My strut broke off!!

[Jared1048]

Dove over the side today to investigate a bad knocking noise and noticed my entire strut has broken off the hull of the boat and is just hanging on prop shaft !

Im sitting down- what's the ballpark on fixing something like this?! Do they have to cut the old piece out of the hull and reglass? Can they re-weld it back?

 

[Steve Dion]

I would have thought that this issue would have been noted during your purchase survey. Typically the metal turns pink and this is a sign that there may be a failure.

Contact Dave at SBO.com store and see if they have a source for a new one. I think you are looking at a couple hundred for the strut. You will probably need a new shaft too. Then you are probably looking at several hours of shop labor (plan on $1,000 +/-) plus a shaft if you need one.

 

[Maine Sail]

If you accidentally hit something in the water, like some floating line, that was not visible to you at the helm, then you may have an insurance case......

 

[Papa Bruce]

Same thing happened to me last fall. Mine snapped in the middle so the work to remove the remainder attached to the hull was no big deal. Cause was dezincafication - yes, that's a word and a problem. Maine Sail said it may have been because I put copper ablative on the strut. No new shaft needed, just alignment. New strut came with cutlass bearing installed. Costs were $80/hour labor:
strut $200
remove remainder and re-bed - $320
shaft alignment - $120

Good luck!

 

[Jared1048]

Mine just snapped in the middle also. It looks like I can just undo the bolts just aft of the batteries and it just pulls right off the bottom. Like you said. Looks like no big deal. Found the strut on here for $300.

Called a local shop and they want to charge me 10-12 hours labor (@90$/hr). I'm temped to try and remove the old prop shaft and strut and do as much as I can by myself. I dont trust these shops very much.

 

[Allan12210]

Jared,

Replacing a strut yourself isn't that difficult. You just have to take your time to get the alignment right. Here is a link to how I did mine that may help.

http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=670097#post670097

Sometimes it makes good sense to DIY as you learn more about your boat and you can avoid the sharks. Remember not all of them swim in the water.

Good luck.

Allan

 

[Papa Bruce]

i agree

with Allen. The complicated part is the shaft alignment. I'd read up on how to do that but good guidance might be required. Again, it took my guys about 3 hours to get that part done perfectly.

 

[Jared1048]

So i'm going to take the boat out and put it on the hard and see how much of the job i can do. I think I can remove the shaft, stuffing box and broken strut off the boat then have them do the rest.

I'm going to upgrade to a dripless packing while the drive train is being worked on.

Thanks for the quick replied guys!