Hitting anything submerged
01-10-2014, 08:43 AM
#11
Hit a submerged stump at speed in my Baja about 13 years ago with the wife and our yellow lab in the boat with me. It catapulted the entire boat about 3 feet out of the water - a buddy of mine was running alongside me and saw the whole thing. It was a bad feeling to look down in the water and see that sheen of gear oil on top the water, and then hear that bilge pump kick on. Fortunately, I had an old t-shirt to stuff into the gimbal opening or we would have sunk in short order. Lucky to have help nearby to pull us back to a dock where I was able to lash the boat off so it didn't go to the bottom. Had to ride all the way across the lake with my buddy, and then drive about 30 miles to the ramp where the boat was to get it back on the trailer. I was fortunate that the hull was not damaged and the drive itself, amazingly, was OK. It simply shattered the gimbal ring and bell housing, much like spectra's picture. Only thing keeping the drive off he bottom was the trim lines.
01-10-2014, 10:54 AM
#12
artselectricinc.com
Platinum Member
I have broken several drives over the years on the Columbia River. The last episode involved a set of Arnesons. I didn't see what I hit, but it hit HARD.The drives were broke to crap, but still got me back to the boathouse. I may have been swimming if they were sterndrives. It's just part of boating in these parts.
01-10-2014, 04:23 PM
#13
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Location: Vancouver BC
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the wife and I were coming back from Qualicum on Vancouver island heading towards the mouth of the Fraser river in some 6-8' waves fortunately we were going with the waves and the wind was dying down so they were just big rollers. We came onto a large amount of floating log debris and I came down on a log. luckily I saw it and it was at the right angle I cut the throttle and it was small enough to just cause one of my drives to cavitate with no hull damage just a chunk out of the lower. at the time it freaked me right out not knowing what damage had happened. took us a while to get thru all the crap and the waves made it very hard to see. Still looking back probably one of the best times ive had boating every 15 or so min the nose would just tuck into a wave enough to completely drench us
