Angler mistakes rod holder for boat’s fuel tank; ‘expensive mistake’

A fisherman in Australia made a costly blunder when he went to fill up the gas tank of his boat at a 7-Eleven in West Pennant Hills, New South Wales. He mistook a rod holder for the gas tank, and the end result was not pretty.

With the nozzle securely sitting in the rod holder, 231.46 liters of gasoline poured onto the floor of the boat and into the bilge, as reported by Yahoo! News Australia.

The total cost? $536.76.

A man shot a video posted on Facebook showing the floor of the boat filled with petrol. It later shows the gas pouring out the back of the boat like a waterfall. A man is seen hosing away the gasoline. The video also shows where the mistake was made.

Remarkably, a similar incident occurred in January 2021, as reported by Marine Rescue NSW. That time, the fisherman pumped 150 liters through the fishing rod holder.

Though it is a bit mind-boggling, this sort of mistake has happened many times before, and some commenters on the Fishing Sydney Facebook page confessed having done the same thing. Among the comments:

“Not even gonna lie. I did that same thing once.”

“I did that once, bloody stainless rod holder right next to my stainless fuel cap. Fortunately, only a couple of liters before I realized.”

“I’ve seen it happen, fuel cap on the gunnel next to a rod holder in the gunnel.”

“More common than you may think, working in the boating game I can tell you it happens way too often.”

“Done it before but not to that degree.”

“It happened to a mate in Mandurah over Christmas. He took another guy with him and my mate took the cap off and went on doing something else. He only put about $40 down the rod holder into the bilge. He turned the bilge pump on [and] it caught fire at the bouser. Burnt the rear of the boat before they put it out.”

“You’re not the first and won’t be the last. I feel sorry for your wallet.”

“My partner did it years ago with his Kevlacat, but realized after about 50c not $500.”