A friend of mine has a 79 Martini with an Alpha one drive. Last night he hit something and broke teh skeg, just under the gear case. He is planning on still running the boat for the season, I tried talking him into getting it fixed. What kind of handleing or performance problems could he face with running a boat with a broken skeg??

He may have some handling trouble and without the skeg anything he hits now will damage the prop and possibly break the drive. His best bet is to find a new/rebuilt lower unit. They're not hard to swap out.

Two possible quick fixes:

Look in the back of boating mags. for something called "protect your lower unit." That would work if there is any skeg left at all.

I know a guy that actually welds up broken skegs. I'm not sure if he could weld an entire skeg on, as the new skeg is actually all weld.

The problem with welding on a new skeg is the lower unit may have to be disassembled, depnding on how much is left, to prevent heat damage to the gears, bearings and seals.
I would rather get a rebuilt unit than spend the time/labor to repair it.

A lot of poeple keep driving the boat and then the drive eventually goes on them. Before you run it again, check the shaft! If it is off more than .003, you have a problem! On any impact, that's the first thing you check! Good luck.

Good point......check the shaft, for sure.

Taking the lower unit off is a breeze. All I jdid was take the unit to the welder. The welder submerged the unit into an oil bath, then welded. No problem. Charged me $150.00!!! And it turned out perfect. (But only 50% of the skeg was missing to begin with)

I am lucky knowing a kick ass welder.

I had my skeg on my alpha fixed this spring and the shop told me it was $50 for a small chunks and $100 for a complete skeg replacement. He would do it on or off the boat.
I only had a few nicks and a quarter size piece gone from when someone ran into my lower unit when I was parked at Hardees, I can only imagine what the hood or grill of that car looked like after getting jabbed in there! Jacka$$ left without telling anyone though.

I broke the skeg off my brand new boat after about two weeks back in 1988. I had it welded back on for $40. Drove it for 13 years with no problems. It was still fine when I repowered last year.