Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

HARD

I was surfing and all of I sudden I see the boat back end come out out of the water and slow down drastically. 2 passengers sitting on the sun deck went head over heels and landing on the floor. Needless to say I was expecting the worse.

We limped back to the dock because there was a noticeable vibration now. Theres a good peice of gel coat missing right above to prop (how does that happen???) and there is a minor bend in one of the blades. I was really expecting much worse.

Now when I was backing in the trailer my driver said the bilge light was on. So now im worried if theres water leaking in somewhere. So im trying to figure out what could have been damaged in this incident. prop shaft? prop shaft seal?

Man, That sucks. Whatever you hit must have passed inbetween the prop and hull. Brandon millers boat did almost the exact same thing one year at the Dirty T.

Get it to the shop ASAP and be ready for the Texas Jam.

Ouch!

If you noticed the back of boat lift up and people on the sun pad fell off, then my guess is that you hit your prop onto something so hard it flexed your shaft and your prop hit the gell and did that damage. If something passed between the prop and hull, you would not have "bounced" like you described. if I am correct, then you need to check your shaft, strut, and prop shaft seal. If you are leaking water into your boat, the first place I would look is your prop shaft seal. Hook up a fake-a-lake to your boat, start it and let it idle, go see if you are leaking water from your dripless shaft seal into your boat.

If you hit something that hard, check your prop shaft, spin it by hand to see if there is an obvious bend. Check your shaft strut as well. One good thing is your prop is not bad at all and a prop repair guy can pound that back no problem.

Sorry, that sucks.... I have never seen that happen before.

No noticeable bend or damage on the strut or shaft. I had rotated it by hand and couldn't see anything obvious. My theory is maybe my front tracking fin hit the stump which caused the back end to come up. Then broken debris passed between the prop and the boat. The fins don't appear to be damaged.

I swapped props and took it back out for a test run. The low speed vibration is gone but there's till a higher speed vibration. I can't tell if it's always been there or if this is new.

The driver remembered after hitting, water came over the bow so maybe that's why the bilge was full of water. I didnt see any water in the bilge after my test run.

Is there a more precise way to check the straightness of the shaft?

How good could the surfing have been if the water was shallow enough that you could hit a stump?

It needs to be measured. My buddy had a bent shaft, prop, and strut. Cost him almost $2500 but he went through insurance. Was that on a river?

You've never seen them floating? We were just on Norris in 100+ feet of water and there were 2-3ft logs floating at the surface.

Sorry to hear man, hope you get it figured out and it isn't too bad. Definitely one of my fears.

Man what a bummer. Where were you riding at when this happened? Creek?

Happened at LSJ (river for those who asked)

I've got a mechanic who should come look at it this week to check for straightness in the shaft and strut. Started a claim with my insurance, so worse case scenario ill be out my $500 deductible.