anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

i plan on using a friends 115hp o/b powered runabout to open the mouth of our canal enough so i can get my 35ft cig in there. then use the cig to blow the rest of the sand/muck out. any tips?

was also wondering how hard i can run my motors on a large garden hose so im not sucking sand water into the motors during the dreging operation. i have 70lbs of water pressure at my house, so i would think i could turn 3500 or 4000 rpms using a large diameter hose to get some volume with the high pressure. any thoughts on the water issue? thx, ratman

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

:eek::eek::eek:

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Ha ha! If this is not a joke post, the first storm will shift the sand around and frustrate your efforts.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

no joke bro! the mouth of my canal has closed up a bit and i intend to use prop wash to move the soft sand/silt outa there. my father and i used his 18 ft 270hp donzi to erode the shore line 12 ft wide and 30 +ft long in about 4 - 5 hours it was 7ft deep. when we started it was 2 foot above sea level. my canal should be easy as the sea walls will help direct the prop was and the canal opens into the the bay. the are a lot of trees and davits and such to tie the boat to along the sides of the canal. i bought 600ft of 1" nylon rope to run 4 lines of the stern of my cig to trees etc. i am gonna tie off two the to big U bolts on the transom and the two rear cleats on the deck.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Looks like you will be doing a alot of panhandleing.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Find you someone with a jet boat. :eureka:
BTW, won't you just be moving the silt around piling it up at the end of the prop wash?
Take pictures .

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

dont know anyone with a hi po jet boat, i used to have one it had 100ft + roost. i figure my cig oughta move a lotta silt. it is ok if it washes out in the bay its plenty deep beyond the mouth of my canal. i thought if i have to i'll buy a pair of large danforth snow plow anchors to tie off to and open up the mouth next if its needed.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Dont let any tree huggers catch you. The fine would be huge.

In galveston by my beach house a developer filled in a small pond, came to find out it was the only fresh water lake on the island. He had to rebuild the pond, pay and pay a multimillione dollar fine.

Im sure people on here can tell you horror stories about the sea grass in florida.

CM

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

i'll shoot some video and get before and after pics

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Go back and forth with an old metel box spring. :drink:

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

all the neighbors chipped in on the rope ect. they are all ready to be able to use the canal again.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Please take some video this should be classic.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

I've dredged my slip for my 34' Silverton. Just tied it up, bow in, extra ropes to the poles off the stern......just idled in gear for about 20 minutes.....We had plenty of depth after that. Doing it slowly, on a fast incoming tide allowed the current to disperse the "fill" very nicely, so i wasnt building a lump outside of my slip. What you're trying is like what i did X 20. Good luck.....and yeah, vid and pics would be cool.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Don't they have any rental boats around there you can do this with I hate to see you mess up your own boat. This just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

we did a whole marina a few years ago but we used a pilot boat with 1200 diesels with huge wheels tied the pilot boat off and just let it sit there a while moved did it again it worked but the boat was huge

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

i called everywhere trying to rent something. nada, we all pitched in and bought a 16 baha with a merc 115 to get things opened enough to get my cig in there on a good high tide. then it should get a lil more interesting

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

People down here do this type of thing....I have a small bay about a 1/4 mile behind my house.Things go on there by the waterfront owners that the city would frown on..I could careless.

You should be fine but I wouldn't be doing it with my Cig...things happen...stuff moves around and hits things.Just use the little boat back and forth.

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

I wish I could be there to watch this. Apparently you know this is frowned upon but since everyone around is in on the gig you shouldn't have that problem. I've cleared a slip before so this mould work depending on tie-off locations, etc. I'd at least try to put on some banged up props. Anyone have any that need tuning anyway???

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

anybody got a pair of banged up props for ssm#3a's? any ptich

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

I've got a fairly large Hydro-Hoist on a bay that gets a lot of silt/mud buildup. What I do in the Fall and/or Spring is rig a couple of 3/4 hp De-Icers that rest on the bottom and blow out the slip over time. They're not cheap and it takes time, but it definitely works. I'm not the first or only person on the Bay to be doing this. Moving water can do amazing things. I mailed pictures of the rig I designed to Strip Poker 388. He said he wanted to see pictures of anything having to do with 'bottoms'!

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

I was gonna post this! I works like a charm. :evilb:

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Lots of folks do it here . A 42 SeaRay will clear a path quite quickly. Guy here used to use a Sonic with 551 Hawks - did quite well so should be no prob with your Cig. Best to do it on a weekday....

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

LMAO....never heard of such a thing.....make sure DERM and the US Army Corp of Engineers don't get a whif of what you plan on doing.....

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

do you have to move em over time ? Or can you set em up at the front of the slip and let em run to blow the slip out ?

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

you weren't worried about moving the pilings ? My slip silts up ....I have used a pump to blow it out ...

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Some people got together and did that on a private island (jewfish key) off of long boat key here last year and the tree huggers caught them! They had a boat doing it at night so they would not get caught but it did not work. The boat was seized the guy who did the dredging is in jail and all the homeowners are facing jail time and huge fines! I would not reccomend this but if you do I would not use the cig if you dont want to lose it!

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

i hink its best to do on the weekend as the nieghbors are cool with it and the city employees are drinking beer or sleeping it off

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Offthefront- I know some people that mount them and leave them on. I move them 4-6 feet after letting them eat for a few days. This last winter, I left them at the rear crossmember of my hoist all Winter. Maybe had 5-6 feet when I started, nine feet in the spring. I'm sure there are a lot of ways to mount them. I've been doing it for five years now. The hoist moves and the bottom surface of your slip will drop so you have allow them to drop for best results. PM me an address and I'll send you some photos I just got back from Strip

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Sounds funny, but I know a LOT of people who do this exact thing on the canals here. Tie her up really well, and use a fast idle for an hour or so on a swift outgoing tide, should be no problem. :D :D

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

Find a guy with a tug to pull in and back out a few times, Ive heard this works real well......permitless dredging ! :D

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

we used to use a jet ski and attach a fire hose to dredge a small area under my grandparents boat lift. but if your going to be doing it pretty often I would build a small wood barge and buy a gas high flow water pump... with the "prop" method you have no control of where the dredge is dredging accept somewhere behind the boat.... if you arent on a very still lake you are going to be dredging atleast once a year unless the boat is going out daily over all seasons....

Ernie

Ernie

Re: anyone ever do some prop dreging?
 

This works awsome .... they did the guy a few docks north of me ....tug .. took about 20 mins .....he blew out 3 sides around his boathouse ...

Bump .....any new ideas?

Thats how it was done at the mouth of Bayou Lacombe when I was little. No tugs ahve been in there in a LOOOOOONG time and its starting to get shallow.

VERY illegal!

If the DNR sees it, or even hears about it, you're looking a BIG fine, and even the possibility of jail.

very true, in some (maybe all) cases the dredgings are considered hazardous waste. They also take into consideration sea life and vegetation, neither of which can be easily moved. Some of our areas get lilly pads, they are protected and cannot be cut or killed off.



on another note we actually dug a 150 foot long 5 plus foot deep channel with my buddies jet boat. Another friend was stranded in about a foot of water on a sand bar in his 34 Scarab and the closest we could get was about a hundred fifty foot away so we took out my biggest TopKnot 3/4" anchor line tied it to the bow eye of the Scarab and the stern of the jet boat then pointed the Place Diverter down and started blowing holes. Shortened the line about ten feet at a time and two or three hours later we were backed right up to his bow eye, hooked on and let the jet blow out the remaining sand from under the Scarab and she just slowly rocked down in the hole as the sand went out from underneath. We had stuck a docking pole in the location we started so all we did was aim for that and pull him right out the fresh channel we had just cut. Worked like a charm and saved a fortune in headaches and costs if SeaTow pirates had to come out. I'm sure they would have destroyed it using force over brains to extract it.