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Gorrilla Fin ripped off today!


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So I was cruising at about 30 mph with about 9 people in the boat today. I veared right and heard a lound thump under the boat, I had a feeling what it was so kept going as I was about 5 min from the dock. I knew that if I was taking on water and if I stopped to check it out I might not get back on plane and probably sink. Anyways had someone take the wheel and pulled the midship hatch and saw water gushing in, this was about 1 min after it happened and I already had about 5 inches of water in there. I took the wheel again and told everyone that they needed to get off the boat as fast as possible when we hit the dock. I had someone get the truck and back the trailer down, lucky there were two open lanes at the launch. Got the boat on the trailer just in time, there was about 7-8 inches of water under there by the time it was on the trailer. I did have the bilge on as soon as I heard the thud but it wouldn't keep up with the water coming in. I didn't hit anything I know that for a fact as we were in the middle of the lake in about 70' of water. It was the front fin that ripped off. The bolts stripped out and and the fin flew off, no real fiberglass damage other than a few stress fractures. The rear fin, prop, and rudder were all fine so it must have just been a freak deal. Anyone else heard of this happening? What a bummer day, the water was great to.

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Wow. That sucks. Glad you were able to get it back on the trailer! Wonder what you could do if you weren't able to get it on, just in case something like this happens a bit out to sea. Or if the launch area was full. Hmmm..

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Happened to me two seasons ago on my Response LXi- loud "pop" from below in a tight turn coming back around for the slalom course setup- at the end of the run, noticed the bilge pump running & not keeping up. Front fin had pulled clear out & water was pouring in thru four neat holes in the hull where the screws used to be. Barely got it back to a nearby ramp & onto a friend's trailer.

Just make sure that the repair is done right- not sure if the Gorilla fins are thru-bolted, but on the RLXi they were just screwed into the fiberglass. After my dealer repaired it by patching the holes & replacing the fin, it popped off again under the same conditions- and with the same near-swamping result. Second time we had him thru-bolt the fin & no problems since.

Good luck.

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Wonder what you could do if you weren't able to get it on, just in case something like this happens a bit out to sea. Or if the launch area was full. Hmmm..
beach it.
They make tape for emergency repairs of automobile radiator hoses. It looks like black duct tape but the "stick-um" isn't affected by liquid. You could turn the boat off, dive under and put tape over the holes and then putt-putt back. Dontknow.gif

With a small boat like my Sporty I'll bet I could put an inflatable up underneath it, inflate it up against the holes( Crazy.gif ), then either slow putt-putt in or get towed slowly. Hey, look at that, I found some useful purpose for the existence of tubes. :lol:

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Happened to me two seasons ago on my Response LXi- loud "pop" from below in a tight turn coming back around for the slalom course setup- at the end of the run, noticed the bilge pump running & not keeping up. Front fin had pulled clear out & water was pouring in thru four neat holes in the hull where the screws used to be. Barely got it back to a nearby ramp & onto a friend's trailer.

Just make sure that the repair is done right- not sure if the Gorilla fins are thru-bolted, but on the RLXi they were just screwed into the fiberglass. After my dealer repaired it by patching the holes & replacing the fin, it popped off again under the same conditions- and with the same near-swamping result. Second time we had him thru-bolt the fin & no problems since.

Good luck.

I just got done looking and it was only bolted to fiberglass, what a cheesy design. The bolts ripped right out cleanly, didn't tear anything up from the topside, and like I said only minor stress fractures of the gelcoat underneath. I will have the dealership thru-bolt it just to be safe, those gorrilla fins have alot of surface area. Taking it to the dealership tomorrow for repair. It was definetely a hair raising experience.

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Happened to me two seasons ago on my Response LXi- loud "pop" from below in a tight turn coming back around for the slalom course setup- at the end of the run, noticed the bilge pump running & not keeping up. Front fin had pulled clear out & water was pouring in thru four neat holes in the hull where the screws used to be. Barely got it back to a nearby ramp & onto a friend's trailer.

Just make sure that the repair is done right- not sure if the Gorilla fins are thru-bolted, but on the RLXi they were just screwed into the fiberglass. After my dealer repaired it by patching the holes & replacing the fin, it popped off again under the same conditions- and with the same near-swamping result. Second time we had him thru-bolt the fin & no problems since.

Good luck.

I just got done looking and it was only bolted to fiberglass, what a cheesy design. The bolts ripped right out cleanly, didn't tear anything up from the topside, and like I said only minor stress fractures of the gelcoat underneath. I will have the dealership thru-bolt it just to be safe, those gorrilla fins have alot of surface area. Taking it to the dealership tomorrow for repair. It was definetely a hair raising experience.

Dude, that sucks! And right during the hottest week weather-wise we'll probably have this summer. The summers are so short here you have to take advantage of them when the weather's good. Do you know how long the repair will take? I'd also have them inspect and possibly thru-bolt your other fin while you're there. If it happened once... Lemme know if you want to go out. I'm gonna be out today, working tomorrow, then off for six days. Time to start pilin' on the hours...

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Just remember the better they are secured, the more damge when they come off.

But much less likely that they will.

Respectfully disagree

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The respect is mutual. :)

I have to ask though, if guys are almost sinking their boats after losing one without hitting anything, doesn't it make sense to attach them a little more securely?

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I am amazed at the number of threads dealing with this topic. Is this common to all ski boats? Or more of a Bu issue?The question of "over-secured" versus "secured" is a good one. Not sure there's an easy answer.

Dave

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I've known quite a few people that this has happened to, but usually it's a result of hitting something. Now, it's never happened to me so I'm just speculating on this, but it seems to me that securing it better would protect it from coming off for small hits. For big hits, it seems like the likelihood of major damage is pretty high regardless of how the fin is attached because you've got so many other things that are probably going to be involved (shaft, prop, strut, rudder, etc). So I guess to me, if the likelihood of that is high anyway, why not?

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70' of water doesn't mean there wasn't something lurking just below the surface. Standing timber that has been submerged for years can break off and "float" below the surface. You would never see it.

I have a hard time seeing the fin rip out w/o some kind of contact somewhere down the line.

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I am amazed at the number of threads dealing with this topic. Is this common to all ski boats? Or more of a Bu issue?The question of "over-secured" versus "secured" is a good one. Not sure there's an easy answer.

Dave

I would think the dealers wether it be Malibu or any other company would make the hulls so that if one did come off you wouldn't take on water Dontknow.gif There could be some kind of plate with shear pin type bolts that would not go all the way through the hull.

Just my $.02 worth.

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I know we have hit things that I felt on the fin and not the strut/rudder/prop before. I think the first hit with the fin pushes the object down and the rest of it clears and goes over it. A hit hard enough to break a fin off might break up the object you hit too.

Respectively, I would rather lose the fin and have a couple of small holes in the hull leaking than lose the fin and have a 8" X 2" hole in the bottom of the boat and trying to get back to the lift. I would bet you could buy a box of fins for the price of repairing a gaping hole in the bottom of the boat.

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Well it's at the dealer. They will re-fiberglass the area then redrill and tap the holes. They suggested against the thru-bolting due to the fact if I ever did hit anything it would probably rip a hole in the boat. For those of you who don't believe me the dealer also agreed that I didn't hit anything so it is being warrantied without question, there is absolutely no evidence it was hit with/by anything. If there was any evidence I hit something they would not have warrantied the repair.

For the record I didn't almost sink the boat, it was taking on water faster than the bilge could keep up with and I wasn't taking any chances by stopping to check it out until I got the boat back on the trailer.

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I've known quite a few people that this has happened to, but usually it's a result of hitting something. Now, it's never happened to me so I'm just speculating on this, but it seems to me that securing it better would protect it from coming off for small hits. For big hits, it seems like the likelihood of major damage is pretty high regardless of how the fin is attached because you've got so many other things that are probably going to be involved (shaft, prop, strut, rudder, etc). So I guess to me, if the likelihood of that is high anyway, why not?

Well stated, couldn't have said it better.

Stew, we had an incident at Mc Clure a week ago, I've known several long time houseboaters that it happend to on Mc Clure. I've lost my fair share of props but luckily nothing else.

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Wow. That sucks. Glad you were able to get it back on the trailer! Wonder what you could do if you weren't able to get it on, just in case something like this happens a bit out to sea. Or if the launch area was full. Hmmm..
beach it.

If you can reach the holes, stuff socks or whatever you can find in them!!!! We lost a rudder Surprised.gif aobut 5 years ago and we stuffed a sock in the hole - saved it from sinking, as (obviously) we could not steer the boat. Had to get a tow :blush:

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This happened to us on our '05 Response LXi last season. We suspect the fin was loose from pulling onto a beach but not certain. Anyway the front fin came off @ 40 mph traveled under the boat and wiped out one blade on the prop. We filled the holes with resin retapped purchased a new fin $84 and it's good as new. Also had to purchase a new prop, the blade was bent so badly it would not bend back to a useable form.

Edited by bmillard
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It does seem that a better design would be to have the mounting screws pass through the hull and into some sort of reinforcement block. That way if you hit something hard enough you'd be more likely to break the fins off rather than rip a gaping hole in your boat. Definitely could easily be engineered using the different material strengths and mounting surface area, etc. And it would be another justification for the skyrocketing prices of these boats... Cry.gif

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That way if you hit something hard enough you'd be more likely to break the fins off rather than rip a gaping hole in your boat.

Lets think about that for a minute. The hull is made of fiberglass. The fin out of a brass alloy. Which is going to give first?

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That way if you hit something hard enough you'd be more likely to break the fins off rather than rip a gaping hole in your boat.

Lets think about that for a minute. The hull is made of fiberglass. The fin out of a brass alloy. Which is going to give first?

I was talking about putting in a large reinforcement block that would cover a large enough surface area of the hull so that I wouldn't rip out. Maybe it's not possible, but thought it might be. Dontknow.gif

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My boat 05 vlx is flooded. I just had alot of water inside my boat (1.5 feet inside rear lockers) (8" behind observers seat storage area). I had used the boat about 12 hours prior with no problems. All 6 of my batterys were completely under water so the amps were actually on (I guess from the current flowing through the water). I now have water in my engine, water in the v-drive, 3 of my brand new JL amps are fried and my JL W7 sub is toast. I have NO idea how this happened. I finally got the boat out on the trailer and see no visible cracks or missing fins? I don't know what to do. Either put a claim in with my insurance or start by replacing all fluids and bring into the dealer?

Will this effect resale after bringing it to the dealer? I was planning on trading the boat in next year.

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