Diesels at idle; risky?

[diver dave]

Nothing really....thats why they sell things called drivesavers.

I ran with drivesavers for quite a few years. Although composed of hard polyurethane, any bit of give will be welcome to the tranny gearing. Still, I had no illusions of those things disintegrating with a coral/rock hit, though. They did result in a smooth drivetrain too.

 

[psneeld]

I believe they were designed to be sacrificial....and absob a little vibration...but not really tske a good hit and keep on going.

 

[Wxx3]

We wrapped a line around the shaft on our sailboat that killed the engine. Shaft, mounts, strut, transmison we’re all good. The cutless bearing was toast though. It broke the nitral loose from the navel brass. A new cutless bearing and we were good to go. We probably motored for 20 hours with no issues other than low rpms we had a little vibration till we could get to a yard to haul out.

I've done the same with our Kadey Krogen. No problems whatsoever.
Other than getting the line off