A few hiccups, anything to check out?

[msjones144]

We just got back from a week long lake trip at Norris Lake, our favorite tradition of the year. I'm usually pretty protective of captaining the boat all week for a few reasons, we are a group that likes to drink a good amount and we have small kids on our boat so I always maintain sobriety and also like to make sure my boat is well looked after. The final day I decided it was time to teach my younger brother to drive my boat so I could ski. We both grew up on our family's I/O so I figured it would be a short learning curve but turns out we had a few issues. One was we left the marina once and he had only started one of the motors and tried to take off with only 1 running (I hadn't even thought to verify both engines were running). After failing to plane, we assessed and found only port engine was running. The starboard one took a few tries but fired up and ran the rest of the day (about 40 miles) without issue. Should I have any concern or check anything out on the starboard motor or is the fact that it ran fine the rest of the day enough?

Also, while I was fidgeting with a ski in the water he left it idle and wind blew the boat over the ski rope, sucking in to the starboard impeller. He recognized and killed the engine but not after wrapping the rope a good amount around the impeller. We were able to cut it and free after swimming underneath to push the knot back so I could untangle from the cleanout port. Again, it ran fine the rest of the day but asking the experts if there's anything prudent to assess?

We'll all be back in about a month to Cumberland for a long weekend and lil bro will be driving while I ski again, so I will successfully fight the urge to keep the driver seat and not ski. I recognize I have some opportunities as the teacher and will carry those lessons forward for any others that drive my boat but it reinforces why I am always pretty stern about being the daily driver.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Matt

 

[tdonoughue]

Good news! You are fine.

As to running with one engine, the risk there is that if you are going fast enough, water gets sucked up into the non-running engine. When you try to start it, if there is enough water in that engine, it gets hydrolocked and either won't move a bit or will bend valves and such and really mess things up. If it started (it was probably a bit hard at first because there was some water in there), then you are not hydrolocked. You ran it, which would have evaporated all of the water. So, that bullet dodged. No damage, no harm, no foul.

As to sucking up a rope, this is very commonplace. It happens. Yes, we should all avoid it, but we have all done it (doing it even gets you an award on the site here). The real danger with the rope suckup is when so much of the rope gets sucked up what it kills the engine because it is wrapped so tight it wedges against the fiberglass around the shaft and breaks through the fiberglass. Sounds like you were far from that. Your pilot did the right thing and killed the engine immediately. Then it is just getting the rope out and carrying on. Again, no damage, no harm, no foul.

Float on. You are completely fine.

 

[msjones144]

Thanks @tdonoughue ! I feel much better!

 

[Gym]

I would check your oil level in the starboard engine. It's possible you may have picked up a little water raising the level in that engine and causing a milky appearance to the oil.

 

[Dave burke]

I’d also get under the boat on the trailer and carefully check the impeller shaft. If you don’t see any evidence of pieces of rope, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you do, you might want to pull the pump to make sure you get all the pieces out. It’s very easy to do and there’s lots of posts about removing the pump on this forum.

 

[Beachbummer]

I would look for any opportunity to permanently remind you to not let him drive again

Only half kidding, but running over the rope and taking off in one engine on the same day would earn a few months suspension at least on my boat.

As other more expert voices have told you, and I agree, thankfully there is no lasting effects to his follies, and the boat is intact.