New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

[b00tstrap]

OK, so I just bought a used stern drive boat (21' Citation). I got to use the slip at the Marine the day I bought it, then they helped me pull it up onto the trailer at the end of the day. The next day I launched at a public ramp and everything went well until I tried to come back in. I brought the boat close to shore and killed the motor, I jumped out and got the truck while my GF kept the boat off to the side (not running). I backed in the trailer and then hopped in the boat and pulled it onto the trailer. I powered it up and winched in the last 2ft. or so. I then pulled out the truck and when I was installing the transcom tiedowns noticed the brand new prop was ground down quite a bit!! What the heck did I do wrong? I didn't hear anything abnormal? Would I even know? Anybody with tips on launching/recovering a i/o in shallow water?

 

[dude_newbie]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

You may have just hit something that was nice sized. NO biggie, props are very easy to replace and not that expense. A couple of hundred dollars that the most. It sounds as though when you were bringing up the boat the outboard was trailered all the way up!

 

[b00tstrap]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

Its a sterndrive..

Does anyone have any tips/techniques that they can share about shallow recovery/launch of a 21' boat? I am scared that I am going to do this again! I need to power the boat up the trailer because it is not easy to winch the 3000lb? boat more than a couple feet.

 

[bjcsc]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

I don't power launch / retrieve. I know most people do, but I don't like it. Unless you hit the ramp +/- 45 minutes from mid-tide the current is a bear. Is the ramp you use really shallow? If it is, maybe you need to find a deeper one. If not, back the trailer up to the point where you can winch it up. Works for me and is far less stressful than powering on (and I don't even have a prop.)

 

[b00tstrap]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

If not, back the trailer up to the point where you can winch it up.

Even if that means putting the exhaust and half the rims of my truck into the water? My safety class said not to.. is that just lawyer CYA stuff?

 

[wvit1001]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

You run your prop into the dirt and it'll keep getting messed up, not to mention all the dirt and sand sucked into your water pump. If your putting the boat on the trailer in shallow water it'd wench it on the trailer. Don't run your motor with the outdrive raised past the trim limit. Running it up with the trailer switch and then putting it in gear puts the u-joints in a real bind and isn't recommended.

If you spray some silicone on the bunks the boat will slid up on there pretty easily.

 

[LFK]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

I lift "trailer" my sterndrive unti up as high as I can and still get some bite, then I power it up onto my trailer, that's sitting with the trailer wheel well fenders (what are those called?) just under the level of the water. Once on, I raise the drive as far as it will go before pulling it out.

 

[rogerwa]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

You may have beat it up beaching it and then getting off the beach. With an I/O and a gradual beach, it can get kind of hairy. On my boat, if the boat is on the trailer and drive is down it will not touch at its lowest trim setting. When it is at maximum trim (not trailer), it has plenty of clearance.

Also note that when you apply power to put it on the trailer with it trimmed out, it will force the drive down into the water, which may put you in the sand.

 

[ziggy]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

personaly, i'm with bjcsc. get the trailer deep enough to load and off load w/o power. it really goes smooth then. if ya gotta load in shallow water and there aint no choice. ya may have to resort to,,,,,

b00tstrap

Even if that means putting the exhaust and half the rims of my truck into the water? My safety class said not to

i don't know what class says not to do this. to me i'd just as soon not put the exhaust underwater. but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. just be sure theres a good chance ya can get back out again. at least have a limited slip differental....that saved me when i had to do that....

i don't generealy see the need to power load. other than it looks cool. to much chance of possible damage to my boat.

how about an electric winch? perhaps that would keep ya from havein to power load in shallow water. let the winch do the work.....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

when loading i trim up as i'm going up the trailer, because you are driving the boat up an incline (trailer) thus the stearn is going to drop.

 

[b00tstrap]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

i don't know what class says not to do this.

It was my boating safety instructor, I cant figure why it would be so horrible especially since I am in fresh water, and I have a Jeep so the water won't be coming into the rear or the doors. The brakes and wheel bearing shouldn't be hot as I only drive about a mile to the ramp.

how about an electric winch? perhaps that would keep ya from havein to power load in shallow water. let the winch do the work.....

Great idea Ziggy! Thanks, I think I might go this route.

 

[Mark42]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

Sounds like you need your trailer farther into the water so its easier to winch the boat on.

Another thing that can help is to lower the trailer. If the axle is under the spring, move it to above the spring. You can even add spacer blocks to lower the frame over the axle more, or get a "drop" axle that has the same affect. Sometimes fenders will need to be raised for clearance.

But one drawback to lowering the trailer is that the trailer frame may bottom out on some ramps. Watched one guy scrape his galvanized trailer back and fourth over the concrete ramp until he had it just where he wanted it. He power launched OK, but I bet there is no more galvanizing protection on the bottom of that V belly trailer anymore.

 

[QC]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

Some comments:

1) With your trailer just a little further down the ramp, the winch job is a lot easier. You don't have to submerge the truck . . .

2) If you tilt the drive to the top of the trim limit, it is pretty hard to harm the propeller at idle speeds as the skeg and the bullet will hit bottom before the prop does. Also, pretty hard to hurt the prop in neutral trimmed up. . . you can idle up to the trailer and flip her into neutral just before she "sticks" on to the trailer.

3) Check the height of your skeg with the boat on the trailer. If the skeg does not hit the ground trimmed all of the way up while on the trailer, then it cannot hit the bottom in the same position while coming onto the trailer in the water. This assumes that the ramp is deeper as you go "down" the ramp. If there is a rise in the middle of it somewhere, then forget this advice although I cannot imagine a ramp like that unless it is very small/short or it has a big buildup on it from people power launching (reverse prop wash). I understand tashasdaddy's comment, but remember the incline of the trailer is the same as the incline of the ramp. Theoretically the skeg can go no deeper relative to the trailer than it does on dry land . . .

4) It is really hard to hurt the prop if you dragged the drive up the ramp as the skeg protects it. You didn't say anything about skeg damage, just prop damage.

5) If this is an aluminum propeller you can damage them by looking at them cross-eyed. It is possible you hit a small snag or something just before the ramp and didn't feel it.

Don't worry, you'll figure this out!!

 

[QC]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

b00tstrap,

Dude, like wow, I just saw the pics in the Merc section . . . My comments are only valid if you indeed have a skeg which it appears you do not. IMHO, you need that entire lower unit repaired, the skeg, the ventilation plate and yes, the prop. I would not run the boat that way. While you're at it you might as well fill the holes from the removed hydrofoil (in AV plate). That thing needs to be right . . .

 

[Solittle]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

For shallow water recovery nothing beats a Power Winch.

 

[Kevin70]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

Also, you could try [colour=red]these[/colour]. Some of the people who have them say that you can almost pull the boat onto the trailer with no winch. Sort of like Teflon for your bunks.

 

[b00tstrap]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

Sort of like Teflon for your bunks.[/color]

I have rollers on my trailer which makes me think, maybe one or more of them is seized making it harder to get the boat up? I checked pricing in the Marine parts area, rollers seem VERY expensive!

 

[Paddy3101]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

If you put the exhaust of the car under water, whatever you do, DON'T turn of the engine. If you do, the engine will siphon the water back up the pipe into the engine.

If the engine does stop, don't attempt to re-start the engine, or it may be time for a new engine in the car. (Water doesn't compress in the cylinders like air does!)

 

[Gone]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

You said that you don't know where you damaged it. It may not have been at the ramp. As QC notesin #5, an aluminum prop damages very easily. Run it as long as you can then get a SS prop. Get the aluminum refurbed as a spare. The SS will take a lot more minor abuse without showing.

CD

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: New boater ....need help (damaged my boat)

man looking at that lower unit, looks like the guy before broke the skeg, ground it off for cosmetics, the A/V plate is also broken. they can be repaired, get a price, then see what it wiil cost to find a donor lower unit.