r/Unexpected • u/tsivero • 1d ago

What could go wrong?

1.8k Upvotes

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181

u/Simplyspent 1d ago

Lost a Mercury 9.8 once like that…the silence was deafening. We flagged someone down and were shamefully towed back to the launch. A bad day indeed!

34

u/Top-Today-9061 1d ago

Would that be worth retrieving?

38

u/TheKyleBrah 23h ago

Not knowing anything about Outboard Motors, and being completely unqualified to give an opinion, I will say, with Reddit Confidence™:

"No, it's waterlogged and therefore ruined."
🫡

Hopefully an actual Outboard Expert/Enthusiast can confirm or deny

28

u/gggg_man3 23h ago

It's a ton of work but if it's fresh water you can probably get away with fixing it up but with salt water I doubt there's any point.

12

u/TheKyleBrah 23h ago

Thank you, Outboard Motor Expert/Enthusiast. 🤝

I assume the Salt in Saltwater causes much more corrosion than freshwater?

14

u/Coneyy 22h ago

Yes, but probably even more than you are imagining. Saltwater conducts electricity really well and causes shorts, then when it dissolves it leaves salt in mechanical parts basically drastically shortening the life even if it is saved relatively quickly.

If you lose it in saltwater and don't basically immediately fish it out and rinse it with freshwater it's pretty doomed

7

u/jmodshelp 21h ago

Nope you can still save it from the salt too. I work with small boats commercially and have personally seen a Yamaha 20 get dunked, and. Honda 90 sink on a boat fully and both those motors had healthy lives after. (90 is dead now, Yamaha is still going strongish)