New 242 SE and a rope where it shouldn't be.....

[Shookie]

3rd time out on my 2018 242 SE. Enjoying a nice day on the lake... about 7 miles from the marina and ran into problems. My son was trying to knee board and I didn't realize he let go of the rope. BAM! Port engine stalled. Reached into the cleanup and sure enough, the rope was wound up all around it.

Limped back to the marina on 1 engine at approx 2,000 RPM so I didn't flood the port engine. Just a week or two I was reading about installing the shutoff valves on the water lines and I plan to do that.... we I will definitely do it now. About 1.5 hours later we made it back and put the boat on the trailer. The handle of the ski rope was actually wedged between the trailer and the boat. Got it home and started cutting.... Pictures below... I assume someone has posted these before but I figured what the heck....



I did not remove the black grate. Almost did but I was able to get my hands up in there to cut and remove the rope.


About 1/3 of the way done.....


The scraps.... this is everything wrapped around the shaft.


I jacked up the back to remove the handle. I assume this was a safe area to do it...........


I started up the engine and ran it a bit and everything seems OK. It makes a weird noise around 2-3,000 RPM and I was worried something might be wrong. Started the other engine and it made the same noise.... I assume all is well. Heading back out tomorrow and will try and avoid doing this again.

Those shut off valves are getting installed sometime soon though..... it sucked running at 4-5 mph for that long!

 

[buckbuck]

Congratulations on your jetboaters promotion.
Now please take the next step and launch your boat without putting the clean out plugs in.

 

[Shookie]

Congratulations on your jetboaters promotion.
Now please take the next step and launch your boat without putting the clean out plugs in.

Did that the 2nd time out.... but only started back it in. Realized it and pulled trailer back out of the water. So it was only in there 10-15 seconds. That probably doesn't count....

 

[Bruce]

If you remove the spark plugs you can rotate the shaft backwards to unwind the rope.

 

[buckbuck]

@Jerrod Shook The judges will frown upon your attempting to acquire a trophy with this type of behavior. You must completely launch and begin drifting into rocks or other boats before being deemed worthy. Your wife capturing the video and posting will grant you special advanced consideration.

 

[Julian]

No fun for sure...which is why you get trophy points for it....although I guess we should probably be giving people trophy points for NOT running over a rope...then taking them away when they do! LOL

The key to avoid this in the future is:

1. Never reverse when a rope is out
2. Never double back and drive over the rope
3. When starting the engines have a rope spotter...."Clear?"...no engine start until the spotter replies "clear"

 

[Shookie]

Yeah, it was because I double backed too close to the rope and left the engines on. No stern drive just gave me this invincible feeling that it wouldn't happen.

In other news, just ordered the JBP thrust vector and lateral thruster for my boat. Spent a bunch of timing reading about it and watching the videos. I've had a couple close calls around the dock and I'm over it.

@Julian....... how did you remove all the stickers from your boat? I have a bunch to remove, including the Chatlee stickers. Any tricks?

 

[Julian]

Yeah, it was because I double backed too close to the rope and left the engines on. No stern drive just gave me this invincible feeling that it wouldn't happen.

In other news, just ordered the JBP thrust vector and lateral thruster for my boat. Spent a bunch of timing reading about it and watching the videos. I've had a couple close calls around the dock and I'm over it.

@Julian....... how did you remove all the stickers from your boat? I have a bunch to remove, including the Chatlee stickers. Any tricks?

I removed all the warning stickers on a warm night and just peeled them slowly back. I've not touched the big decorative ones.

 

[scokill]

I keep a single edge razor blade for such an occasion. Just cut the sucker out and move on. Did it 3 times in 2 years and haven't done it since....in 10 seasons.

 

[Shookie]

It was wrapped so bad I doubt I would of been able to cut it by reaching down through the clean outs.... That said, a stanley knife is in the boating bag for when I go out next time.

 

[Jbone007]

If you remove the spark plugs you can rotate the shaft backwards to unwind the rope.

Could you elaborate? I may or may not have done a very similar thing my second day out

 

[Bruce]

Could you elaborate? I may or may not have done a very similar thing my second day out

If you remove the spark plugs the engine no longer has compression so it will rotate easily. As you pull on the rope it will unwind.