When I got into boating 15 years ago I spent most of my time in NewYork harbor/Hudson river/Sandy Hook area. There was so much crap floating around in the water we were afraid to out at night. There were telephone poles/pilings floating in the hudson from rotten abandoned piers and trees that had fallen in the hudson. If you hit one of those on plane you could easily sink your boat. I was told that a 1 foot piece of 2x4 could totaly wreck your out drive if you hit it right.

Going out after a heavy rain or a moon high tide was the worse time.

I hit a submeraged log while driving my friends 1 week old 30ft sundancer. Fortunately no visible damage.. I decided I didnt want to drive his boat after that..

I have to say, the waters have been cleaned up substantially since then.

 

I hit a few railroad ties last year. They are real heavy and float just under the surface so you can't see them. One I was going about 12 mph and rolled over it. I took some bottom paint off, busted my trim tab pump, my props chainsawed the wood.

this year I was in the NY harbor and caught some kind of rope or something on my drives. Held me there so a fairy could barrel down on me a blow his horn. It was real hard to get untangled until I lifted my drives and floated over it.

Last month I saw a floating lifeguard station in the Sound, A Giant tree, A busted up dinghy, a really big dead fish.

I called them in to the Coast Guard. They only one I know they dragged off was the lifeguard station.

 

I hit a submerged log last year that messed up a prop. Typical damage is prop damage.

 

I made the crossing from Clearwater to Destin Fla. a few years ago in a 50 Viking Convertible for a friend. I was amazed at the crap that is abandoned and floating out there........an entire house, a steel bell bouy about 12' tall, a cargo container 1/2 subumerged, etc. All I can say is I'm glad we had the forsight to have at least 2 expereinced sets of eyes on the bridge and to leave Clearwater in daylight hours and arrive in more familiar waters in the evening.

I guess this is where all the crap that floats loose in the rivers streams and bays ends up, and yes we radioed the USCG jet over-flying the Gulf the GPS coordinates for the big stuff......but I dunno what they can do about it since we were 100 miles or more out and in international waters.

 

That is one of my biggest fears about boating at night. We hit a tree limb a few weeks ago but it caught us on the starboard side and did not hit the props (THANK GOD). Was about 6inches in diameter and about 5feet long. We get heavy rains here that wash everything down the rivers and streams into the lake. Picnic tables, trees, etc.

 

We get it on our lake after big rainstorms. Everything from random areas of branches and gunk to parts of docks and other wood. Makes for a crappy day of wakeboarding, and forget any kind of barefooting (OUCH!) In a couple of my wakeboarding vids, you can see debris. We make a game out of it though. We try and pick up sticks while riding.

Havent hit anything major yet. Most of the time, have collided with small logs or branches that whack the outdrive resulting in the speedo ceasing to function. Hot one log I thought was going to be a nice gash on the bottom near the bow, but after pulling out there was almost no visible damage except a brown streak.

It is only a matter of time, I am sure.

My neighbor Al was always on the Hudson when he lived in NJ. He has told me some interesting stories of what is floating in THAT river!

 

You mean like this?

 

Hey I think I see a fender I lost in there. Can you grab it for me?

 

Jimminy xmas dvpandy!

Nowhere near that much have I ever seen! Where is that?

 

http://www.boattrader.com/find/listing/1997-Sea-Ray-400-sundancer-93762110

Here's a 40 DA, 1997 that hit an underwater stump on a lake here in Mississippi. Wrecked the whole Starboard drive line; Prop, rudder, trans, and even broke the engine loose from the mounts. Can be catastropic. Actually totalled the boat out, and it's now for sale by the insurance company.

 

http://www.boattrader.com/find/listing/1997-Sea-Ray-400-sundancer-93762110

Here's a 40 DA, 1997 that hit an underwater stump on a lake here in Mississippi. Wrecked the whole Starboard drive line; Prop, rudder, trans, and even broke the engine loose from the mounts. Can be catastropic. Actually totalled the boat out, and it's now for sale by the insurance company.

For sale…. Minor body damage…… Fresh Paint

 

On the Hudson, everyone you ask seems to know of a story(s) of a boat hitting a log and knocking off both drives and sinking in a matter of seconds. I don't know if it's true or one of those boating "stories" but I know I sure don't want to be one of those stories.

 

Note to self. Have good lookout when boating around Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

October 2006 was a mess. So was May of 2008, and so on and so on:smt021 I gotta move:smt089

 

Not sure if this will work, but it is a birds eye view of Front Street just south of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge on the Hudson.. Check out the debris caught in this marina.. I'm sure that SeaRay owner wont be wet storing his boat there again ..

http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAubmV3Y...NzgzMjQ1ODU5MiU3ZS00Mi40NTExNzE4NzUlN2UyNS41NjIyNjUwMTQ0Mjc1JTdlLTEwNi4xNzE4NzU=

 

I think the worst debris field I've ever seen was up on Long Island Sound this past summer. It was about 10 miles long and there were floating chairs, poles, coolers, entire trees, etc. You would have thought a boat sank.

I've hit some stuff in the Chesapeake Bay... All the crap you sissies up north throw in the water works it's way down here. After I had my boat repaired from Hurricane Isabel and dropped it back in the water, I left Lynnhaven Inlet only to be greeted with a big section of dock (pilings and all) that was just under the surface... back out of the water the boat came.

Nothing you can really do about it other than keep a watchful eye and carry spare props.

 

Dpvandi--nice pictures (yuck). Are they from spring? We also get a lot of debris in the slackwater areas due to low flow rates, at least that's how an engineering buddy explained it to me. There just isn't enough flow to flush it downstream.

The Ohio gets a lot of debris after big rains when the level rises. This happens frequently in the spring, but the summers and fall are usually pretty nice. An occasional rain will bring up levels and move debris from the banks.

Regarding debris, I keep a good lookout on the river, and limit my speed at night. We've still managed to hit a few things out there, and have had a few occasions where we needed to raise the outdrive to clear the obstruction. The hardest thing to clear was a long-sleeved shirt that got tangled in the prop at a boat ramp.

I blew an outdrive (Alpha One) on my 280, and I'm convinced that the damage was from previous contact with debris. I had stainless props on that boat. While the props hold up to a collision better, something has to give (like the gears). When there is a lot of debris, I'm less motivated to head out, and will not operate at night.

 

Maybe this will work..

 

We are fortunate to boat on Lake Michigan. It is very unusual to see any debris on the lake. We make a 10 hour run to Harbor Springs every year and see nothing. Occasionally you will hear notices to boaters about trees, etc after a big storm floods a river, but most of that stuff ends up on river banks and little goes into Lake Michigan. We did experience a barge accident 15-20 years ago. He ran into bad weather and lost his load of several thousand logs. Even then we seldom saw them but it did put an edge on boating that year.

 

We boat on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee. After a good rain, there is usually debris within several miles of the dam. Last year, in our 19 footer, we hit a submerged 2x8 going around 20 mph. The board was around 2 feet long and it wedged against the lower unit perfectly sideways, creating a fin or tab. The angle of this newly installed fin caused the bow of the boat to dive like a submarine!!! Needless to say, it got our attention quick like. As the front end was about to go under, I cut off the throttle in time to stabilize the boat. If anyone had been standing up or had been up in the bow, it would have been all over. The scary part was that the debris was completely invisible...floating near but not quite at the surface.