Well the Hudson debris finally nailed me yesterday. After a nice cruise up river to Newburg for lunch we were just south of West Point when a 4 or 5' foot 2 x 6 appeared sideways just ahead of the boat.
Not sure if it was sun glare but I didn't see it till it was less than 20' away. At 28mph I had no time to react and took it dead center.
BANG! Vibrations like crazy...
Checked for water leaks and was able to limp back to port. I dove in last night and the port prop feels very unhappy. Should be pulled today and hope its just the props.
With hindsight I'm guessing I should have throttled down and shifted to neutral but there probably wasn't even time for that. Avoiding it was not possible by the time I saw it.
Just wondering, would shifting to neutral have helped or would the water flow have kept the props spinning anyway? Amazing how fast stuff can happen out there!
Not sure if it was sun glare but I didn't see it till it was less than 20' away. At 28mph I had no time to react and took it dead center.
BANG! Vibrations like crazy...
Checked for water leaks and was able to limp back to port. I dove in last night and the port prop feels very unhappy. Should be pulled today and hope its just the props.
With hindsight I'm guessing I should have throttled down and shifted to neutral but there probably wasn't even time for that. Avoiding it was not possible by the time I saw it.
Just wondering, would shifting to neutral have helped or would the water flow have kept the props spinning anyway? Amazing how fast stuff can happen out there!