I just wanted to say thank you for all the help.

im not sure if I should be upset that I chased my tail for so long or happy it’s an easy fix…. I’m 99% sure this entire thing was caused by a previous owner not removing the exhaust bellow after thru hulls were installed…. After this video, the bellow being there caught my eye when I pulled the boat out of the water and started looking for reasons that would cause the water to be disrupted like it was.

I have an older Baja with a similar exhaust setup that never had that bellow. Long story short, after some research, I found this post below, which seems exactly like what is going on.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...9705049dd.jpeg



There’s a massive disruption of water causing a huge load on the prop then clears out. I apologize about the video but it’s the best I could do at the time. It gets foggy but water splashes and clears the camera.

Did you yank the exhaust bellows? Sorry, unclear if you and has been an absurdly long day.

sooo, I did yank the bellow.. took it out and it made no difference.. I was shocked.

but I did fix the issue…

So, since I got the boat I’ve noticed this tube that runs along the inside/back of the bilge, down and through the bottom of the transom, apparently it’s a prop aerator.. ....its controlled by a ball valve at the bottom of the bilge and I never touched it because in my mind, once you start moving, water is being forced against the hull… and pressure would push water up the tube, and into the boat. I figured it was an old water pick up of some sort so I never opened it.

Well after the bellow thing didn’t work, I said f it. Cracked it open and Kept the hatch open to watch to top of the tube. I planed out slow to see if I was about to have a water fountain… and well, instead, it planed out PERFECT. Right then I kinda realized what it was actually for and not what I thought it was for. I’ll grab a few pictures of it, but any tips on using it correctly? Or is it all trial and error depending on load/weight, prop etc?

Talk about strange!

I’ve never seen anything like that. Maybe others have?

I grabbed a couple pictures. I get the idea of some prop aeration but this honestly doesn’t make sense how the water pressure against the hull doesn’t shoot water up the tube and into the bilge unless I’m missing something. It’s not a one way valve because I heard the tube fill with water when I opened it.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...d8e73ad4d.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...6cca4f1a6.jpeg

I’d post this up in the Hustler section to see if anyone has seen that.

Well, I learned something new while searching threads (found in a fiberglass thread).

It is there to remove the vacuum created by the notch. I guess you could play with it and see what you get.

I appreciate you poking around! But Wow. I wish I knew that.. lol that would have saved me a TON of time and money but happy to hear it was something small. I guess that’s part of the learning process.

The first time I tried it, I only cracked it incase water did shoot out the top of the tube, but when nothing came out, i tried it again with it fully open. I noticed the more it was open, the easier the prop blew out which makes sense. Unfortunately I ran out of time this year in the north east so next year I’ll try it with different props with the valve opened at different intervals