I was coming into my slip this past weekend and found I did not have reverse (or so I thought) once I was tied up I put the out drive in reverse and walked aft....to see it bouncing out of the water. As a short term fix, I used 5/16 ss cable and a small turnbuckle to secure it in the down position. The drive cog (gear) had broken off and as it is under the water I will fix when I haul out next time. On the other hand, I really don't need to out drive to be adjustable. Are there any trid and true methods to secure the outdrive in the down position?

The only problem is if you hit something the drive won't kick up and you could do a lot of damage to drive/transom. If just the gear is broke you could problably find one in an old boat boneyard. I suppose you could "engineer" something that would fail on impact so you minimize impact damage.