ian ashton
04-25-2009, 09:07 AM
I'd like to preface this by saying I'm in the process of making a transition at work and have quite a bit of stress surrounding me. I'm a home loan officer, so end of the month is always busy, and yesterday was the 'last day of the month' for refinances to close and still fund in April. I had 5 closings yesterday, all concluding by around 3pm. By 3:30 I was in my car and heading to the lake. I called my dad to comment on how great of a day it was, both weather and stress level: all the closings went smooth, I had no issues with really anything, and it was 87 degress and not a cloud in the sky!
I got home, changed, and went to the boat. Shorthly there after my dad met me at the marina, and I suited up and was ready for my first Michigan ride of the season. Let me tell you - the 52 degree water in April feels ALOT colder than the 55 degree water in November! So I had a great ride, and when I was done dad circled around to pick me up. There was a bit of wind so while I was working to get out of the freezing cold water we had drifted near shore and someones dock. I hopped on the boat, grabbed my board and dad started the engine to bump us forward.
One problem...
...Where is the rope?
Crap.
So, in haste to hurry out of the water we ended up spending about an additional hour screwing around trying to get it free. I finally was able to free most of it and get the prop to spin freely; the prop had cut the rope on one end, and I cut as close as possible on the other. I didn't have goggles, and couldn't stay under water for really any time at all because it was so cold, so we made the decision to limp back to the marina and pull the boat to check out the damage. On our idle speed ride back I measured off my rope - I was riding at 65' and only had about 45' in the boat - crazy.
We cut the remains of the rope (and some fishing line, weird) away and dropped her back in. NO SHAKES! Smooth as new, thank goodness!
We put over 100 hours on the boat last season, I'd say easily 60 of them were with someone behind the boat doing some sort of watersport and we've never come close to a rope. Just goes to show it happens to everyone.
A pic of me enjoying the brisk waters of Cass Lake;
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2441&stc=1&d=1240664732
The rope/prop combo:
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2442&stc=1&d=1240664738
I got home, changed, and went to the boat. Shorthly there after my dad met me at the marina, and I suited up and was ready for my first Michigan ride of the season. Let me tell you - the 52 degree water in April feels ALOT colder than the 55 degree water in November! So I had a great ride, and when I was done dad circled around to pick me up. There was a bit of wind so while I was working to get out of the freezing cold water we had drifted near shore and someones dock. I hopped on the boat, grabbed my board and dad started the engine to bump us forward.
One problem...
...Where is the rope?
Crap.
So, in haste to hurry out of the water we ended up spending about an additional hour screwing around trying to get it free. I finally was able to free most of it and get the prop to spin freely; the prop had cut the rope on one end, and I cut as close as possible on the other. I didn't have goggles, and couldn't stay under water for really any time at all because it was so cold, so we made the decision to limp back to the marina and pull the boat to check out the damage. On our idle speed ride back I measured off my rope - I was riding at 65' and only had about 45' in the boat - crazy.
We cut the remains of the rope (and some fishing line, weird) away and dropped her back in. NO SHAKES! Smooth as new, thank goodness!
We put over 100 hours on the boat last season, I'd say easily 60 of them were with someone behind the boat doing some sort of watersport and we've never come close to a rope. Just goes to show it happens to everyone.
A pic of me enjoying the brisk waters of Cass Lake;
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2441&stc=1&d=1240664732
The rope/prop combo:
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2442&stc=1&d=1240664738