Propeller Recovered!

After starting the 2008 ABRA Unlimited Hydroplane season with major boat damage suffered in Evansville due to a thrown prop blade, and enduring exactly the same fate in the Lamb Weston Columbia Cup in Kennewick, the U-13 Graham Trucking/Spirit of Detroit team thought things couldn’t get much worse in Seattle for the 2008 Chevrolet Cup at Seafair. With only one prop that was newly purchased to replace the one destroyed in Evansville (having just two heats total time on it), and no spares to help fine-tune the green and yellow hydroplane, the unthinkable happened yet again in a Friday test, when after running only two laps, the propeller shaft sheared as J. Michael Kelly exited turn one, tossing the team’s only remaining race-ready “wheel” into the murky depths of Lake Washington.

With the boat’s on-board computer out of commission at the time, the GPS data that would normally have been collected (and would have pinpointed the spot on the water where the break occurred) was unavailable.. With few options left to verify the location of the U-13 when the shaft broke, the team had only one way to find the $11,000 propeller – studying the video from two on-board cameras that recorded the run from the cockpit and tail of the boat. The ChaseCam system provided broadcast quality video from two different angles the team could examine, but speeds at that point of the lap neared 150mph, leaving a huge potential area to search if there was to be any hope in recovering this most important piece of the hydroplane.

On race day, before any boats took to the water, U-13 Electronics/Camera specialist Walt Ottenad and Seafair Dive Boss Kathy Sears motored to the general vicinity on the lake where the shaft left the boat, comparing the view from the video with the view on the lake, finally settling on the most likely spot and logging GPS coordinates for a future attempt at recovery. After the event was over, numerous calls to dive shops and dive schools were made to arrange the recovery effort, but all were very reluctant to even try the attempt. In the end, the right man for job turned out to be the one that had the most intimate knowledge of the event and the course.

Enter Alan Buchanan, a member of the Seafair dive team, and one of the divers responsible for setup and removal of the markers and buoys that make up the Seafair racecourse and Log Boom. A long-time diver and volunteer at Seafair, Buchanan had plenty of practice finding lost hydroplane parts in Lake Washington, having previously spent two years searching for a ‘Miss Budweiser’ propeller, finally finding it hundreds of yards from the initial search area. With years of diving experience in the lake, he was the most logical choice to lead the search, provided he would accept the challenge.

Dave Bartush, the owner of the Spirit of Detroit, contacted Buchanan with a plea for help in finding the lost prop, and added an almost impossible demand: “find it before we leave for the San Diego Bayfair race on Sept. 20th”. In accepting the request, Alan’s plan of attack was to make a methodical search of the bottom of Lake Washington starting at the coordinates provided by the team and working a search pattern in the direction of travel of the hydro. Complicating the search was the fact that the lake bottom at that location was over 115 feet deep and visibility was notoriously bad – usually no more than six to ten feet. Adding the condition of the bottom – mud up to 18 inches thick, the lack of current to clear any silt generated by the divers, and bone-chillingly cold water, this was a trial akin to finding a very small needle in a very large, watery, cold and dark haystack!

The search started on Saturday, August 30 with Buchanan and dive partners Andrew Fiack and Rob Holman diving into the lake to find conditions even worse than they expected. Dropping to the bottom, visibility proved to be less than four feet, meaning that to make any coordinated search, the divers had to stay literally within arm’s length of each other so as not to get lost and stay more than six feet off the bottom so as not to raise any silt that might take weeks to clear! A ten minute first dive yielded no results, and a second dive came up empty as well. The third and last dive only added to the frustration as Buchanan’s drysuit sprung a leak, filling it with 40 degree water and ending the dive. The day was a total bust, as the area that was able to be searched was only a small fraction of the total that needed to be scoured if there was to be any hope of finding the prop.

The following weekend’s second attempt got off to a somewhat better start. The search method was modified slightly to incorporate three divers on a line stretched 20 feet from a central anchor, and the search area was moved further northeast to a region that featured a shale/clay bottom with very little mud. The first dive of the day ended with the same results – extremely poor visibility, bone-chilling cold and no prop. After a rest on the surface to decompress and plan the second dive, Buchanan and team dropped the second marker and descended to the bottom at 99 feet, where, in an incredible stroke of luck, within 3 feet of the drop, sat the prop and shaft from the U-13, looking like a deadly flower sticking out of the bottom! The entire assembly had traveled approximately 60-80 feet from where it parted the hydro, and with the prop still turning at almost 10,000 rpm when the shaft snapped, carried enough momentum and force to act like a huge lawn dart and embed itself into the bottom. Even more amazing, the brand new prop had not been touched in the whole episode and looked none the worse for wear!

Like the proverbial Sword in the Stone, the broken propeller shaft had been thrust almost a foot into the bottom, and even with all three divers struggling to pull it free, it refused to budge. Without enough lift in their recovery equipment to attempt to pull it straight out, and due to the danger involved in trying to pull the razor sharp prop out by hand, the divers were left to wiggling it back and forth to try and loosen the grip the lake bottom held on the shaft. Finally, after almost 15 minutes of effort, it was freed and 180 lbs. of lift brought the assembly to the surface. Closer inspection of the prop revealed only one extremely minor nick and three small scratches to one blade. The propeller shaft told the story of its demise: a minute nick started a fracture that led to the total failure of the 2” solid steel shaft, a break so clean it looked as though it had been cut in half with a laser! While the shaft was a total loss, the propeller was almost pristine and will be able to run again with only very minor touch-up. After hearing of the successful recovery, Dave Bartush called Alan to congratulate him on the find.

The entire U-13 crew wants to extend a huge “THANK YOU” to Alan Buchanan, Rob Holman and Andrew Fiack for their determination, expertise and sense of adventure. What could have taken many years of searching was accomplished in two weekends, giving the Graham Trucking/Spirit of Detroit their best propeller back for the season finale in San Diego. It will become the primary propeller used in the Mission Bay event. Thanks also go to Seafair Dive Boss Kathy Sears for her help in pinpointing the search area. We also would like to thank Randy Chase, maker of the ChaseCam Onboard Video System, San Diego, CA. Without his outstanding hardware the recovery of the prop would not have been possible. The U-13 team welcomes him as our guest at Bayfair in San Diego.