Over many years I have spun a hub 3 times. I sometimes get the prop down on sand or mud (never seagrass), and have been able to limp back to the ramp at low speed. Once it happened about 9 miles offshore due to hitting a sand bar a day before, and it just took a while to manifest itself. It was a long ride back, but I could run enough power to negotiate the waves. I don't have room for a spare prop in my 15 ft. Boston Whaler, but I have Sea Tow and a cell phone and hand held VHF marine radio. If the VHF won't reach shore I can always get a relay or maybe a tow, from another boat.

The trick is to recognize the issue before it spins completely, and go to idle speed straight away, bite the bullet, and take your sweet time going back. Don't keep trying to rev it up, it won't heal itself.

A couple of years ago my buddies and I took our SoloSkiffs down to the lower Keys for a week. We had been fishing water temps in the 90s here in Texas. The flats we fished down there were averaging 84 degrees. There were some pretty big sargasso mats to deal with. Jay ran through some of them. I spent much of my youth down there, and I avoid them like the plague. We both spun our hubs right off the bat, and I also spun the hub on my backup prop the same day. I never hit bottom with it. Anyway, we were calling around looking for someone to rehub them, and whoever Jay had on the he phone was telling him that the water in Florida is a lot hotter than the water in Texas, and the heat was the cause of our spun hubs. Funny stuff……. Incidentally, we never did figure it out; the sargasso might have been a factor for Jay’s prop, but it wasn’t a factor on either of mine. And neither of us has spun a hub here at home yet.

if its a pressed in hub your only option is to carry a spare prop.

Never spunt one!