Volvo forward drive vs v drive - prop damage

[ccondo]

We currently have a 2015 cobalt r5 wss surf. I love the boat but for those of you not familiar it is an in/outboard with the prop facing forward and the boat is pulled through the water.

The bad thing is we just completed $10,000 in repairs due to hitting something in the water. Something hit the prop and we had to replace the entire lower assembly.

Because of this we are looking at v drive boats and are specifically looking at a r23e.

Has anyone hit anything or knocked off a prop? Or can you speak to the likelihood or estimated cost? Would it just knock off the prop and possibly bend the shaft?

[bsreid]

You gotta literally run aground to mess up your shaft. The prop on the other hand can be totaled pretty easily but that’s 500 bucks. Also with a vdrive you have a much shallower draft and a better surf wave

[ccondo]

Someone told me that on a v drive it was possible to knock off the prop, break the shaft and the boat could take on water and sink? How likely would that be?

[bsreid]

The thing with the prop unlike the a Volvo leg is that the prop is going to absorb most of the damage by bending blades in half as it’s the biggest thing back there. I don’t think you have to worry about bending the shaft more getting it out of alignment. If you were to do something really bad and be plain stupid then yea of course you could sink it but that could happen on any boat.

[freeheel4life]

Only a very hard run aground gets into the 10k range in my experience and most of that is fiberglass repair, though running gears not cheap either.
Downfall to the forward drive is (as mentioned) dual stainless props. Stainless props win the battle and take out the drive shaft, carrier bearings, gears in the lower on a bad strike.
Depending on the strike in a vdrive a lot of times the prop is damaged but can be repaired for a few hundred bucks.

I haven't surfed a Cobalt, but have seen a 1900 and 2300 Regal surf, and an R23 wave is far and away better.

[007]

I tagged a submerged tree at 30+ mph. Bent strut, destroyed the prop, had to torch the shaft off and then the transmission had to be removed in order to complete fiberglass repairs due to the prop strike on the hull. I don't have the quote in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the insurance claim was about $3,600.

Submerged objects are a great reason for insurance. Smart operator skills can't eliminate all risk. Can you sink a boat, sure...you can sink almost any boat when colliding with an underwater object if its bad enough.