Went Aground Saturday on the Des Plaines River

[320Bob]

I'd be interest to see what happens come renewal time. Keep us updated.

I imagine I will see a bump up in my premiums. At my present rates it will take them 10 years of premiums to cover the amount of the claim. But I will still be ahead of the game because had I stayed with Progressive I would be paying more than twice what NBOA is. So anything less than double my current premium is still cheaper.

 

[320Bob]

I'd be suprised if they covered any of the bottom paint at all, as that is a wear item, and really, what they are doing, while nice, is overkill. Covering the impellers would be a nice jesture, but again, wear item.

Good choice on the replacement propellers, it'll be interesting to hear how the low end performance is improved.

Let us know what they cover, so next time we need to have the bottom painted and impellers changed, we can "run aground" too.

Scott (Yee of Little Faith), American Bankers Insurance covered all but $400 of the bottom paint and impeller replacement plus new shafts, props, towing, lift in and out and gel coat repairs. So my out of pocket with the deductible, prop upgrade differential and wear & tear allowance will be slightly less than $2K. :smt038:smt038:smt038

My boat was put in the water this afternoon and will be sea trialed tomorrow morning by my marina Service Manager. He will run it at WOT to test those new 4 Blades out so I should have some Smartcraft data to compare with what I ran over a month ago with the old 3 Blade OEM props.

 

[itradem]

Bob,

Dare I ask how fast you were cruising along when you caused this sort of damage. I had a close call on the Illinois River, west of Ottawa, a few weeks back. I saw the depth dropping fast, and had it pretty well slowed down (less than 5 mph) when we just glanced the bottom of the sand bar. Fortunately, I was able to idle out to deeper waters, and everything seems to be running as before.

Maybe I should still check out the props tho??? :huh:

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[320Bob]

I was going around 24 mph. Your pool between the Starved Rock and Marsailles lock is much wider that between the Dresden and Joliet locks where I went aground. If you have no noticeable vibration after you scrape, you are probably OK. If you do have some vibration, chances are you might have bent a blade or two. If you have never hand your props scanned, you might want to have them done over the winter. Airmarine next to Midway Airport is where my new props came from and come highly recommended from anyone I've talked to.

 

[itradem]

Thanks for the review on your new props. I may have to consider an upgrade in the off season.

I don't think any vibrations are now present, but I am sure I will be hypersensitive to them now. :smt001

Check out Heritage Harbor if you make it down our way!

 

[adkedisoen]

Hey,
Nice pic.i read this post but i am unable to understand about the your Michigan wheels and what kind of work you have done in Des Plaines river so anyone is here who would tell briefly about it?

 

[320Bob]

Hey,
Nice pic.i read this post but i am unable to understand about the your Michigan wheels and what kind of work you have done in Des Plaines river so anyone is here who would tell briefly about it?

The work was done by Harborside Marina in Wilmington, IL but the props were ordered and proscaned by Airmarine in Chicago. When I ran aground, the shafts, props, cutlass bearings and couplers were damaged and had to be replaced. The factory 3 blade props were toast and had to be replaced. I chose to have 4 blade Michigan Wheel props that were the same diameter but 1" less pitch than the 3 blades due to the larger surface area and recommended by Airmarine. The cost was totally convered by my insurance company so what if any other information do you need?

 

[JimFromMD]

The work was done by Harborside Marina in Wilmington, IL but the props were ordered and proscaned by Airmarine in Chicago. When I ran aground, the shafts, props, cutlass bearings and couplers were damaged and had to be replaced. The factory 3 blade props were toast and had to be replaced. I chose to have 4 blade Michigan Wheel props that were the same diameter but 1" less pitch than the 3 blades due to the larger surface area and recommended by Airmarine. The cost was totally convered by my insurance company so what if any other information do you need?

I know this is an old post, but did I miss the posting where you detailed the performance with the new 4 blade props? (I have a set of 4 blade trial props for my Bravo II drives in the garage waiting to put on next weekend ... unfortunately I have an event to go to this weekend with the boat, and felt it best to wait since I will have guests aboard and dont want tempt fate into any hiccups.)

James

 

[320Bob]

I know this is an old post, but did I miss the posting where you detailed the performance with the new 4 blade props? (I have a set of 4 blade trial props for my Bravo II drives in the garage waiting to put on next weekend ... unfortunately I have an event to go to this weekend with the boat, and felt it best to wait since I will have guests aboard and dont want tempt fate into any hiccups.)

James

Here's the thread where I posted the performance data from the 4 blade props:

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/31586-Sundancer-320-Four-blade-propeller/page2

 

[JimFromMD]

Here's the thread where I posted the performance data from the 4 blade props:

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/31586-Sundancer-320-Four-blade-propeller/page2

So over there you said the only drawback was that you WOT out at only 3600. Was it supposed to be significantly higher?

 

[320Bob]

So over there you said the only drawback was that you WOT out at only 3600. Was it supposed to be significantly higher?

I was referring to my rpm at cruise not WOT which was lower and yielded better fuel economy with the 4 blade props. I should point out that this performance data is for a V drive boat while you have a stern drive. It is highly likely that you may see some of the same performance improvements but I should point that out. I am also assuming your B2 drive is a single not a duo prop like the B3 or my Volvo DPS drives.

 

[AKBASSKING]

You must have some big rocks. I am lucky in the fact that the lower Columbia River is mostly sand. I have "polished" my props, but been lucky so far.

Advice: Cover up your name on the boat and perform the following to avoid anymore bad JuJU.... http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm

 

[dpmulvey]

I talked to my marina today and they heard back from the insurance adjuster that to cost estimate was over his authority so they would send a surveyor out next week to validate the claim. I am hopeful they will cover the entire cost but I won't know until next week.

However, I authorized the marina to go ahead and order new shafts and props regardless of whether the insurance company will pay to repair or replace them. I talked to Airmarine this afternoon and they said .040 out of alignment is too much to straighten and recommended replacement. the shafts will cost about $600 a piece.

As for the props, it turns out the documentation that came with my boat was wrong on two things. First both my props did not have identical 19" pitch but only the LH prop while the RH was 18.5" as per Sea Ray's prop chart for a 2006 320. This explains why at WOT my port engine was about 100 rpm less and I consistently had to apply more throttle to the port engine to maintain the same rpm but at increased gph.

The second error was the Mercruiser manuals that came with my boat. The show 4800-5200 rpm for my 6.2l MX MPI engine but that in fact is the spec for out drives. The same engine for V drives like my boat is 4600-5000 according to Airmarine and some data I found last night on the internet. Inspite of this, Airmarine says my boat is still on the low side of the range and less but equal pitched props would help. They won't make a final recommendation until they get my damaged props in tomorrow. They are leaning towards a 18x18 set of 4 blade props. The bad news is no one seems to have a spare matched set sitting around in their shop so I have to see how quickly they can get a new set in.

I am disappointed with Sea Ray for providing inaccurate documentation for the props and engines along with Chicago Sea Ray for telling me that the pitch on the props was identical when they supposedly check them while still in winter storage. Maybe because I am new to boatng and don't have the depth of knowledge yet to know exactly when I am being jerked around but at this point in time I am having trouble tolerating this level of mediocrity associated with something so expensive.

Same situation as yours regarding WOT. It is confusing and I had to dig for it. The engine is indeed rated for 5200 regardless of installation. The V-drive is rated for 5000 max RPM.