Hit a Log

It was bound to happen eventually. While cruising this weekend at 7kts in some pretty choppy water, we heard what can best be described as low pitch grinding/scraping, and felt a vibration at the same time. This lasted for all of 3 seconds and as I looked aft, I saw a 20ftx5inch log bobbing in my wake. Now I haven't been able to get a look at my props yet as I need to go back to the boat and take underwater pics with my GoPro on a stick. I will say that after all this happened, I pushed the boat up on plane to about 3400-3500 RPM's and everything seemed fine cruising at 24kts. No vibration (that I could feel) and no loss in speed at that RPM. All seemed normal, but should i be worried? I don't think that the sound we heard could have been caused by the log simply scraping the bottom of the boat. I'm pretty certain that the noise was a prop chopping at it. I guess the only saving grace is that we were going very slow at the time, and I don't notice any vibration or change in performance. Even so, should I re-align the shafts? And like I said ..need to get a camera down there. Water is 50 degrees so not going swimming. Ugh

The only way to get anymore of a definitive diagnosis is to haul the boat out of the water and measure the shaft run out and have the props checked at a prop shop....all of which have a cost.

Generally, if you don't feel a vibration at any speed, even if there is a knick in a prop blade, it isn't bad enough to do any further damage. If the boat still runs up to expected WOT rpm and the SOG is the same as before, then this probably falls under one of my primary rules of boating: If is ain't broke; don't fix it".

Thanks Frank ....your second paragraph is what I was leaning toward, and hearing that from you makes me feel all the more confident about it. By the time I hauled out, blocked, took props to shop for inspection, plus yard day rate ...I can see this easily becoming a $2000 thing ..and that's just to check. I'll get down there this week to take photos of the props just out of curiosity. I'll post photos here once I've got them.

Sorry to hear mike, but sounds like you might have dodged a bullet with no vibrations...

Our lake, Lake Lanier, GA, has been between 5-6 ft below full pool for the longest-like 18 months I think. With all of the rain we have had this spring, in like 2-3 weeks, it came up to full pool and 2 weeks ago actually went a foot above full pool.

There is floating debris everywhere. Last Friday, I was working on my satellite tv dish on the end of a finger pier. Floating in the middle of the marina was about a 14-16” diameter log about 20 ft long. It was so water logged, the top 1-2” was bobbing out of the water.

I am sure you cannot see some of this stuff fast enough to avoid it...

Bennett

Puget sound where we boat has dozens of rivers dumping into it, in the winter storm season we have all kinds of trees, stumps, logs etc floating in the water.... Fun fun fun, NOT!!!

Yup ..same right up here with the strait of Georgia. Water on Saturday was brown from the rivers and streams pouring out into it from the snow melt, and littered with debris. This is the worst time of year for obstacles right now.

Edit: but after 7 straight months of rain, how can you not take the boat when it’s 70 and sunny out?

I hit a log in the river a few years ago. I was at full throttle and it literally sounded like and explosion. I thought the engine had been ripped from the strigers. Never saw the log. I immediately came back to idle, checked everything out and after realizing I wasn't sinking got back going. The vibration was so bad above 1100 rpm that the railing on the boat was a blur. I too tried to examine props with the go pro. No luck. I had boat pulled and the props looked fine to the naked eye. I pulled the shafts and one shaft was bent about 1/8" in the last two feet of the shaft. Sent props off and one blade was two inches different in pitch than the rest. Had a shaft made and got it all back together for about $6,000. I filed a claim and insurance paid. I wanted to have it on record in case the transmission blew up shortly thereafter. So far so good and it's been about 400 hours since the event. So as frank says, don't fix it if it ain't broke. With no vibration you are probably good to go. If you want to check it out, pulling the boat and making measurements with a dial indicator ar ether only want to know. Good luck,

Pete

I hit one last year but was going about 5 MPH and it was dark so no way to see it anyway. We were rafted up watching fireworks and headed back in. Never saw it but as soon as I heard it hit the boat I threw it in neutral and waited a few seconds. Everything was fine. There were 2 other boats behind me and one said he hit it too but no damage to his either

I had a similar experience outside the mouth of the Anclote river in Tarpon Springs, FL. I was at cruising speed and all of a sudden there was a loud bang. My starboard engine died immediately and would not restart. I limped into the marina and left the boat for my mechanic to check out the next day, as it was Sunday, and nobody was around. Got a call on Monday telling me the prop and shaft were sheared completely off. There was a large gash in the hull and I was lucky that it was not deeper or I would have sunk. The bill was $7000.00, mostly covered by insurance. Our usual worry around here is crabtrap lines fouling the props.