Hit a crab pot at 40 mph.

[RGPIII]

tonight on the way home i hit a crab pot float at 40 mph, saw it at the last second tried to get away but couldn't. motor revved quickly then right back to normal before i could throttle down. put it back in gear no odd noises got right back on plane no vibrations ran fine back to the marina. pulling it out in the morning, what did i damage? something had to slip to cause the engine to rev?

 

[keith4216]

Why I don't boat at night. To much unlit crap. Did boat come out of water (jump the pot) causing the rev?

 

[RGPIII]

yeah its the second time i've gotten caught out after dark with no moon light to get me home. first time i got lucky i guess. no the boat didnt come out of the water that i know of. just a quick rev up i mean real quick before i pulled the throttle back to neutral.

felt it hit the bottom of the boat first.

 

[keith4216]

You may have turned sharp and just made the prop slip for a sec. Atleast you didn't get it wound up in the prop. That really sucks.

 

[RGPIII]

oh man i hope thats it. scared the heck outta me. almost needed new shorts. haha. once i got back into the creek where there were no more buoys i throttled back up slowly to 40 -45 again no issues.

 

[Jetmate]

I think Mercruiser stern drives have a Kick up to prevent catastrophic damage if you hit something at speed. There is a hydraulic lock from your reverse interlock switch mounted on the transom which prevents upward drive motion while in reverse only.


See Lower right corner of diagram. Valve locked in reverse only. So hopefully the drive kicked up. I could be wrong, I'm a jet drive guy. I just found this on line. Hope everything is OK.

 

[nathan]

I would be more worried about damage to the hull.

 

[hotdaddy27]

Why I don't boat at night..

Same here.

On the few instances that I do night boating, I definitely am not going 40MPH with or without moonlight. Asking for trouble IMO.

Glad you are OK, the boat can be fixed.

HD

 

[boatman4021]

Any time you have something blocking the water getting to the prop, it will rev. Had a friend call me about a month ago from the lake wanting to know why his motor started screaming everytime he tried to get on plane. I told him to jump in the water and remove the stick. He said what stick? Called me back 10 minutes later to tell me that there was a small forked stick hung on his out drive and all is good now. Hitting an under water object will do the same thing. Some times you even have to back way out of the throttle and then go again.

 

[mouse4x4]

You prolly caught the pot line from the float airated for a min then it cut the line an off you went, you have to have a thin hull to be worried about damage from a styrofoam float.

 

[sim]

You prolly caught the pot line from the float airated for a min then it cut the line an off you went, you have to have a thin hull to be worried about damage from a styrofoam float.

Freaking crab pots!

 

[ezstriper]

deal with them all the time, usually never any issues at speed...now idling is when you will wrap them up and you have a big mess, and like said before, the float just interrupted the water flow for a second causing the rev...hit one myself @ 70 sat...knew at that speed yanking the wheel would not have been good..

 

[Don's89 Senator]

40mph in the dark? Not smart.

 

[corey331]

I'm with everybody else, probably the sudden turn or the buoy interupting the flow to the prop cause the engine to rev. You should be fine!!

I personally love boating at night. But I am on an inland lake that i have been boating on for 20+ years, so I know my way pretty well. get her up on plane... turn on some tunes... and enjoy a nice summer night.

 

[RGPIII]

just realized i never posted back in this thread. thanks for all the responses. no damage was done. found one tiny piece of yellow styrofoam stuck on the back of the outdrive thats it.