Quote:
Originally Posted by Farfrumbehavin
Actually the prop was damaged entering the channel of Green Harbor in Marshfeild Mass. My buddy is a salty and has never had his boat in Winni. He was approaching the channel in very heavy fog. His travel line brought him to the Nav buoy which is about 100 yrds outside the the channel entrance. Normally from that point you have a clear view. Maybe if he had zoomed in his plotter he would have realized that he was going to end up 50 yrds south of the jetty when he got a visual of the channel through the fog, He was moving very slowly so thought he could turn hard and make it in. The tide was as low as it gets there, 6 hrs earlier he would have cleared the rock by about 10'. He has a small gouge in the skeg and minor damage to the prop, he is as careful as anyone I know and has been boating for at least 20 yrs. The harbor Master told told him the channel very very tricky at low tide because the Army Corp did not dredge in May as they normally do annually, because they are working on another project. Some times stuff just happens. Thank you for the info, I will pass it on to him.
No doubt he is all the wiser from the experience. Oh and the boat has a 250 hp Merc Verado and the prop is what the marina recommended. I run aluminum on my 150 Merc. It works for me.
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If the damage is minor and performance is not affected, there's no need to get it fixed. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no need to fix every little nick in a prop and as long as there's no annoying vibration, props do not need to be perfectly balanced. The bearings in the lower gearcase are exactly the same type used as car wheel bearings and have no trouble whatsover dealing with unbalanced loads. Think about how unbalanced the load is on a wheel bearing on a car, the weight of the car pushes on one side and there is no load 180 degrees from that point. A few grams of prop blade is nothing in comparison.