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Mr. Luddite[_4_]

On 10/6/2017 12:49 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 6 Oct 2017 11:13:51 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 10/6/17 11:06 AM, True North wrote:
Hate to interrupt all the 'Americans Acting badly With Guns' posts, but I had a small bit of misfortune yesterday.
I was up boating with my Springer Spaniel on Grand Lake and gotbit nosy checking out Sidney Crosby's house and his waterfront access. I was motoring slowly along when I saw the depth gauge suddenly go from 5-6 feet to just less than 3 feet. Heard the bang right away so I quickly tilted up the motor and shifted it to neutral. With the swim platform covering the I/O Alpha Drive it was hard to see if I had any damage and as I floated back into deeper water I moved into forward and didn't notice anything unusual so I continued my 2 hour tour of the lake. Only after retrieving the boat did I see a chunk missing out of one of my aluminum propeller blades.
D'oh...don't know if that can be repaired or if I have to buy a new one.

I remembered that during the summer, there was a string of brightly coloured floating balls stretched along where I went about 40-50 feet offshore. Now I know why they were there. I should send a letter to Crosby complaining that he should have left the 'barrier' out at least until Thanksgiving this Monday.

Consider getting a stainless prop to replace the one you broke, and have
that one fixed to keep as a spare.

What he said ;-)
Stainless will stand up better to small dings but a big rock will
still kill one, along with bending the prop shaft if you hit hard
enough.
Some people will say, stay with the aluminum one and consider it
expendable. If you feel that way, get a plastic one with replaceable
blades. I keep one of them on the boat as a spare. Just be aware, you
usually need to bump the pitch up a size or two because they flex
under load. I run a stainless 11" but in plastic I needed the 13"
blades to get the RPM right at WOT.

If I ever had an I/O again (which I won't) and if I regularly went
boating in shallow, rocky areas, I think I'd stick to the aluminum
prop. Stainless is certainly better overall but the aluminum will
likely snap before something more serious in the drive train does.
Those rubber hubs that are supposed to give (resulting in a spun hub)
still means you have to get it fixed.