Scary situation and I am at a loss..

[Home Cookin']

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Only other thing I can think of, which was briefly touched on, was some sort of old rope/line. He said he was running off of the buoys, so is there a chance that he caught a rope or cable attached to it? Obviously not all lakes/dams are the same, but I would find it hard to believe that a sandbar was present near the dam unless the lake level was seriously low.

Perhaps the OP can tell us what lake he was on when this occurred?

rope will wrap the prop and stop it cold, but will still the wrapped on the prop (I'm sure he checked the prop) but I can't see how it could "catch" the boat, stop it, and disappear like an underwater tailhook cable on an aircraft carrier, unless it was fastened at both ends a foot underwater, caught the LU, and LU slid over it or cut it in two. Just not likely.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Well, I had the exact same problem you described a couple of years ago. Mine was an outboard and you don't say what your engine is but it would be the same for the outdrive of an I/O.

Cruising at full throttle, the boat gave a lurch and the engine stalled. Reverse prop torque cause it to veer sharply to the left, almost hitting a bridge abutment. The engine restarted immediately and ran well for a couple of weeks afterward. There was absolutely no damage visible on the hull, lower unit, or prop.

Later, after getting stuck on Chesapeake Bay, (and using the kicker to get home) I opened up the lower unit and discovered a snapped prop shaft. The shaft had broken in such a way that it reset itself and ran until wear against the reverse gear caused it to finally let go again.

It MAY be worth your while to open the drive and check internals.

If you have a 2 cycle outboard, a broken ring can stick in the exhaust port and stall the engine dead. Then, upon trying to restart, the ring will pass out and the engine will start and run very well. SO: If you have an outboard, check compression ratio on all cylinders. The one with a broken ring will be about half of the other's readings.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

I took out a LU and bent a rod in the motor some years ago just like that, was riding along in deep water in the early spring and wham all most a dead stop, never did figure out what I hit, but after getting it back on the trailer their was wood wedged into the drive so my guess was a dead head of some sort.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

I have had this happen once, and once the bow rose 3 feet out of the water and crashed down in 18ft of water. The time the boat came to a stop all of the sudden, my prop hit a log, or that is what I think happened. It bent the prop, but had it hit just right, and not bent the prop, I would have never known what it was other than the sudden stop.

the other time, I suspect it was a large gator. I saw what looked like a submarine trail coming from under the boat. Thinking if it were a manatee it would have surfaced.

Both time absolutely no damage other than the prop on the first one. The water in the St Johns River has absolutely NO visibility, so there is no telling what is under there. If you get in the water you cant see your shoulders if you are in up to your neck.

There are many things under the water that can cause this phenomenon without causing any noticeable damage.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

I'm thinking you snagged a line, hit a sandbar. . . Or possible the lake monster - with suction cups

what evidence is there on the boat that would help ID the cause?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Since you said they were filling the reservoir, that would mean the water level was below normal levels. so what you think may have been deep water may not have been. Rivers like the Missiissippi in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area are dredged in many areas to guarantee a nine foot navigation channel. Get outside those channel markers and your lower unit is fair game. Wing dams, rocks and sand bars are common on the edges of the channels. Although you didn't likely hit a rock, you probably hit something that drifted into the area due to the filling that's going on. I frequently boat on a river feeding a reservoir where the level changes on almost a daily basis. You need to be aware of this stuff and watch for signs of debris. If you see it one day and not the next, you know the filling operation is complete.

 

[Fishin Magician]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Iam not even sure where my kill switch is. Assume it is on the thrott
le but I have never seen it..

If it is an I/O... I think when you shift from forward to reverse it goes through a killswitch.. this swhich is located top of the engine at the throttle shift assembly.. point of adjustment..... at least it is on my 351 Cleveland.... just look. for wi.res and elect.rical metal components .. and of course corrosion..happy ohms hunting...

 

[SigSaurP229]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

is it possible you moved the wrong way and accidently yanked the kill switch lanyard enough to kill the engine?

 

[Don S]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

If it is an I/O... I think when you shift from forward to reverse it goes through a killswitch.. this swhich is located top of the engine at the throttle shift assembly.. point of adjustment..... at least it is on my 351 Cleveland.... just look. for wi.res and elect.rical metal components .. and of course corrosion..happy ohms hunting...

Not even close on how the shift interrupt (not kill) switch works.

 

[Mischief Managed]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Any sturgeon in that lake? They get huge and like dams.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

fillet of sturgeon . . .

 

[Fishin Magician]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

Not even close on how the shift interrupt (not kill) switch works.

No electric to that huh...how does it work with no electric....just saying...u do agree an ohmn is a powerforce

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

I hit a submerged palm log running around 20 MPH in Lake Novillo in Sonora, Mex. years ago and my boat acted very much as you described. Engine stalled and the boat (a 14' tinny w/ 30 horse tiller steered Evinrude) almost stopped dead. I never saw the log until after I hit it. It was floating no more than a foot deep under the surface in water well over a hundred feet deep. Usually I leave the motor in the unlocked position when I'm running so that if I do hit something the motor can kick up. That time I had inadvertently locked it down. I was surprised that it didn't rip the transom out of the boat the way it felt when I hit it. There was no warning thump of it hitting the boat or anything else to let me know that I was about to get the carp scared out of me. Didn't seem to hurt engine, prop or boat and after a cursory inspection and a few minutes of running slow and listening for any unusual sound or vibration I opened her up again and went on my way.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

If you haven't done any damage consider your self very lucky. I totaled out a very fine 1968 85 hp Johnson v 4

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

"kill switch" refers to a safety device on most boats: there is (typically) a red lanyard you clip to yourself or put on your wrist; the other end is attached to a plastic fitting in a clip near the ignition key. Similar to a key,when that fitting is yanked out of the clip (like if you fall overboard) the power to the spark plugs is killed instantly, and your motor shuts off instantly--and causes a big lurch if you are running at the time. On small outboards this device is on the side of the motor. Jet skis have these. Big boats don't.

The neutral interrupt (which could not be your issue) is a device that keeps you from being able to start the motor in gear. I believe it only blocks the starter, so it would have no effect on a running motor (obviously).

If you have a kill switch and don't know it, you owe it to yourself and your family to take an experienced boater on your next trip (without the distraction of the family) to show you these and the other 999 things on your boat. "safety course' doesn't cut it. Then teach everyone in your family these things; it is nothing but negligence not to have everyone over 10 able to run the boat.

 

[ricohman]

Re: Scary situation and I am at a loss..

I think the submerged object theory is probably what happened. Barring there was no sand bar.
If you have beached and worn the finish down on the hull you may never find a rub or scrape.