Skeg Repair on 3.0 Mercruiser Alpha One

[chartspromo]

Hello! First time poster.

Today I went to look at a 2009 Sea Ray 175 Sport. It all was in good shape except that the very end of the skeg was broken off, a couple inch piece. I guess the owner said it was a bit bent so he went to straighten it out and it just broke...

I know its easy to repair dings and knicks with just JB weld, then sanding etc. I've attached 2 pictures showing where it is broken.

Should this a reason I should stay away from the boat? I have no idea how one could put this back on. Maybe there is some sort of weld. Or maybe you could get away with just leaving it as is? I'm not not sure.

Was just hoping to get some opinions on what I should do. I'm not sure if JB welding this one would make it strong enough if it were to come into contact with a rock etc.?

Thanks in advance!

 

[blaster]

I wouldn’t worry about it. That is relatively minor damage and it will not have an effect on performance.

 

[ttmott]

Clean break, no corrosion - Easily weldable at about any weld / fabrication shop. You are looking at around $150 plus paint.
Heck I'd TIG weld it for you if you were in this area.
JB weld isn't the answer for this.

 

[BillK2632]

Like mentioned above, it's not going to affect anything if you don't fix it - but that would drive me nuts! Personally I would have it welded back and fixed correctly. Another option is the stainless steel skeg guards - I don't like those myself, it just screems "I hit something and broke the skeg - and this is my cheap fix".

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yup - absolutely zero performance issues without it there. JB Weld/Marine Tex will work for a while - but it's hard to say how long. However, you'd have to first create a very shallow, but long, V-shape on either side of the crack, sanding down to metal. Then fill and shape. Not worth the time.

Aside from the screaming, SS skeg guards are a bad idea - don't start googling about them and get sucked into the nonsense. If you hit something with one of those on there, you may destroy your entire lower unit. Don't believe hype about them "shearing off" to save the drive... it doesn't always work that way.

 

[Yendor]

Another option is the stainless steel skeg guards - I don't like those myself, it just screems "I hit something and broke the skeg - and this is my cheap fix".

In spite of all my boating experience, this is an observation that really never occurred to me (although I can see that now that you pointed it out).

When I was a kid and acquired my first 6 cylinder Merc, I was incessant about maintaining it as that was my first experience of being in tall cotton, so to speak.

There was a sand flat in the Intercoastal Waterway that I routinely cut across to save about three miles coming back in. It was impossible to keep paint on that skeg and when I first saw one of those SS covers I knew I had to have one. It took me a good while to get one, but when I did, I thought that was the best invention since sliced bread.

It never even occurred to me what it might look like to somebody else. Not that it would have mattered a bit, I just find it a bit amusing that I never even had that thought.

 

[JayhawkCurtis]

My boat came with a stainless skeg guard, I didnt like the look and took it off, there was a very small chunk broken off smaller than the OP that I guess someone was trying to hide. The problem my boat had, was the skeg guard didnt drain, and stayed full of water and created little corrosion cells, so my skeg is pitted pretty bad.

Edit to add pics, the only pits in the entire drive are what was under the guard


And you can see the small point broken off he was trying to hide

 

[Scott215]

I would take a flap wheel and sand down the outdrive and the piece that you have in your hands and just take it to someone that can take weld it and just have it welded up and sand it and then you can repaint it