blurry screenshot) that cap/trim on the top of the transom shouldn't be there either.

They have a spacer plate to keep the bracket off the cap.... not sure what the plates are made of, but if they are starboard, they can compress and loosen the engines.....

[powerabout]

So, his excuse is metric nuts on standard bolts.......... sorry, but you can't get a 12mm nut onto a 1/2" bolt, 12mm is smaller.... unless he was using 5/8" bolts.....

other way around, Honda bolt, Merc nut I thought he said?

[Tom Foley]

Either way , incompetent !! Just wow !

[Scream And Fly]

Doesn't appear to be mercury hardware (no brass nuts)
.

Based on my conversation with Alfred, I believe that is exactly what happened. As I understood it, I think the engine was rigged with the Honda nut and bolt, not just the nut.

I should have clarified my point on that a little more; I meant to make the point that from what told to me, the transom of the boat was a little too thick for the standard Mercury mounting bolts. It had been assumed by the rigger that using bolts from a similar sized Honda outboard would suffice. That’s how I understand it, meaning, I don’t think it was a deliberate attempt by the riggers to cut any corners. I think that assuming the bolts of a similar size engine would be strong enough is really not out of the realm of plausibility. I should have made that more clear.

Alfred also wanted to make the point to me that he hopes the video will show, in very graphic form, what happens when a simple mistake was made. I’ll say that I might also have assumed the Honda bolts would have been strong enough myself. I know it’s easy to see the problem now, in retrospect, but I think an important lesson was learned there. Maybe he’ll get on here to discuss it, however, Luxury Rib Tenders didn’t rig the boat.

[powerabout]

What thread is on Honda bolts?