Weeds

[OnTheWater]

I keep my boat at Lake Coeur d'Alene - deep and clean water, so I don't deal with weed beds until I get far back into a bay. I went to check out a boaters park last night and the water gets shallow and the weeds are creeping up to the surface - about 2-6" below in 4-10' of water. They weren't thick - had space between all of them. I haven't had to use the clean out port for anything yet, so before I get into this water I want to seek some advice...
-Stay away?
-Go slow?
-Burn through it?

Thanks!

Tim

 

[eastcoaster]

My experience with weeds may be a little different as I boat in salt water. The weeds I deal with are floating in large patches on the surface. If I am on plane I can run through them with no issues. Going slow no issues until I try to get up to speed And I experience cavitation. The solution is to reverse at speed pull the safety lanyard shutting the engines of while at the same time putting the throttles in forward. The reverse flow of water clears the intake grate of weeds. Using this method I have never had to use the clean out plugs

 

[Zarrella]

@eastcoaster
X2 this has always worked for me too

 

[Gym]

@Belteddeep. If the weeds are 4-6 inches below the surface in 4-10 feet of water that would indicate to me the stalk of the weed would be like a vine or rope. If you sucked one in you may have to shut down and cut it off your impeller shaft. I think I would avoid these if possible.

 

[Glassman]

@Belteddeep. If the weeds are 4-6 inches below the surface in 4-10 feet of water that would indicate to me the stalk of the weed would be like a vine or rope. If you sucked one in you may have to shut down and cut it off your impeller shaft. I think I would avoid these if possible.

Yup......I pulled up several thousand by the roots this past weekend. Let me tell you - my boat SUCKS!

And I mean that in a good way

If I can see them and I'm going slow...4-5 mph - I'll kill one engine and putt through. That way I'm only going to have to clean out one jet.

Sometimes staying away isn't an option. Worst case scenario would be to cut both engines and use the telescoping pole you keep in your ski locker.

WHAT? No pole?

http://www.mackspw.com/Item--i-JACP...campaign=PLA&gclid=CJCQ-4-z2b8CFRFafgodMlwAdA

 

[OnTheWater]

Thanks for the feedback all - much appreciated. I think I'll try to go thru it slowly(when it's not getting late) and see how it handles the weeds. Good suggestions all the way around...

 

[BoaterGuy]

Thanks for the feedback all - much appreciated. I think I'll try to go thru it slowly(when it's not getting late) and see how it handles the weeds. Good suggestions all the way around...

I occasionally encounter some weeds in the bay and I always take my no wake mode down to the lowest setting. If you keep the RPM's down over them, then you should be fine. Its when you're off plane and revving up the RPM's on the border of planing do you really become a vacuum. Know your water, if you dont then keep the RPM's down.

 

[davel501]

Also, keep the boat light. Never a good idea to go looking for weedy areas when you have 10 people + coolers in the boat. There are a lot of places I can go through without much thought until we take some friends out with us and push those jets down just a few more inches.

 

[jdonalds]

My experience in salt water with kelp is I was safe at planing speeds. At that speed even if growth gets sucked in it is chopped up and spit out. You may get through them at idle but I wouldn't spend much time doing that as you're still likely to suck weeds up if they are close to or touching the intake grates. You said they are 2" to 6" below the surface so they certainly are touching the intake grates which are about 18" below the surface of the water.

 

[SCSTWG]

I have a shallow lake near me and right about this time of year, the weeds start to be visible from the surface. I seem to be alright if I stay out in the main channels, but when I get off the beaten path, I end up spending 20 minutes pulling weeds out of the cleanout ports. I tend to avoid that lake late in the year. This is one area where our boats are at a distinct disadvantage to I/O's.

 

[SCSTWG]

My experience with weeds may be a little different as I boat in salt water. The weeds I deal with are floating in large patches on the surface. If I am on plane I can run through them with no issues. Going slow no issues until I try to get up to speed And I experience cavitation. The solution is to reverse at speed pull the safety lanyard shutting the engines of while at the same time putting the throttles in forward. The reverse flow of water clears the intake grate of weeds. Using this method I have never had to use the clean out plugs

Could you further elaborate. It was my understanding that if you just alternate between reverse and forward that you could clear the grates and possibly avoid a manual cleanout. What does the engine shutdown do? So I understand correctly, you apply considerable reverse thrust and pull the lanyard. At the same time you pull the lanyard, you shift to forward?