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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
My thanks to Wayne Fultz for saving me.
Posted By: JohnV8r
Date: Monday, 23 May 2005, at 3:27 a.m.
While I don't have the time to be quite as active on this website as I used to be, I am always proud to affiliated and amazed at what an incredible resource the faithful are. In fact, back when I was just a wee steward in waiting, Wayne Fultz offered to come down and check out a 31 that I was looking at that soon after became Shambala. It was the beginning of a great friendship, and more, Wayne has become my "go to" guy everytime there is some pending issue with a major time problem. His knowledge of the Bertram 31 is second to none on the West Coast.
So it happened that last Friday I went down to Shambala to spend two days prepping her for a Saturday evening out on the San Francisco Bay for a huge fireworks display know locally as "Kaboom." Being the ever-proud steward that I am, I had a substantial list of spring cleaning items I wanted to accomplish. The new cockpit side panels needed to be installed, a new faucet in the galley put in, she needed to be washed, cleaned, the gelcoat buffed out and then polished. All the teak that I had pulled off and re-varnished over the winter needed to be reinstalled. In short, it was one of those lists where you where you work at a near frantic non stop pace for two days to get her prepped.
The passengers for the fireworks show were to be my neighbors, their 4 kids, my wife, and our two boys. So when I discovered on Friday that my Raritan head was not operating after the winter, rebuilding the head and pump was added to the priority list.
I always find myself explaining to my neighbors that a Bertram 31 is the nautical equivilent of owning a Shelby Cobra and that being a steward involves a certain responsibility to maintain that is far greater than what ordinary boat owners feel. So their expectations were clearly going to be high.
Well, I worked frantically. I buffed, polished, installed, rebuilt, and otherwise worked like a man possessed until I finally reached that point where I was so exhausted, I knew I had to be there. I was so spent that my hand was cramping as I was buffing out some of the little nooks and crannies with YachtBrite Pro Polish.
The only thing left to do was take a quick spin over to the fuel dock and top off the tanks. I got up on the helm, flipped the ignition toggles to on and pushed the start button on the starboard engine...nothing. Pushed the start button on the port engine...nothing. You know that feeling where your mind is screaming "NOOOOOO!!!"? Well, add to that the responsibility of knowing that six kids who had been talking all week about going out on a boat to see the Kaboom fireworks were less then an hour from arriving. I was panic stricken. I went down and checked the breaker panel, checked the voltage in the batteries, everything my exhausted mind knew to do. I followed the ignition wiring through the entire boat and just could not figure out why both engines refused to start.
That's when I picked up Bat phone and called Wayne Fultz for help. I hadn't been on the phone with him for more than 30 seconds when he said, "Go up and jiggle the transmission controls." And then it hit me...I had rolled the shifters forward while I was polishing them.
I'll give you that I was exhausted from prepping the boat, but it is without a doubt the most retarded self-induced panic I've ever put myself through. Wayne Fultz was the last phone call I was going to make before calling everyone to tell them the fireworks were off.
So thanks Wayne. There are six kids who will never know you how much they appreciate you, but I do. You saved my a$$ once again, even if it was just me being retarded. My whole neighborhood has been abuzz today as the kids spread the word about what an awesome time they had on Shambala watching the fireworks.
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