Ran Boat Aground Question

Not sure if aground is a word but I digress..

I ran my boat on a sand bar this weekend doing about 15mph. Stuck it pretty good. Had to get towed off. When I got the boat running again I had some steering wheel vibration and the water spray from the engine was coming out crooked. It was also a little hard to plane. We pulled it out and looked at the prop and rudder and everything looked OK to the eye. I figure the prop needs to be rebalanced. The rudder looked like it may have a very slight tilt but I'm not sure if that is normal.

Any thoughts on what you think might be wrong? How much does it cost to rebalance a prop?

my guess would be it's more likely a bent shaft and/or bent rudder. usually an insurance job, depending on how much damage there is.

You most likely bent the rudder-hence the vibration in the steering . and you most likely bent the shaft or prop and that is why you are not planing like usual. Sometimes you can bend the prop in a way that it is not visible to the naked eye, but definetely can effect perfomance. I would say that it is more likely the prop than the shaft, when the shaft is bent you will feel it in the boat, (vibration) but if the prop is off, then you will lose performance.

That didn't take long....

just messing it happens to the best of 'em. Don't try and run it, the vibration can be very damaging to the drive. If the shaft is bent its gonna become a huge issue with the seals etc. Get in in and get it looked at no sense in completely chalking your boat up.

I can't believe the number of people that hit things and don't bother to stop and check everything they can...just continue on like nothing happened and hope for the best.

Next time, get towed off, swim under and see if things are intact, get to shore! take it out of the water! You're only doing more damage running it!

Elane, get it into the shop and explain everything. If you bent the shaft- that's a huge mess, hopefully just the prop, which WOULD cause vibration- done it myself. The other thing you better check is the Impeller. If you ran it up on a sand bar you probably inhaled some sand into the motor- get it flushed and check the impeller before you find out it's bad the hard way.

Unfortunately some people just don't know any better. I did pretty much the same thing on my first boat. Like an idiot I drove back to the ramp @ about 15 mph, ended up destroying every seal from the transmission back to the strut bearing. Once you see the cost of this one...you'll be more cautious next time. What's going to tick you off even more is the possible downtime to repair. It may take the dealer a while to get around to fixing everything. could be out as much as a few months. Dependign on how mcuh weight was in your boat, you lookign at possible dmaged prop, bent shaft, probably bent strut, bent rudder, possible fiberglass cracks around strut. potential damage around all seals/bearings from tranmission back. good luck on the repair? Where in Houston are you?

Just for the record. I did dive under the boat and everything felt fine. I gave it some gas and it started to vibrate and not plane then I pulled off. I idled it about 200 yards to the ramp and pulled it out right away. I just dropped it at the dealership. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Adam- I'm in the Heights. I just dropped the boat at Rinker's.

glad to hear you took a look and took it easy.
I've lived on a lake my whole life and have seen some true idiots take a situation that was bad but fixable and turn it into a destroyed/ruined boat because they didn't want to end their day early.
So sad to see, glad you got it off the water and are having it looked at!

Elane sounds like you did the right thing on getting things checked out. In the bay and delta it is 99% mud. I have seen people run aground and pull it off and the boat be perfectly fine.

Hope everything goes well and to a speedy boat recovery.

Elane, Rinker's is usually pretty good on turn aroudn time.....I've never had any major work done by them. Not knocking the guys at rinker's but any major work I've had done on my boat I take elsewhere. Depending on what has to be done there's a really good shop down south and another on the northwest (belt & 290). I live out on lake houston. who's your insurance thru?

bummer such a nightmare! A person I know did this last year. He has been boating all his life and has had at least three wakeboard boats. His boat was in the shop for 6 months-gel coat, prop and shaft. The worst was that he took on sand in the engine and found this out later. The shop did not check for this. So have the engine checked as well. Good luck and sorry to hear about the boat!

Another thing that isn't usually obvious is the shaft strut. If it's bend a all it'll through everything off. Kinda hard to see unless you step back from the boat and look down the keel line

Chris
Get the Grip you Deserve
www.wakejunky.com

Elane
You can try a place named Palmer Power. I was refered to them by the Master Craft dealer. They are great people and do great work they are located near the Astro Dome.

Elane, Palmer Power is the place down south I was referring too as well. Good shop, reasonable price. They do all of the mastercraft dealers major repair work (engine/transmission). The place on the northwest is Texas Propeller Service, ask for Dennis. They'll take care of you. If you mention my name tell him I still have one of his props he let me borrow.

Thanks for the tips. I'll see what Rinker's quotes me then shop around.

Adam- Where do you board?