I was running Lake Allatoona Saturday morning moving to another fishing area and encountered a sizeable wake from another boat. I had my '91 Evindurde 150 HP motor trimmed up to get the hull out of the water and reduce drag when I crossed the wake. I crossed it at and angle so as to reduce the pounding on the boat and when the boat rocked to the side my prop cavitated and the rpms went way up. I throttled back immediately and the engine died. It wouldn't turn over the first two tries and did on the third. It sounded like it was dragging so I immediately cut it off and used my trolling motor to get to the ramp. My mechanic looked at the motor, found metal on a spark plug, and turned it over once to listen. My power head is now on the way to a machine shop to be torn down and evaluated.

After telling my wife about the incident, I decided fishing was still cheaper than golf or gambling (not that I would ever do either). I love the water and will continue to fish. I am not totally boatless as I have my Orlando Clipper with an electric motor on each end and can fish a couple of smaller lakes around here 'til my Stratos is running again.

Has anyone else ever lost an engine due to cavitation caused high rpms?

I'll not say it was the high RPM's, the age of the outboard or just coincidence but I've seen it happen.

Do you have any pictures of your Orlando Clipper? I like those classic boats.

Sorry to hear of your issues. Strange that the rpms would cause the metal in a cylinder no longer than you let it run. You just never know about outboards though. Tempermental beast they are. Good luck.

Do you have any pictures of your Orlando Clipper? I like those classic boats.

It has developed some chalk from sitting out in the sun and I hope to get the time soon to clean it up.  When I do, I will post some pics.  It was my dad's boat and he bought in back in the sixties and picked it up at the factory in Orlando.  It has special meaning to me because we fished out of it together.