Bent prop, tower and swamp the boat great first run of season

Went out to Apache Lake for the first run of the season even though there was a winter storm advisory for sunday. We had a great time Friday night on the water but saturday was a different story . First while we were doing some surfing i didnt see a wave in front of the boat . So we had about half of foot of water crash over the bow and soak every one up front. Oh yeah it was only 60 degrees out side when this happen. Then it was time to load the boat for the evening and i was squaring the boat up to load it on the trailer when there was a vibration and the motor stalled . It turned out someone forgot a rope that was hooked on the back of the boat and went in to the prop:-x. Now we had to have a my buddy tow me to the trailer so we could load the boat by hand . After closer inspection we found that two of the 4 blades were bent from the rope. Now sunday driving in the snow back home on the dirt road i lost one screw that held the bimini then about 10 mintues later i lost the black screw that holds the tower together . It was a great way to start the year of for my 2006 21V

Here is my question how do you know if your shaft got bent? and how freely should the prop turn by hand.


Attachment 9049

The prop is easy to rotate by hand if the cutlass bearing is wet (rubber or vesconite bearings in the strut holding the shaft), it can be stiff if they are dry. To check if the shaft is bent , check the alignment, it should be the same regardless of shaft position. Here are instructions
http://www.moomba.com/msgboard/showt...intenance-Item

Thanks I will check it out tomorrow when I pull the bent prop off.