Amen. When it comes to sand bars, depth finders only confirm that you have
hit bottom - they don't warn you ahead of time.
"*JimH*" wrote in message
...

"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...
On bad advice, navigated my new 2005 Bayliner 175 into
some shallow water (at near idle). Heard some muted
thumping/rumbling, and quickly shut it down. Come to
find that I was up on a rocky/sandy ridge of some sorts.
Scuffed up the bottom/back of the skeg a bit, and dulled
the nice shiny black paint on the prop a bit. (bummer, I
wanted to keep it showroom pretty for a little bit longer).
Anyways, got two little nicks on two of the 3 prop blades
that are hardly noticable, but none the less, they are there.
So, on a Merc 3.0L/A-1, just how critical are nicks like
this, and what should I do about them? (besides get a
depth finder?) One nick is more like a little "swedge"
in that it looks like you can almost squeese the little nick
with the tip of a pair of pliers and it would totally be gone.
The other nick is even smaller. Probably worring too much,
but just wanted to hear what others thought of this. And
the paint on the prop? - worht worring about, or just forget it ?

Thanks



As searay said, unless the nicks are causing the prop to be out of balance
I would not worry about them.

A depth finder is a must but it will not be the end all to these sort of
incidents. Depth finder transducers are usually mounted on the transom
and you are normally already in a shallow depth problem before the depth
finder shows it, especially in the case of sand bars and others areas
where the water depth decreases suddenly.

The best advice is to get yourself some good charts of the waters you
travel and study them before venturing out into unknown waters.