LongLine

50 years ago, my father told me if you put an outboard on a boat, "you better bolt it or have a safety chain on it." Well, for many years I ran on just the big engine(which is bolted) but I was having some trouble with the big engine a couple years ago so I built a fixed bracket for an older 9.8 Mercury. I took the kicker along "just in case" the beast died on me when I was 6 miles out. Well, it took a while but that problem got fixed. The bracket would only allow it to tilt when it was turned in one direction. At high speed the kicker's lower unit was completely out of the water. Last year I had a few more problems I so, needless to say, I took the extra time to put the kicker on...again, just "in case." So anyways, I'm out there and I say why not crank the little guy up and make sure it's running okay. (It's always run great in a bucket) I've never trolled with the little guy out on the open water but just for giggles, I decided to pull on it & troll. After about 1/2 hr, I go back to the big guy. After another hour, ok, time to go in. I'm making the run in from way out there and I get about 1/4 mile from the river. So being safety minded and there's a lot of boats around, I slow down fairly rapidly...too rapidly. As I'm looking behind me, I see the little guy tilting and being lifted up in the air. I had put it in neutral, it had turned, and somehow the screw clamps loosened up. The drag in the water as I slowed down pushed it upward.(Neutral locks the older mercs in the down position) The only thing holding the little guy to the boat and completely submerged under a foot of water was the safety chain. As it was, the hood came off and was slowly sinking. By the time I got it in the boat, the hood had sunk completely out of sight. Got it home & was able to revive it okay, less the hood. Took a while but finally got one on e-bay that took some patching up and about $75 in hardware. So anyways... Make sure you have a safety chain on the engine! Tom B. (LongLine) BTW, I've rebuilt the bracket to raise it up a couple more inches; allow it to be pulled up in any position and I've also used a wood bit to drill a couple shallow holes for the screw clamps to fit into. Knock on wood that this never happens again.

No matter what kind of bracket you use or what size/type kicker you have - Make sure you have a safety chain on the engine! Tom B. (LongLine)

LongLine comes from the days of taking my dad out trolling & having a line way out there. As I was driving one time, he reeled it in and at about half way said "that's a long line." Also refers to some of my answers to posts that interest me. Tom B. (LongLine)