WHAT are the chances????? check THIS out...

Has anyone out there EVER heard/seen this:

a blade--a single blade--of a 4-blade solid BRASS prop just breaking off?!

Now, if you're going to say something like "well, you must've run something over," then to that I ask you: what on earth could we have run over that didn't affect any of the other blades at all? Here is some additional info:
2008 mastercrap (oops-I mean mastercraft) x-30
cruising in pretty calm lake water, 120 ft. deep, in a straight line at about 30 mph (not at all full throttle) when we heard a noise with engine/boat vibration; sounded & felt like the engine popped off its mount.
We took the boat out & this is what we found...
any feedback would be helpful.
Thanks!

you've just slung a blade, it happens! Shouldn't be common on high quality props, especially on an inboard but it can happen to all.

Thats a bummer! Hopefully it didn't hit the boat and chip the gel coat, or worse.

"2008 mastercrap"

Mastercraft doesn't make their own props, neither do any of the other boat manufacturers. I'm sure if you contacted the dealer, they will get you fixed up, considering the boat is an 08.

from what i've heard is that an internal flaw in the bronze and some cavitation will cause fatigue and crack growth until it fails.

wow--that's absurd.
tricky about the dealer...they folded shortly after losing their MC dealership-status. The sales guy ran over a rock on the test run & damaged the original prop. He wanted to put this one on as a replacement, despite the head service guy telling him it's "not the right prop for the boat," nor is it listed as the recommended prop in the MC's owner's manual.
From the gate, the boat has had riddled with issues (but up to now, the prop hasn't been one of them.)
Any idea of the chances there was damage to the drive shaft/prop bushing?
thx

Lemme get this straight, your dealer/service guy put on the wrong prop and you want to bash Mastercraft over it?

Why would you buy a boat with the dealer putting the wrong prop on? Good thing it broke because now it will force you to prop your boat correctly before the engine gets messed up. Bummer on your dealer going belly up but by the sounds of his business practices it might not be a bad thing. Find a new dealer and get the warranty problems fixed. Good luck!

I would not have known it was the wrong prop, had I not overheard the conversation between service guy & sales guy. it's not as though it was said directly to me (& was followed by sales guy saying, "we can go ahead & put it on--they'll never know the difference."
the wrong prop issue was secondary to the host of other problems i had at the time (i.e the steering became IMPOSSIBLE; we had to convert from rack & pinion to cable) and oh yeah, apparently the guys who put the boat together failed to secure the engine to the mount with the appropriate hardware--ANY hardware--and all service guys that worked on the steering issue failed to notice that there wasn't anything mounting the engine to the boat! but i digress...
basically, it was a step away from being declared a lemon. hey, sometimes there's a boat that just isn't well put together. but i worked with the new MC dealer/service center as well as upper management & they graciously extended the warranty.

Wait so you heard the sales guy say this, and STILL bought the boat from him? Thats your first mistake.... hell I woulda driven to the next state over to another dealership before I gave them my business....

You should've called the douche out on that comment or better, like Joey stated, just walked. I'm not giving you a hard time, for the most part you were a victim and that sucks. Let alone got a boat with problems. I have an 08 X2 that we got last summer. I have had the opposite experience with M/C. I have had no problems with the boat, knock on wood. And the dealer I bought from was and still remain great to work with. But if your around this forum long enough you'll hear about lemon boats from every mfg. Unfortunately its a fact. You paid a lot of money for your boat and in the end hopefully it works so you can have years of enjoyment from it.

c'mon..most everyone here would have done what Goldschlager did...probably signed the paperwork and all excited about the new boat--the guy just put on a new prop-even if it is not manufacturer recommended--not a deal breaker--I remember driving a couple of hours and spending all day when I picked up my boat. I would have to be damn sure of myself before I called the whole deal off....

metalurgical issue. Unfortunate, but no big deal right? no damage to boat, people. stuff happens. Put the spare on and keep movin forward...

The failure of the prop is unrelated to any other problems you may have with the boat. It was probably caused by a flaw in the metal or an error in the CNC machining. The prop company can examine the prop and determine the likely cause of the failure. If you were travelling 30 it s highly unlikely that anything hit the prop blade and caused it to fail without leaving a mark on another blade. (However, the world is full of unlikely events)
I suspect that with that type of failure the prop may be replaced by the prop manufacturer without a problem. It's probably covered under the boat manufacturers warranty also.

My whole stance is that if im buying a brand new boat from a dealer, its going to be exactly what I want, especially if im gonna drop some serious cash on an MC, something this expensive you cant be too cautious...

Call OJ I bet they will fix the issue

Not sure if OJ had a bad run of props but this is the third instance I have heard of an OJ donating a blade to the lake. It sounds like you got lucky and it went away from the boat. The last one I heard of went the direction of the boat and did $5k of fiberglass damage on it's way out nearly sinking the boat in the process. Talk to OJ, they are a good company, hopefully they will take care of you. By the way, as Art suggests, this has almost nothing to do with Mastercraft. It's an OJ prop issue, lots of manufacturers use OJ in addition to Mastercraft.

In This Thread: Mastercraft owners blame the Customer because it obviously couldn't be Mastercraft's fault.

Sounds like there is another side to this story. I don't think there is any way the engine could just be sitting in there without moving around..... it wouldn't even have to be running to fall into the bilge.

And converting the steering from rack & pinion to cable? Maybe they had to install a new rack under the dash, or a new cable to the rudder. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Agreed, if the dealers guys are telling secrets that you think might be strange, just walk away.

Do you have a picture of the area the blade used to be attached? You can easily tell if it was fatigue failure or something else, depending on how the surface of the failure area looks. Put a pic up here, I will look at it and let you know.

My buddy had this happen with his OJ prop on his 2006 Moomba. The blade actually stuck itself into the boat and went all the way through the fiberglass too! I'm not sure who paid for what to be fixed though.

now you have a 3 blade LOL just kidding, hey dont ever puy the wrong prop on, it could seriously do some damage. Looks like a problem with the manufacturer of the prop.

Mastercrap uses 2nd quality materials, buy a SAN problem fix. It's a no brainer!

Thanks for all the input everyone!
Bill: to clarify: apparently, the front motor mounts were missing their jam nuts, which damaged the cutlass bearing, resulting in the alignment being off by 3/4"!!
At first, the boat would make a full u-turn if you let go of the wheel. Then it became so difficult that it took 2 hands (strong ones) to turn the boat around. So it was converted to a hydraulic steering system; yielding mildly acceptable results at the time.

Additionally, MC owner's manual suggests a prop size of 13.5 x 17 for the x30 with an MCX engine.

Wrong prop or not stock prop. There are many different props that can be used on that boat and depending on how they are used some will be better than others. The owners manual that your referencing is just suggesting the stock prop. Few people i know run the stock prop on their MC's because they seem to be geared more towards efficiency at cruising speeds instead of wakeboarding. The dealer definately should have been straight up with you about what they were putting on your boat but just because it isn't the stock prop doesn't mean it will cause any damage in fact it could be what most people would consider an upgrade depending on what prop they actually gave you.

If you haven't already done so I would contact OJ and i'm sure they will make it right. But getting mad at MC for a prop failure is like getting mad at Mercedes when you get a blow out on a tire.