What would you do - prop shaft breaks, drops, engine room is flooding

Just my thoughts:

When an accident happens and the boat is taking on water.......help is at best 30 minutes away unless you are surrounded by other boats. That means you have to make a judgement in a few minutes if the boat can be saved or not. Same thing goes for a fire on board.

So....you need to decide what you are going to do in 5 minutes or less. Every accident situation is different but what is common to every accident that I have heard of is that first 5 minutes and the decisions that the Captain made....or didn't make.

I'm not sure raising the Coast Guard on 16 and saying: "we hit something and are sinking at these coordinates" is in the first three minutes unless you are really sure you will be underwater in 5-10 minutes. It seems the first things on the list is to make sure the crew is safe and a decision if the boat can be saved or not. The rest seems to naturally flow from there.
 
PlayDate said:
Just my thoughts:

When an accident happens and the boat is taking on water.......help is at best 30 minutes away unless you are surrounded by other boats. That means you have to make a judgement in a few minutes if the boat can be saved or not. Same thing goes for a fire on board.

So....you need to decide what you are going to do in 5 minutes or less. Every accident situation is different but what is common to every accident that I have heard of is that first 5 minutes and the decisions that the Captain made....or didn't make.

I'm not sure raising the Coast Guard on 16 and saying: "we hit something and are sinking at these coordinates" is in the first three minutes unless you are really sure you will be underwater in 5-10 minutes. It seems the first things on the list is to make sure the crew is safe and a decision if the boat can be saved or not. The rest seems to naturally flow from there.
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Thank you for pointing the obvious. I was actually puzzled by posts recommending a distress call as a first course of action. IMO, it is not for a simple reason. When calling a CG, you need to provide the following:
1. Description of the vessel
2. GPS position
3. Number of people on board
4. Nature of distress.

For #4, stating "I hit something" means absolutely nothing, b/c there's just not enough info for the CG to determine whether you have a minor issue or the boat is sinking. For this reason, they'll be asking bunch of questions like "are you taking on water?... are the bilge pumps able to keep up? .......What will you say? I don't know b/c I didn't check yet?....The bottom line is that until you assess the situation and have meaningful info for the CG, you're wasting everyone's time, especially yours, since you could be doing the assessment.

Yes, I know there have been super extreme cases and a story titled "120 seconds" has been in my memory for years now. But, those are extremes and other than pressing the RED button (hopefully your DSC is connected to your GPS) you got no time for any conversation, rather must focus on immediate evacuation (deploying a tender and/or liferaft).
 
Two thoughts.

1. There is that wax stuff that I saw posted on here that is sticky and designed exactly for that. It comes in a bucket and you scoop it out and stuff it into a hole. Its for that exact purpose.

2. Prop shaft zincs installed in front of the strut will likely prevent the shaft from slipping out, unless the impact was so severe that the shaft and strut were all pulled out.
 
There have been few references on shaft zincs preventing a shaft to slide out. Let's be realistic here. If a shaft is broke off at the coupling, in most cases there's no more than 8"-12" before the rest of the shaft slides out. I'd be very surprised to hear that most yards have a policy to consider the location of the shaft zincs to be placed close to a strut preventing accidental slide out. Most zincs installations I saw, they were much further away and would not add the expected safety factor.

The other important part to consider is that a zinc has a solid and strongest "grip" from the point it was installed, which is getting weaker with time. If an incident takes place few months after the installation, on a vessel in salt and warm water, that zinc won't do any magic one is expecting.

Lastly, shaft zincs are not as widely as in the past. Many SRs and few other brands don't have them. My boats never had them.

Just my 0.02c
 
Glad you are safe but the intellectual exercise of what to do is important - thanks for the reminder.

Foe me, step 1 would be to activate help. You couldn't know what the outcome would be, so get assistance rolling in some form right away. If you solve the problem you can always stand down on the help you requested.

Step 2, protect your passengers. Life jackets and instructions.

Then work the problem.

Getting off the boat into cold water is just asking for trouble. Getting into warm water in the open lake is even a risky proposition. I've spent my entire life in Lake Michigan water, and I dont think I would leave my passengers and go under the boat in the open water. You might just create another emergency that your passengers aren't prepared to deal with.

A very good reminder that we have to prepare our crew for these possibilities before we head out. I used to be really diligent about it, but this summer our guests have been limited and more comfortable with boating, and I've slacked off.
 
sbw1 said:
View attachment 89407
I can't add much to the solutions except to say that it is somewhat unusual to have the shaft ripped out of the boat from hitting something. Most shafts I've seen have the anodes placed in strategic locations so they prevent the shaft from coming completely out of the hole.
Click to expand...

My previous boat was an inboard. I always had a shaft anode mounted a few inches in front of the strut. That way if the shaft broke the shaft anode would prevent the shaft from completely falling out of the boat. With the shaft still in the shaft log the amount of water coming in can be dealt with by the bilge pumps. Even if you don't think you need the shaft anodes for corrosion protection, put some on to keep your shafts in place if this ever happens again.
 
Chip S said:
My previous boat was an inboard. I always had a shaft anode mounted a few inches in front of the strut. That way if the shaft broke the shaft anode would prevent the shaft from completely falling out of the boat. With the shaft still in the shaft log the amount of water coming in can be dealt with by the bilge pumps. Even if you don't think you need the shaft anodes for corrosion protection, put some on to keep your shafts in place if this ever happens again.
Click to expand...
What? U'r kidding right?
 
Alex F said:
There have been few references on shaft zincs preventing a shaft to slide out. Let's be realistic here. If a shaft is broke off at the coupling, in most cases there's no more than 8"-12" before the rest of the shaft slides out. I'd be very surprised to hear that most yards have a policy to consider the location of the shaft zincs to be placed close to a strut preventing accidental slide out. Most zincs installations I saw, they were much further away and would not add the expected safety factor.

The other important part to consider is that a zinc has a solid and strongest "grip" from the point it was installed, which is getting weaker with time. If an incident takes place few months after the installation, on a vessel in salt and warm water, that zinc won't do any magic one is expecting.

Lastly, shaft zincs are not as widely as in the past. Many SRs and few other brands don't have them. My boats never had them.

Just my 0.02c
Click to expand...
fullsizeoutput_a88.jpeg

There was a time in the late 80s and early 90s when broken shafts were not all that uncommon. Anodes on shafts saved a number of them from going overboard because shaft anode lodged against the strut and the shaft stayed with the boat. I personally know of two Sea Ray, one Silverton and a Tiara owner who experienced shaft failures. Three were due to striking objects in the water and one was a design issue following a gas to diesel repowering project. In each case the shaft stayed on the vessel. As far as zincs becoming weaker with time, that really does not happen in fresh water unless there is a stray current problem. I have never had to replace a zinc on a boat operated in the Great Lakes. They don't wear out unless there is an electrical problem.
 
Alex F said:
Thank you for pointing the obvious. I was actually puzzled by posts recommending a distress call as a first course of action. IMO, it is not for a simple reason. When calling a CG, you need to provide the following:
1. Description of the vessel
2. GPS position
3. Number of people on board
4. Nature of distress.

For #4, stating "I hit something" means absolutely nothing, b/c there's just not enough info for the CG to determine whether you have a minor issue or the boat is sinking. For this reason, they'll be asking bunch of questions like "are you taking on water?... are the bilge pumps able to keep up? .......What will you say? I don't know b/c I didn't check yet?....The bottom line is that until you assess the situation and have meaningful info for the CG, you're wasting everyone's time, especially yours, since you could be doing the assessment.

Yes, I know there have been super extreme cases and a story titled "120 seconds" has been in my memory for years now. But, those are extremes and other than pressing the RED button (hopefully your DSC is connected to your GPS) you got no time for any conversation, rather must focus on immediate evacuation (deploying a tender and/or liferaft).
Click to expand...

This (and the situation Stee was almost in) is why I've been on an all-out DSC crusade.

We've probably all heard disastrous SOS calls. The caller doesn't know where they are, or worse, thinks they are where they aren't. Just as often, the info the CG asks for goes way beyond the 4 basic questions listed above. I've heard for example:

- what's the gender of the passengers?
- are all passengers wearing PFD's?
- what's the age of the passengers?
- what's the gender of the passengers? (yep - twice, if not more. Are they just trying to keep the caller calm and distracted, or are they not paying attention to the answers?) I'd put the odds at 50-50.
- Do you see any nearby vessels that could render assistance?

If the boat in question has a hole in it, not only is this discourse annoying, it's life threatening.

When this boat went down in a high-traffic area of Lake Erie, the CG responder had no idea where they were. That's because it was Station Detroit that answered. The dozens, if not hundreds of vessels within range knew where they were from the pathetic clues they offered. A ferry with a cruise speed of 11 MPH made it to the scene before the USCG could figure out what STATE IN THE COUNTRY the boat was sinking. The USCG can triangulate signals, apparently, but you shouldn't count on that saving your life.

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Then let's talk about a boat taking on water. Having a "high water alarm" tied to a "high water emergency pump" is best practice, and std equipment on many boats, as-is connecting those pumps directly to the batteries. Which boats have a "silence the shrill high-water alarm because my wife is trying to tell the CG where I am on the VHF because we don't exactly know the Lat/Long at every given moment and over that shreaking alarm the dog is barking and we're yelling at each other and I'd really prefer she was preparing the dinghy right now" button?

DSC is an option - an extra step. We need to step-up and realize it's a minimum / must-have.
 
RollerCoastr said:
- what's the gender of the passengers?
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What???? What was the response? "Yes....we have many genders on board. Two that identify as males, two that identify as females and a few that don't know their gender and a couple of ones that have been neutered".

How the heck is that relevant to an emergency call?

Anyway my favorite CG calls on 16 are usually "Karens" who aren't in trouble but feel they should report things done by other boaters......waking...people on bow...too loud music.....
 
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FullSizeRender.jpg
PlayDate said:
What???? What was the response? "Yes....we have many genders on board. Two that identify as

How the heck is that relevant to an emergency call?

Anyway my favorite CG calls on 16 are usually "Karens" who aren't in trouble but feel they should report things done by other boaters......waking...people on bow...too loud music.....
Click to expand...
PlayDate said:
What???? What was the response? "Yes....we have many genders on board. Two that identify as males, two that identify as females and a few that don't know their gender and a couple of ones that have been neutered".

How the heck is that relevant to an emergency call.
Click to expand...

Some of the newer genders require special accommodations. And, having data makes it possible to develop new evidence based government programming so we can help the confused and less fortunate citizens of this great nation. Is this your first rodeo or something?
 
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sbw1 said:
Is this your first rodeo or something?
Click to expand...


Of course you are right.

Next time I will report: "Two have male appendages, two have cervixes and two of undeclared gender want to defund the US Coast Guard and the US Military.....so four worthy of being rescued.";)
 
I agree with the DSC. I bought a new radio for our 250DA and got the Standard Horizon GX1700 because it had the DSC built in. Our current boat radio does not have it but we do boat in a busy river. I will probably replace it in the next few years and will definitely get another with DSC capabilities.
 
Here is another idea of something that might work to slow a leak ( if it hasn't already been mentioned) Flex seal or flex tape? Im sure you would have to still fill the hole with something but Flex seal might stop the leak long enough to get back to shore or be rescued.
 
sbw1 said:
View attachment 89482
There was a time in the late 80s and early 90s when broken shafts were not all that uncommon. Anodes on shafts saved a number of them from going overboard because shaft anode lodged against the strut and the shaft stayed with the boat. I personally know of two Sea Ray, one Silverton and a Tiara owner who experienced shaft failures. Three were due to striking objects in the water and one was a design issue following a gas to diesel repowering project. In each case the shaft stayed on the vessel. As far as zincs becoming weaker with time, that really does not happen in fresh water unless there is a stray current problem. I have never had to replace a zinc on a boat operated in the Great Lakes. They don't wear out unless there is an electrical problem.
Click to expand...

Everything you said makes perfect sense to me. I didn't know that broken shafts was a common issue in 80s. But, I'm aware of shaft zincs being more commonly used in 90s, but that has changed since then. Most shaft failures I'm familiar with were closer to the prop.

I do agree that for those who's boating in fresh water, shaft zincs could help in situation like what happened to OP. Those that boat in salt water, better keep a close eye on the zincs, as they can go quick, although it varies by the area. For example, I've experienced large hull zinc lasting for 1.5-2 years in one area and only few months in totally different area, both salt water locations, but one had very strong current running through marinas.
 
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