Rope vs impeller shaft

[Andy Orton]

So there we were, Out in the SX195, getting ready to tube, one friend in the tube, another holding the rope. I was thinking he was tending the rope to make sure it wouldn't go under the boat, and he wasn't thinking anything, just holding the rope... I started to motor out and things went all bad.

After some shouting, and scaring the crap out of the guy in the tube who was approaching the boat rather quickly, I shut the engine off before it was stalled (lucky) but I had sucked up the rope... like all of it. It was my fault as I was at the helm and didn't confirm that the rope was clear. I figured no biggie, we'll just pop the clean out port and take care of it. well... we couldn't get the port open. and this is on a new 2018 boat with the better designed plug! (and even had we got it open, I didn't have my knife on the boat... important boat gear!) we tried and tried but couldn't get it and I had some Special Forces guys trying! we just couldn't get enough strength on it with one hand. I sucked up so much rope that it was pushing up against the plug and jamming it in place. We tried some MacGyver tricks to get more force on the plug with what we had on the boat (failed) and we tried for a while to work at it from under the boat... (no thank you!) but gave up and got a tow to the launch from another Yamaha owner. Took me about 40 minutes to cut all the rope free laying on the ground under the boat.

So add me to the list. screwed up when I thought would never happen to me. I learned that no matter how aware you are about the dangers on and around your boat, you also need to make sure that everyone on the boat is aware, every time, even if you think they got it, get verbal confirmation. Had I taken just a couple seconds to make sure my friend knew to keep the rope away from the boat it would have been avoided.

 

[swatski]

Wow. Glad it worked out!

May want to double check the shaft seal/white gasket and the intake tunnel (fiberglass) for any possible cracks, when the rope cocoons around the impeller shaft it can expand to the point of doing some damage.

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[Andy Orton]

Wow. Glad it worked out!

May want to double check the shaft seal/white gasket and the intake tunnel (fiberglass) for any possible cracks, when the rope cocoons around the impeller shaft it can expand to the point of doing some damage.

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That's a good idea, there was a pretty good sized piece of rope 'melted' to that area and when I popped it off, some water came out. I wonder If I did damage it.

 

[Captbob]

Post a picture!!

 

[Julian]

If anyone is interested, I'll post a picture of it.

Of course we are interested!!!

 

[Ancient canoe]

Would something like a pool noodle (or something more elegant) fixed to the rope keeping the portion closest to the boat afloat help prevent rope from being ingested? We did this on a single engine Scarab and it pretty much killed the day.

 

[Wisefam22]

Thanks for the photo gonna go submit for patient now...

 

[Scottintexas]

sorry to hear about your troubles but it happens, if you have to get towed back, once it's on the trailer you could have just pulled the impeller/shaft out the back,

If you've not seen the FAQ tab at the top of the page there's lots of great tips/DIY info,

 

[BigAbe75]

I had the details here, but I guess I should keep the details to myself....

Why is that? Is it something I need or not? Having also sucked up a tube rope this summer, anything that would have helped that situation would be welcome. Good news is that the wife takes rope duty more seriously now.

Make sure to claim the trophy points on your user profile. I think you get 5 points, maybe, for checking the box that you sucked up a rope.

 

[Wisefam22]

You took the picture down, I was joking about patient. Great looking idea for the newer twist out plugs