Re: Broke lower fin
Several years ago my sister let her boyfriend 's dad take control of our SeaRay I/O at speed in a narrow river with a rock shoreline. Needless to say, I wasn't on board this particular trip...
He swung a little wide on one bend and tried to correct by turning even sharper. He didn't realize that when you steer a boat's bow away from something, you put its stern closer to it...
Anyway, nauseating grinding sounds ensued and the damage was a shredded prop and snapped skeg.
The marina we were dealing with at the time removed the lower end of the outdrive and sent it out to be exchanged for one with a rewelded skeg. Cost sis's BF about $500 as I recall...
That's probably a whole lot more than a skeg guard. One thing I would definietly get checked is the propeller shaft to make sure it isn't bend. As for the skeg being a critical asap fix kind of thing, I'm not sure. It does provide your boat with directional stability but being 50% gone may not even be noticable. It'd still plan on getting a least a skeg guard on there fairly soon.
