The Damage Thread

After the epic failure had occured and I changed my boxers, we still decided the do a little fishing. Even though it was obvious that I had a little problem..

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Drip, drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip,drip, drip, drip

Yep, she's taking on water. Not un-fishable, but not good. Nothing the bilge pump can't handle until I get the boat patched (assuming it can be fixed)


But once I hammered into the ole merk and get to running pretty good, problem #2 decides that my day hadn't been memorable enough already..
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Notice the curb to the right of my lower unit just below the prop. Yep. The boat pulls so hard to the right at full speed that if I were to let go of the steering wheel, I honestly think that the boat would flip instantly.

I almost went to beating and prying on it but then I decided that I would ask you guys what I should do. Anybody experienced with something like this? Or should I just let a pro handle it. Last thing I need to do is buy a new lower unit.

Adjust the tab above the prop to compensate for your new curvature of the skeg.:D
You might just be able to work it out and not worry with it for a while.

I would be very scared to beat or pry on that cast skeg. Like mentioned before try adjusting the tab to make up for it. If it dont help I would call my Insurance Company and file a claim. Hang in there, it happens to all of us at one time or the other(not so much this bad however).

Nah! On second thought beat the crap out of it and if it breaks then file a claim.

Es, hate to hear all that....in all honesty, I would take it to a proffessional and let him repair everything right. We were fishing grenada today, in my aluminum boat, and using a trolling motor, and the side of the boat scraped against what looked like a concrete slab .......scratchef the side of the boat a little, but no major damage.......will have to get touch up paint and repair it. Thank God we werent in my fiberglass charger, lol. Anyway, crap happens when you fish and hunt long enough, and I have learned over the years that as long as everyone is safe and sound, and no injuries, everything else can be repaired....thank God, in,your case that everyone is ok.

Man that would of given me a heart attack,and yes I saw it happen bout 2 years ago at ramp where I fish, newbie first time out trying to back down ramp on 5th try he hits gas a little hard --wife screams as he is coming fast, slams on brakes and there goes brand new 16 foot Aluminum boat BANG flat down on ramp bout 2 feet short of water, 4 guys dragged it to water so they could put it on trailer and poor guy left lake.
As far as damage to hull most boat stores (can't remember name) carry a two part epoxy u mix up and spread over area and it seals it up for good. Comes in 2 styles after drying, one stays flexible like a caulk other drys hard as a rock if fact they say u can drill and tap it. Dark grey in color & when u mix it it will steam when ready. I just spread it on bottom while on trailer and where the rock cut was it sucked it right up in opening.

Sounds like you're referring to "J-B Weld". It's low cost (less than $10) and works well. I used it on an area of my aluminum boat about 3 years ago and haven't had a problem.

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Originally Posted by duckhunter

as long as everyone is safe and sound, and no injuries, everything else can be repaired....thank God, in,your case that everyone is ok.

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You're right about that duck. At least nobody lost an arm or leg or worse. In the 1.2 seconds from the time I heard my dad scream "Wo wo wo" and I hit the pavement, the only thing that I could think of was that he couldn't stop the truck. That was my only comfort, that it could've been a lot worse

IF it was me I'd let the pros handle that one.:o Good luck with it.

That is why "BOAT" stands for break out another thousand. It's all fixable and doesn't look major to me. Glad everyone is safe.

Dint do nothing to hull or Lu till I can reply in detail. Gewber.

Wannabe...

Glad no one was hurt.
Be sure to wait on detail now yehea.

If I was going to whoop on that lower unit, which I wouldn't, I would definitely use a rubber mallet.

ES you are definitely in the gewb ranks now. Now, with that said, I sure hate it for you. Let the pros work out that lower unit issue for you. (gonna suck being boatless for a while trust me) As far as the boat goes you could do that yourself and be ok. Get DD to bring over his duct tape supply and his green cup and you should be good to go. Seriously dude, that's a nice ride so let the pros get you fixed up and back on the water.

Man that stinks, but it doesnt look that bad and can be fixed, if they cant straighten the skeg out it can be rep. as far as the boat a good TIG welder should be able to fill in the thin spots and stop the leak. Stuff happens.

Sorry about your accident ES. I would let the pros fix it though.

At least he didn't get hit in the head by flying callons! You gewber.

that wasn't my fault, no operator error on that one, this was allllllllll operator error. Kind of like a motor not starting because a gewb didn't have the kill switch hooked up.

Quick somebody start a "Support for ES" thread and have a food drive or sumthin

Super Gewber. Well, what's the wifey gonna do? Is she gonna let you beat the whiz out of it or is she gonna make you carry it to the shop?

Tman, being boatless ain't gonna affect him like it would me or you. He'll never know the difference.

Seriously ES, I am glad you or yo pops wasn't hurt or killed. I want you to be able to tell more stories like this one. And I'm sure DD and Wb appreciate you keepin the heat off them. You better jus stick to fetching beer fer Mr Billbob.

After what you did to WB and the game warden pics, think this was justice man. Hate it happened but you did landblast WB pretty bad

After reading all of this.....my incident with the boat trailer coming off my hitch in my yard and the boat hitting my shop and ramming the skeg and the prop blades through the steel door on my shop is a very minor incident. Yep ES......you are riseing very high in gewberdom.

OK...the good news: It's easily fixable. The bad news....it's gonna cost you $.

Hull - Don't you dare use some sort of epoxy on that hull for a repair. All of it is cheap, all of it will work well (DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT JB WELD), but none of it will be a permanent fix and all of it will make a permanent fix almost impossible if not extremely difficult. What you need to do is find a very good aluminum welder and pay him his rate no matter what it is. I'm guessing tops would be $400, but most likely, I'm looking at a $200 job and possibly a $100.....course, with the gewber tax, it might be a tad bit higher.

Skeg - This one is the most problematic. First, and when I say first, I mean when you get home from work TONIGHT! - drain the LU and see if you have any water intrussion with milky looking oil. Chances are, when the boat went down, all it did was lay the skeg over a bit as the boat went down, but the danger is that you've damaged the LU seals and will let water in or damaged the bearings and that would show up as shavings in the magnetic pickup on the LU screw....this is the danger and I'd guess about a 40% probability on water intrustion and 10% probability on the bearings. If you don't see any evidence of water, take it to a mechanic and have 'em pull a vaccum on it to make ding dang sure before it's refilled. At the same time, he can assess whether the skeg can be re-worked to approximate being straight. OK, now the really, really bad news.....it is possible that you rattled that LU hard enough to cause damage to the shaft. This needs to be checked by having it run out for tolerance. This probablilty is like 1%, but you're looking at a total LU rebuild/replace if it's out and this is the sort of thing that may not happen the next time out, it might take months to build to a failure and worse yet, an LU failure like that can cause damage up the motor and lead to some real, real problems - again, that's a 1% likelihood, assuming the shaft is out, but I'd rather see you make sure than run the risk.

OK, so here's what needs to be done....drain the LU yourself and look for water intrussion, assuming none, schedule an appt....assuming some, schedule an emergency appt, if it can't be looked at for anything more than a day or two, refill with good oil and don't use until you can get it looked at. If no water, then it's ok to leave dry.

Have the mechanic pull the LU after assessing whether he can repair the skeg. (more on this below) Have him do a pressure check on the LU and test the shaft for tollerance. While he's got it pulled, have him replace/rebuilt the water pump with a kit...might as well, you've already paid for the tear down at this point and will only add another $40 to the bill and that's cheap piece of mind. Assuming all is well, reassemble and get it to the welder.

OK, the skeg. Skegs are cast aluminum and not easily bent or repaired. It can be done, but only by someone who knows what they're doing. They can be heated to a point (danger of damaging seals) and made more maleable, but that's not something you want a bubba who's always wanted to try one doing. It'd be easy to snap it off, which would then require more work. Worst case - can't be repaired and you're looking at buying a new LU case and moveing your innerds to it...Maybe $400 if you're lucky or you forgo the case (assuming innerds are OK and it sill holds a seal and you use torque tab to overcome what can't be repaird on the skeg).

If I couldn't find somebody I could trust on that LU, I'd be looking for Dean Titus - He's the guru the LU gurus call.

Wannabe...

And one other thing....don't feel bad, this ain't the first time a ship has gone down on her maiden voyage. Only difference is, in this case, nobody got hurt and......I'm pretty sure they're not going to make a movie about you.

Wannabe...

Jada two

uhhhhhhhhhh howuhcum nobody ain't said nuthin' about his girley truck causin' some part of this FEE-ASS-CO????

Have had several new skegs welde on no prob. as far as the banged up boat, get a couple tubes of VULKEEM and a putty knife itwont ever leak trust me. WB is a banker what does he know about sheet metal?

I'm tellin' ya, don't put anything on that hull!!!! Mr. Jim is right, any number of products will work for an extremely long time, BUT they will eventually fail and welding on aluminum with contaminants present is going to be next to impossible, forcing a larger area to be welded on....think cutting hole and welding in new metal as opposed to drawing a bead at present. AND that damage appears to be right on the center line of the hull...right where the highest water pressure, flexing and pounding is going to take place - meaning the fixes in a tube are not going to last as long. Do it right!!!!

Agree, skegs can be welded on though, but I'm not worried about the skeg, I'm worried about seals, bearing and shaft.

Wannabe...

I've use Vulkem on smaller boats, but I've seen it peel off of bigger faster boats...

Jada # 2

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Originally Posted by Minnerman

Super Gewber. Well, what's the wifey gonna do? Is she gonna let you beat the whiz out of it or is she gonna make you carry it to the shop?

Tman, being boatless ain't gonna affect him like it would me or you. He'll never know the difference.

Seriously ES, I am glad you or yo pops wasn't hurt or killed. I want you to be able to tell more stories like this one. And I'm sure DD and Wb appreciate you keepin the heat off them. You better jus stick to fetching beer fer Mr Billbob.

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What did the MISSUS say to this, ES? Hmmm?

trim tab will help skeg and get it welded a lot of stress in that area