A Real Good Start to the Holiday Weekend
 

Ok, so I will start this by saying for the past 5 years, I have ALWAYS been on a two week vacation to Florida (for 1 week) and a Cruise (for one week). This is the first time in 5 years I have not taken a Labor Day Vacation..... Already of to a crappy start.

Here in South East Michigan the water level has been down pretty much all year on the Detroit River and Lake Erie. Well today it has been blowing the water out into the lake all day, making the River much lower that I have seen.

So I launch my boat this afternoon in the Ecorse creek, and idle toward the Detroit River. All of a sudden I hear and feal a very hard clunk, then the motor shuts off. I don't have much time to react because the wind is blowing pretty hard and the creek is narrow. So it felt like I hooked and rope or something that tangled up the prop to shut it off. So I hurry up and bring the drive up only to find one blade is bent over and the other has a huge chunk missing. I hit a freaking rock so hard that it shut the boat off....... Well I drop the drive and limp back to the launch fighting the wind on a 3-1/2 blade prop. Once I get it back on the trailer I find the prop mangled and the prop shaft bent...... I have included some pics below. I took the prop home, took a lot of pics of the damage, then break out the torch and mini sledge hmmer. No FREAKING WAY this is ruining my first Labor Day weekend on the boat in 5 years. So I called the insurance company and begin the claims process. Then i heat the prop up and beat the living hell out of it to try and return it into something that resembles a Labbed Bravo 1 26p Prop. Well I got distracted for a minute then went back to beating the prop. I grabbed it to move it only to realize that damn thing was freaking hot as the sun. My Index finger and thumb got stuck to the hot surface of the prop. I finally got my hand off the prop blisters and all. I then bolt the prop back to the bent prop shaft and take it for a test. Much to my surprise, the boat runs pretty good. not much of a vibration at all. I did notice it lists to the port side a bit, but no way am I loosing out on my Labor day weekend. Here are a few before and after pics. By the way, a severly burnt index finger and thumb was worth every bit of it. We got out today, and plan to be out all weekend. I am not going to set any speed records this weekend, but I ran it up to 60 and it feels pretty smooth. I am not woried about the bend prop shaft ruining the seal... I will check the fluid daily to see if water is getting in. If it is, I will just have to change it daily before I go out. $30 a day in drive fluid beats the hell out of being stuck on the trailer for the weekend....

Before my garage labbing process:
http://www.bradzgarage.com/garage/IMG_0579.JPG
http://www.bradzgarage.com/garage/IMG_0583.JPG
http://www.bradzgarage.com/garage/IMG_0585.JPG

After my garage labbing process:
http://www.bradzgarage.com/garage/IMG_0588.JPG

I do hate when chit like that happens . I do wish you well for the rest of the weekend and soak those fingers incider ! :lolhit:

Low PSI

That is one hell of a story. My friend has told me that the local marine repair shop is doing a bigger then usual business this year with all the props, drives and prop shafts getting damaged because of the low water level on Lake St. Clair. It looks like it is down 18 - 24 inches, infact it is getting extremely difficult to get in and out of the boat where there are fixed docks. Sorry to hear about your misfortune and injury, I hope that the rest of your weekend is a lot better. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Ran it again today. It seems to take a little longer to plane off but once on plane it still gets it. Mid range is a little sluggish as the prop doesnt have the bite it needs.... But so far so good. Two days down, two to go. I already sent a PM to BBlades about repairing it.

look on craigslist for a replacement/spare somebody is always selling a bravo prop, not a bad recon for 30 min with a hammer.

I think I can top that . I drove out to lake havasu in 1994 for the Hot Boat Reggata . that was about 2200 miles each way from cincinnati , ohio . Back then I had a some what custom 220 force Baja . custom paint , custom low profile plexiglass wind screen , and bigger motor . that was a fairly big boat there at that time , most were 18 to 20 foot lowprofile jets or i/o . I put the boat in and went around the corner near the ramp and hit some rocks . I went back to the trailer , pulled the boat . this don't look good , no spare prop . I took it off and gave it a concrete labbing on a parking chalk with a hammer and away we went . needless to say we got the longest distance award and we had the biggest family award as we had alot of family travaling there at the time . 11 people , half of them never even got in the boat .

This has been a weird weekend. Today I almost hit a deer with the boat. Damn thing was swimming across the Trenton channel in Wyandotte, MI. That would have been fun to try and explain to the insurance company......

unbelivable , I agree on the weird weekend.

And today I hit a seagull........ Not that is out of the ordinary..... But add it all up! Had a great weekend, drive and prop held up, so it was worth the burns to my hand for sure!

Wow huahua food yes great information. ok so yea lets run the boat on a bent shaft and then talk like a tough guy and say well i'll just change the fluid every day. Look like I posted 29 minutes ago screw the tree huggers but common use some common sense guy.