Rope In Prop ==> Now Boat Shakes at high speeds

[jeremyk]

Going to have the shop take a look at this but thought I'd post this to see if anyone knows what might be going on. Was circling back to pick up a downed rider this weekend and had to do a quick turn to get between an idiot on a jet ski and my rider to avoid them getting hit. While doing said maneuver, the line got wrapped around the prop. We noticed this as we were bringing in the line after the rider was on board. We got it all untangled in one piece but now the boat drives funny. It vibrates at speeds over 20mph, feels very sluggish and won't track straight. In fact, if I let go of the wheel, it pulls hard to the right, almost making as complete of a sharp turn as possible on its own.

Only thing that appeared to be odd when we pulled the boat out was that the drive shaft looked to have about 1" section right after the shaft guide that was very shiny (as opposed to a slightly dull look everywhere else).

Any ideas?

[Ndawg12]

I'm guessing a prop fin is slightly out of alignment...I would hope a rope wouldn't bend a stainless shaft...keep us posted.

[areamike]

I'm guessing a prop fin is slightly out of alignment...I would hope a rope wouldn't bend a stainless shaft...keep us posted.

I imagine it might be possible that the shaft may have bent if enough force was drawn on the rope from the prop while it was wrapped around everything. Or like you said, perhaps one of the prop fins bent a little.

[bretski75]

If that's not it you could try to check your alignment.

[jeremyk]

It was the prop. Each blade of the prop was ever so slightly bent. Took the prop guy about 15 mins to fix it right up and now things run fine. Thank god for the guys at Bakes's. I would have probably never thought to have it checked first since there was no visible damage.

[Bill_AirJunky]

Yea, doesn't take much to mess'em up... a small stick, a sandy bottom, etc. I had a neighbor who dinged his prop running over a life vest..... why he ran it over, I don't have a clue.

It's an interesting process to watch them fix a prop. They have a die that they lay the prop in. Then use heat & various hammers to carefully bend the Nibral back into the die's shape. Only a handful of shops actually do the work, even in a nautical town like Seattle.

[Ndawg12]

I'm guessing a prop fin is slightly out of alignment...I would hope a rope wouldn't bend a stainless shaft...keep us posted.

It was the prop. Each blade of the prop was ever so slightly bent. Took the prop guy about 15 mins to fix it right up and now things run fine. Thank god for the guys at Bakes's. I would have probably never thought to have it checked first since there was no visible damage.

It's official, I should open up my own repair shop