Outboard motor fell off in the lake!

[Lonnie Clemens]

Hi Folks, 

 

I cannot begin to imagine how the guy felt when he lost his motor.  But then again, maybe I could.  This is a tragedy!  Most of us family men have to save our nickels and dimes to fund a hobby.  I keep a padlock on my outboard.  Not just to prevent theft.  But to prevent disasters such as this one.  Video found on YouTube.

[Wayne P.]

I was contacted by a guy in Morocco about how to find a small outboard using Side Imaging that had accidently been dropped overboard while trying to mount it on his sardine fishing boat.

[Way2slow]

If it's not running, when it goes in, no big deal if you get it back out purge the motor of all the water, start it up and run if for a while to finish getting any water out dry it out.

Now, if it's running when it goes in, it's very possible it will bend or break a rod from hydro locking it.  All you can purge everything and see how it turns over.  A bent rod can cause one to lock up, a broken rod, you have to listen and feel for.   Purge it, cross your fingers and start it and hope no strange knocks and noise come out of it. 

The thing you don't want to do it let it sit, not even over night.  If you take it to a shop, make sure they can work on it immediately.  If it's left to sit a day or two, before it's run, you can pretty much write it off as junk. 

A friend had a brand new Merc 150 submerged when he forgot to put the plug in the boat the very first time he launched it.  He put the boat in and tied it to the dock, then took his truck to his camp site.  A friend took him back to get the boat and when they got back, the top few inches of motor was all that was sticking out of water at the back.   They got it out, took it to a shop within a few hours and the shop let it sit a week before the looked at it.  It was already frozen up by then.

[slonezp]

34 minutes ago, Way2slow said:

If it's not running, when it goes in, no big deal if you get it back out purge the motor of all the water, start it up and run if for a while to finish getting any water out dry it out.

Now, if it's running when it goes in, it's very possible it will bend or break a rod from hydro locking it.  All you can purge everything and see how it turns over.  A bent rod can cause one to lock up, a broken rod, you have to listen and feel for.   Purge it, cross your fingers and start it and hope no strange knocks and noise come out of it. 

The thing you don't want to do it let it sit, not even over night.  If you take it to a shop, make sure they can work on it immediately.  If it's left to sit a day or two, before it's run, you can pretty much write it off as junk. 

A friend had a brand new Merc 150 submerged when he forgot to put the plug in the boat the very first time he launched it.  He put the boat in and tied it to the dock, then took his truck to his camp site.  A friend took him back to get the boat and when they got back, the top few inches of motor was all that was sticking out of water at the back.   They got it out, took it to a shop within a few hours and the shop let it sit a week before the looked at it.  It was already frozen up by then.

What kind of boat would sink that much just from a drain plug being left out? A bass boat should float enough to keep the cowling above water. A guy I work got a call from his marina a couple weeks ago. His deck boat was under water. Leaked thru the bellows on the I/O. $6k to repair.

[Bluebasser86]

Watched the motor jump off the back of a river boat on a guided trip on the White River, AR once. The guy hit a rock when we shot the gap in some rapids. He had to be close to 80. By some miracle the fuel line stayed connected and I was able to haul the motor back into the boat. My buddy and I spent the last 3 hours of our trip pulling his boat against the current in our waders. At the ramp he actually still tried to tell us we owed him for the trip  

[Way2slow]

Friends boat was a brand new, custom built Flats boat.   He said the only thing that kept it from doing deeper was the motor was sitting on the bottom.  He was going to use it on a fresh water lake for his first time to get everything checked out and setup before hauling it to the coast.

As for flotation, they are only required to have enough to keep it floating with a certain amount of weight on them.  That does not mean level and above water, it can be nose up, as long as the nose is above water. 

[Further North]

On 6/4/2017 at 7:16 PM, Way2slow said:

Now, if it's running when it goes in, it's very possible it will bend or break a rod from hydro locking it.  All you can purge everything and see how it turns over.  A bent rod can cause one to lock up, a broken rod, you have to listen and feel for.   Purge it, cross your fingers and start it and hope no strange knocks and noise come out of it. 

Probably better to take to a marine mechanic than to do this yourself...unless you're really mechanically inclined.

[thomas15]

When I was a kid, about 12 or 13, my neighbor same age was given a fiberglass speed boat about 10 foot and a 18 HP Elgin or Sea King outboard, I forget exactly which. He spent a couple of weeks patching holes in the hull and painting it finally the big day when he launched it. The boat had a steering wheel and a remote throttle but he didn't have all of the hardware so he was using the tiller to steer and adjust speed.

 

My brother and me and a few others our age were watching the launch. My neighbors older brother tinkered (at the ramp) with the motor and got it running ok but I thought at the time the idle was a bit fast. Anyway, he put it into gear and opened it up full throttle right out of the chute. Boat went about 500 feet, started to sway left and right a bit then the motor simply fell off, never to be seen again. This was in the Shark River Marine Basin NJ, a salt water tidal basin, old motor I'm sure was ruined as soon as it hit the water. The whole episode was a mixture of comedy and tragedy.

 

I remember looking at the transom after he got it home and noticed that the wood core was a little bit rotten. The force of the motor leaving the boat took a chunk of the fiberglass at the top of the transom with it. Years later on reflection I've concluded that the force of the motor mount clamps crushed the rotted wood transom core enough to loosen the mount under stress and let it slip off. The hull was probably swamped and underwater for a time, it wasn't too difficult to find freebies like that back in the day. I don't know where he got the motor, it wasn't original to the hull.

[Choporoz]

I actually dropped my  '76 6HP tiller in the lake not too long ago....'how' is a long story.

Anyway, it was only a couple feet of water, but it was completely submerged for about a minute.  It was a hot, sunny day...I took the cover off and let it dry out in the sun for about an hour.  It started on the second pull and has run better since. 

[buzzed bait]

i knocked a deep cycle battery off my kayak into the lake once....  was connected to my trolling motor on the back of the kayak.  somehow the thing stayed connected and i was able to pull the battery back up by the cables and it worked fine afterward.  I thought that was an ordeal over a $75 battery..... i'd be all kinds of mad if we were talking about a motor!!!