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Bummer


Birm

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Today I was on my first set and working on some drills. I had just watched The Book and was pretty excited to get going. I had been up about one minute and then it felt like the rope snapped and the boat slowed down. I proceeded to shout a couple of choice words at the driver asking what the heck he was doing. Then I saw a log (about 4" in diameter) sticking up out of the water by about 1 foot. The driver and one passenger confirmed that they hit it, but that it was submerged before they hit it. They actually pulled the log and whatever tree it was attached to up out of the water. Cry.gif Luckily we were only going around 12 mph. After I swam back to the boat I grabbed my goggles and tried to look at the shaft and prop. It was too cloudy to see very much. I jumped back in and started the boat up and put it in gear. As soon as I got to around 5mph there was a horrible vibration. We limped back to the marina and pulled the boat out of the water. Inspection revealed a small ding about the size of a quarter on one of the prop blades. Other than that the prop looks perfect. The fins, shaft, shaft bracket, and rudder all looked OK. However, there is some damage to the gel coat directly above the prop on the bottom of the boat. There is a gash about 1/2" wide by 2" long all the way through the gel coat, exposing the fiberglass. Cry.gif It looks to me like this was caused by the log wedging between the prop and the bottom of the boat.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Can a small ding in the prop cause such severe vibration at slow speeds?

2. How do I tell if the shaft is OK? It looks like it is perfectly alligned with the rudder bracket?

3. What are my chances of being back in action by the weekend! Crazy.gif

As usual, any advice, consoling, etc. is much appreciated. :)

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Today I was on my first set and working on some drills. I had just watched The Book and was pretty excited to get going. I had been up about one minute and then it felt like the rope snapped and the boat slowed down. I proceeded to shout a couple of choice words at the driver asking what the heck he was doing. Then I saw a log (about 4" in diameter) sticking up out of the water by about 1 foot. The driver and one passenger confirmed that they hit it, but that it was submerged before they hit it. They actually pulled the log and whatever tree it was attached to up out of the water. Cry.gif Luckily we were only going around 12 mph. After I swam back to the boat I grabbed my goggles and tried to look at the shaft and prop. It was too cloudy to see very much. I jumped back in and started the boat up and put it in gear. As soon as I got to around 5mph there was a horrible vibration. We limped back to the marina and pulled the boat out of the water. Inspection revealed a small ding about the size of a quarter on one of the prop blades. Other than that the prop looks perfect. The fins, shaft, shaft bracket, and rudder all looked OK. However, there is some damage to the gel coat directly above the prop on the bottom of the boat. There is a gash about 1/2" wide by 2" long all the way through the gel coat, exposing the fiberglass. Cry.gif It looks to me like this was caused by the log wedging between the prop and the bottom of the boat.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Can a small ding in the prop cause such severe vibration at slow speeds?

2. How do I tell if the shaft is OK? It looks like it is perfectly alligned with the rudder bracket?

3. What are my chances of being back in action by the weekend! Crazy.gif

As usual, any advice, consoling, etc. is much appreciated. :)

You'll be reeeaaallly lucky if the shaft is not bent. Seeing as the log was wedged between the prop and the hull hard enough to cause the gash you spoke of....

Try someons spare after work and see if that works without vibration. If not, get it in ASAP.

Pat

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Just be happy, i had my boat in for 10 minutes when i bought it and hit a cinder block, cracking 2 blades of the prop, bending the other, and wedging the shaft as far to the right in the casing as possible.... $1854 and 2 weeks later i was back in the water. I wish i had taken pix. the prop is in my car tho i should take some pix and show u guys.

-Mark

P.S. Sorry to hear about it, find out where that is immediately so it can be flagged/marked off so other bu owners can avoid it (send all the Nautiques that way) Innocent.gif

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I checked out the damage a bit more closely this morning. It does appear that the log was first struck where the shaft enters into the shaft mount. There were small wood chips/fiber between the shaft and the bushing of the mounting bracket. We spun the prop by hand and placed a long rod along the shaft. The shaft does not appear to have any wobble. However, thre are stress fractures radiating from both sides of the mounting bracket. There are about 4 on each side of the mounting bracket, extending out about 2 inches. Looking at the prop from this angle showed that the ding is actually about 3 inches long on just one blade. It just folded the blade over slightly. So, obviously the shaft mounting bracket will need to be removed and new bushings put in....Are these bushings or bearings? I am still hoping that the shaft and where it connects to the engine are OK. I am now very concerned about the stress cracks. Does anyone know how serious stress cracks are, and how they are repaired? I will be holding my breath on this one.

I will post some pics when I get home tonight.

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I would really recommend consulting your dealer's service shop. This happened to us when we lived in MN. We had only had our boat for a short time and were on Lake Minnetonka. Not sure what we hit but assumed it was a deeply submerged log since the water was 35+ ft. deep.

We had pretty much the same experience as you did; from the vibration at low speeds to the dings in the prop and the stress cracks. The vibration can causes much of the stress around the mounting bracket...thankfully our insurance took care of everything and MN Inboard service shop got the boat looking and performing like new. I am not sure how they repaired these cracks but again, it was like new.

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....Are these bushings or bearings?...Does anyone know how serious stress cracks are, and how they are repaired?
They're bushings...bronze outer sleeve with a corrugated rubber interior. The stress cracks depend on how deep the impact penetrated. Just the gel-coat? Fairly simple repair but does need to be repaired as the gel-coat seals out the water from soaking into the fiberglass. If the damage shattered the integrity of the fiberglass below the gelcoat (or "above" as the case would same to indicate)...that is obviously more costly to repair.

My heart goes out to you. Good luck.

Friday morning my boy and I were out on Bullard's making a run for the marina when we saw something bobbing up and down in the water, it looked like a skier down but no boats around. Got up on it and it was a 12" diameter log standing vertical. We lassoed it and tied it off to the back of the Sporty and started towing it to shore. It was only then , once the whole log came up horizontal, that we could see that it was about 24 feet long. Shocking.gif That could have ended someones week-end (or worse). We pulled it up on shore. We saw it on Monday and it was still where we put it.

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....Are these bushings or bearings?...Does anyone know how serious stress cracks are, and how they are repaired?
They're bushings...bronze outer sleeve with a corrugated rubber interior. The stress cracks depend on how deep the impact penetrated. Just the gel-coat? Fairly simple repair but does need to be repaired as the gel-coat seals out the water from soaking into the fiberglass. If the damage shattered the integrity of the fiberglass below the gelcoat (or "above" as the case would same to indicate)...that is obviously more costly to repair.

My heart goes out to you. Good luck.

Friday morning my boy and I were out on Bullard's making a run for the marina when we saw something bobbing up and down in the water, it looked like a skier down but no boats around. Got up on it and it was a 12" diameter log standing vertical. We lassoed it and tied it off to the back of the Sporty and started towing it to shore. It was only then , once the whole log came up horizontal, that we could see that it was about 24 feet long. Shocking.gif That could have ended someones week-end (or worse). We pulled it up on shore. We saw it on Monday and it was still where we put it.

..Good Man NorCal!!!!

I applaud you!!

P

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..Good Man NorCal!!!!

I applaud you!!

P

:blush: Aww, shucks. :blush:

I was up there with thousands of acres of smooth water and no driver... Cry.gif ...just me & my 10 y.o. Don't get me wrong it was great one-on-one time with him but man it would have been nice to ski. We had nowhere to be and it was a great time to set a good example (got to counter some of those other examples that I show him every now and then :( )

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I have a couple of questions:

1. Can a small ding in the prop cause such severe vibration at slow speeds?

2. How do I tell if the shaft is OK? It looks like it is perfectly alligned with the rudder bracket?

3. What are my chances of being back in action by the weekend! Crazy.gif

As usual, any advice, consoling, etc. is much appreciated. :)

I have a couple of answers:

1. Yes, but more likely a bent shaft.

2. "Looks" are very deceiving but here is a red-neck shade-tree way to check. Tape a sharp pencil to the rudder with the point of the pencil very very close the dent in the end of the shaft. Then slowly turn the prop and see if the point stays in the middle of the dent in the shaft. You should be able to see even a 16th of an inch bend.

3. Chances? Slim and none, and it looks like Slim just caught a bus out of town.

All this from a guy that did this and worse earlier this summer. Prop, shaft, strut and rudder $2,250.

Best o luck.

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What about an insurance claim? I would definitely let your dealer check everything out and repair the stress cracks.

I bumped my lift with the engine off and damaged one blade (you could just barely see a ding) and the boat vibrated terribly. I replaced the prop and it was smooth as silk again.

As far as the stress cracks go... It is amazing what they can do with gelcoat. I had a 12 inch scratch down to the glass in my old boat and you couldn't even see any evidence of the damage when it was done.

Sorry about your bad luck, but it sounds like it can be fixed "good as new". The bad news is it will take some water time away from the balance of the year.

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Birm - v sorry to hear about it. . . glad everyone was OK.

I had v similar experience last year with a submerged stump. Resulted in $2200 for prop, shaft, strut, bushings. (no gel work)

I decided to file an insurance claim. Left me with only the deductible, and my rates did not change. Check with your agent -- mine correctly forecast not change for first incident with an otherwise clean record.

Good luck. . .

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Friday morning my boy and I were out on Bullard's making a run for the marina when we saw something bobbing up and down in the water, it looked like a skier down but no boats around. Got up on it and it was a 12" diameter log standing vertical. We lassoed it and tied it off to the back of the Sporty and started towing it to shore. It was only then , once the whole log came up horizontal, that we could see that it was about 24 feet long. Shocking.gif That could have ended someones week-end (or worse). We pulled it up on shore. We saw it on Monday and it was still where we put it.

Dangit! Where where you yesterday NorCaliBu? How about when I get my boat fixed I let you know where I am going to ride so that you can go and dredge the water for submerged trees and logs for me! Biggrin.gif Really though, that was pretty cool that you towed the log to shore....You definitely saved someone(s) from having a bad day. Good job.

The following are some photos of the damage. The first is the shaft where it enters the mounting bracket bushing...Notice the little wood chunks between the shaft and bracket. The second is the bent prop, and the third is the gel coat damage directly above the prop.

The boat is going into the shop on Thursday. Based on the consesus here, it looks like I can expect a $2500+ repair bill if the shaft is damaged. I checked my insurance policy. I have a comprehensive deductible of $500 and collision deductible of $2500. Anyone know if running into a log considered a collision?

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/birm/DSC00238.jpg

]Shaft://http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j...pg

]Shaft

Edited by Birm
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I know this is not going to make you feel any better but the same thing has just happened to me. I however have no idea what I hit going 10MPH pulling a wake surfer. I took out the shaft, strut, prop and rudder assembly with significant gelcoat and glass damage. No bill yet but I expect the worst. It will be an insurance claim. I have no prior history of boat damage or claims. I was told that I could expect about a $60 a year increase in our current $550/yr policy

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I know this is not going to make you feel any better but the same thing has just happened to me. I however have no idea what I hit going 10MPH pulling a wake surfer. I took out the shaft, strut, prop and rudder assembly with significant gelcoat and glass damage. No bill yet but I expect the worst. It will be an insurance claim. I have no prior history of boat damage or claims. I was told that I could expect about a $60 a year increase in our current $550/yr policy

Lee sorry to hear that your going through this too. I'm feeling your pain man! Cry.gif

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Twice this summer my family members have hit small pieces of debris that proceeded to rip the front skeg off. TWICE, THIS summer. That put my boating on hold for about 1.5 months...

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Hitting a log or other inanimate object would be covered under collision. It would be equivalent to hitting a tree with your car. Comprehensive is generall acts of god or vandalism.

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I shouldn't say anything that will jinx me, but we have managed to not hit anything all summer. This is no small thing when we mainly use the boat in the Willamette, which is notorious for all of the debris and deadheads.

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I shouldn't say anything that will jinx me, but...
:lol: You're toast. :lol: Might as well just winterize the boat and put it away. ;)

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I may well winterize and put the boat away after the end of the month. Most of my regular crew are going to be gone, so I'm not sure how much I will be able to get out anyway.

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2004 wasn't a good year for the andyb 03 Response..

AllAtSea.jpg

The SS is pressed into action as a salvage vessel after we hit a reef. I've been over this spot 10,000 times but a really dry summer evaporated the lake more than usual. The winkie on the toboggan waded over to the sinking Bu and said - why did you stop?

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New rudder, shaft, strut & prop and out of action while the glass is repaired..

ShowsruddershaftbendmuntedCNCprop.jpg

Showsruddershaftbend.jpg

It's been two seasons now without hitting the bottom. My focus insteads is on hitting magnets in the slalom course and buying new ACME props. My sympathies are with you and it was suggested to me that I invest in a depth sounder!!

Edited by andyb
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