Southern Pirate
Active Member
- Nov 17, 2019
- 107
- Boat Info
- 2005 sea ray 270 amberjack
- Engines
- 5.7 Mercruiser w/Bravo III Drive
You ever have one of those times when you think the worst but then after really hard thought you realize you left out part of the equation, so there is no way to truly solve the problem. It all started about a month ago, I just finished installing the new Bennett ATP trim tab system. I launched the boat and was in the process of programing the system. It was high tide on the Cooper river and I was heading toward the Tail Race canal. Along the way are rice fields but I normally stay in the channel. As I was heading back I was watching the trim tabs raise and lower with boat speed. It was then that I notice a few floating plants which I thought strange and then more went by. It was now that I realized that I had missed a turn, I was out of the channel and in a rice field in a 27 foot deep V boat. I panicked and threw the 350 MPI into reverse. The nose of the boat went down, the engine died and the low depth alarm was going off. I raised the bravo 3 up and restarted the motor. I was able to get the boat out and back into the channel. Once on the channel, everything seemed like it returned to normal. So I was thinking no harm done. I hit the gas, the RPMs shot up to over 5600 (never did that before) and the boat felt like it was going to shake itself apart. I immediate dropped it back down to idle. I tried again but could not get over 2300 RPMs without a lot of vibration. I was able to make it back to the boat landing like this. After sitting around thinking about what it could be I came up with the following equation, High RPMs + vibration + lack of speed = engine coupler. Spending about a week calling around I was able to find one mechanic that worked on boats older than 10 years and he wanted $2000 just to pull the motor. So I invited some friends over to help me build a gantry and I will save $2000. Well for some reason I do my best thinking in the shower and construction morning was no exception. Instead of thinking about building, I was thinking about what lead me here. The equation. I was going over it. Something was missing but I didn't know what it was. Then it hit me. Maybe it was not the engine coupler. The 270 Amberjack has a 3 foot swim platform so if I forgot to lower the stern drive after coming out of the rice field....So lets look at that equation again with the missing piece high RPMs + vibration + lack of speed + excess steering to go straight = drive trimmed up too far. Launched the boat today after the small craft warning was lifted (it is my only day off until December) just to make sure and everything was fine.