View Full Version : Last run of the Season With Mighty Mouse
The last run of the year was early November with some Scream and Fly guys on the CT River. Ran up the river fine those Bolt onn's fly!!! I ran for 20 minutes between 80 and 115. On the way back down, I was running about 110 when all of a sudden the boat started to shake like crazy and bow steer. It felt like the pistons were flying out of the block it vibrated so much. I lost a blade at 110. The blade sheared off the bottom of my skeg and lower fin. We'll now I know what it feel's like if the fin fall off...:eek: Not too bad, just a little bow steering.:rlol: Just glad I didin;t test the chute. :eek:
Should have the skeg and fin back together next week. The engine is /was fine.
I saw the blade had a hair line crack a few weeks earlier and had my prop guy check it out. He ground it down and told me good thing he checked it out the crack was pretty deep. So he welded it up and said it would be fine.
Afterwards he said maybe we should have X-rayed (what ever it is called) the prop.
I don't think I'll ever use a prop once it has a hair line crack again.
ChromeGorilla
12-12-2005, 04:02 PM
Uh....holy **** man.....glad you recovered with no mishaps. Glad your ok!
mattyboy
12-12-2005, 04:12 PM
WOW,
that's amazing!! glad things worked out ok :eek: and there's alot of meat on the blades where it broke not the thin part of the blade
Lenny
12-12-2005, 04:42 PM
WOW :eek: :eek: Glad you are safe and sound. I take it that without the lower "foil" on the bottom of the skeg, that you now know how much bow lift it provided :D
I see you have changed your exhaust tips. What are those ones?
GEOO, glad your OK man!! Must have been hairy for a few seconds.
Seems weird that it somehow was able to hit the skeg in front.........is it definatly the same blade you had welded??
The reason I am asking that is.......maybe the skeg took out the prop blade when it came off....??
Greg Maier
12-12-2005, 04:47 PM
Geoo,
What kind of prop is that? I just bought a used 19 Spline Speedmaster of of Ebay. Maybe I should get it x-rayed before I spend any money getting it worked on. Does anybody know how much it would cost to get a prop x-rayed?
Greg, I believe it is called magnafluxing......
It should be around $50.00
We did it on the unlimited hydro props and the indy car wheels......back when my brother was racing both.
Greg Maier
12-12-2005, 07:09 PM
I just talked to my Dad, who is a retired welding engineer. He said that X-Raying would be very expensive if you are looking for cracks in a prop because the X-Ray has to be in the proper orientation to see the crack. You would need numerous X-Rays from all angles to insure that you don't have any cracks. According to him, a cheaper NDT (Non Destructive Test) is to ultrasound the prop. If the ultrasound operator is good, he should be able to find any cracks. Also, there is the dye method, but that only works if the crack has reached the surface of the prop.
Moody Blu'
12-12-2005, 07:23 PM
damn glad your ok. hmm maybe youll be keeping the boat a bit longer? If you do sell it that will suck because i was shooting for getting close to you speedwise. if you dont have it then it wont be the same. ill have a ford s/c stroker with a arneson and no one to run against :-(. I have a long way to go but im heading in the right direction. ever since ive known you put the boat up for sale I have been somewhat disillusioned.
well im glad your ok
gold-n-rod
12-12-2005, 07:37 PM
GEOO, glad your OK man!! Must have been hairy for a few seconds.
Seems weird that it somehow was able to hit the skeg in front.........is it definatly the same blade you had welded??
The reason I am asking that is.......maybe the skeg took out the prop blade when it came off....??
It doesn't look like the skeg took a blow to the leading edge. Maybe the broken ear first folded over and hit the skeg, breaking it off. That's what it looks like to me.
Jerry Eisele
12-12-2005, 07:51 PM
Geoo, Glad you are OK. That must have been a hairy minute or so.
It doesn't look like the skeg took a blow to the leading edge. Maybe the broken ear first folded over and hit the skeg, breaking it off. That's what it looks like to me.
I agree.......I did not think it hit anything.
If you have seen it up close, The skeg HAD a hydrofoil that was bolted and epoxied to it. It looks like the skeg broke off exactly where the bolt holes were drilled thru the skeg for the hydrofoil......
gold-n-rod
12-12-2005, 08:06 PM
I agree.......I did not think it hit anything.
If you have seen it up close, The skeg HAD a hydrofoil that was bolted and epoxied to it. It looks like the skeg broke off exactly where the bolt holes were drilled thru the skeg for the hydrofoil......
Yes, looking again, there's no way a folded over ear would have hit the skeg where it was fractured. It would have hit higher up. You may be on to something, Ted.
Actually, I think the hydrofoil was at the very bottom of the skeg.......and the skeg broke off higher than the bolt holes........hard to tell from the photos.
Either way I am sooooooo glad GEOO is OK!
I'm glad everythng was fine too...Thanks..
The blade that broke was the welded one, you can see in the photo the trailing edge of the blade is discolored. I tried to figure out what happened too.(the chicken or the egg..HUM..) But it's odd only one blade (the welded one) was damaged and the fin was a clean break. The fin was directly below the blade. The blade is spinning faster then the boat is going, so I think the blade would travel foward as it flies off . ie..( If you went fast is reverse and the prop nut fell off which way would the prop go? or if you had one of those new Volvo Drives with the prop facing foward and the nut fell off?)
George like all above sure glad it turned out OK, were we not just talking about spinning small wheels fast I know you were spinning some R's.
For the sceptics when you spit a blade it goes faster then the boat for a second or two, I and a few buddies had plywood SK's. Rick one of my buds spit a blade it went up through the bottom about a foot forward of the strut, I had to tow him a few miles with his intake hose in the bilge and the engine cranked up to keep him from sinking.
George the Ultra Sound mentioned above works quite well, I have a good buddy that specializes in metal testing and does a lot of Gov work. If you want I will get hold of him to see if he has a buddy near you that could check your other wheels, should not be to costly and would add peace of mind.
Phil
Magnefluxing would be a problem with stainless steel...
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