How does this happen? Skeg nick.

[Markv]

I’m pretty careful with the boat and stick to anchoring in coves. The back corner of the skeg is missing and it’s bent. One of the prop blades has a small dent but the other two are clean. How did I do this? I could have only hit and bent it like that going in reverse. The one weird thing is that black smudge looks to be paint. I do trim the motor all the way up when parked in our slip at the marina. Our marina has rentals and the renters are pretty clueless. Im wondering if someone hit my skeg and prop at the marina, since there’s some black paint smudged?

 

[BigKahuna]

It looks to me that you possibly ran something over moving forward based on where the damage to your prop is. If one of the clueless renters hit it the damage would most likely be on the outside edge of the blade. At speed it doesn't take much to damage an aluminum prop or skeg if you run over a log, piece of wood, or whatever! As far as your skeg goes not enough is missing to affect it's performance.....

 

[Bill N]

Do not try to straighten skeg. Most often, aluminum bends once and breaks 2nd time, so attempt to repair may result in worse damage.

 

[Jack M]

You can get a Skeg Guard .

SkegGuard Stainless Repair/Protection

Magaware Skeg Guards are a dependable and easy to install skeg protectors that can also be installed over broken skegs. Order yours at Wholesale Marine

www.wholesalemarine.com

 

[Markv]

Thanks all, the prop is pretty clean except one blade has a groove on the back end. The boats getting taken out to install a trolling motor in a month, so I'm hoping the dealer can look at it then and advise on fix. Even if it doesn't impact performance, it's bugging me and my OCD. So if the fix is reasonable, I'll probably opt to do it.

 

[Jimmy & Jacquie]

I’m pretty careful with the boat and stick to anchoring in coves. The back corner of the skeg is missing and it’s bent. One of the prop blades has a small dent but the other two are clean. How did I do this? I could have only hit and bent it like that going in reverse. The one weird thing is that black smudge looks to be paint. I do trim the motor all the way up when parked in our slip at the marina. Our marina has rentals and the renters are pretty clueless. Im wondering if someone hit my skeg and prop at the marina, since there’s some black paint smudged?

View attachment 33322

I hit an unmarked shoal with mine while trolling forward at no wake speed. Apparently picked up a rock which went between the skeg and the prop. Messed up the prop (had to replace) and took a chunk out of the back of the skeg. If not that, looks like it backed into something or else the motor got raised into something.

 

[Markv]

I hit an unmarked shoal with mine while trolling forward at no wake speed. Apparently picked up a rock which went between the skeg and the prop. Messed up the prop (had to replace) and took a chunk out of the back of the skeg. If not that, looks like it backed into something or else the motor got raised into something.

Thanks, yeah I'm wondering if that's what happened here, something got between the prop blade and skeg.