Be extra careful guys and girls

[ricky_s]

I got a rope around my prop on my old boat a few years ago. One of the people on my boat panicked and started being sick with her husband panicking too!

Took me ages to realise the rope led back to one of my bow cleats!

 

[nicks]

Western Solent and cross channel so far.

same place as the illegal bloody lobster pots !

 

[Tranona]

Surprised so few have mentioned that the solution to many of the problems here is a proper rope cutter which can be fitted to most shaft drives. They have been on the market for many years and saved many people the danger, inconvenience and costs as described here.

 

[colingr]

I got a rope around my prop on my old boat a few years ago. One of the people on my boat panicked and started being sick with her husband panicking too!

Took me ages to realise the rope led back to one of my bow cleats!

That's why I always make sure bow lines are shorter than the boat. Not that I've ever wrapped one round a prop, just seen it done. Honest.

 

[colingr]

Out on Sunday we spotted the usual culprits off Calshot plus some badly marked (black flag and buoy) makers off Hill Head.

 

[gjgm]

That's recently happened to some friends in their F37. 5 miles into Lyme bay, the starboard engine suddenly stopped, presumably after picking up something around the prop and the boat went hard to starboard. The damage is incredible, all the engine mountings were bent and twisted, the gearbox shattered and punched through the casing, and the repair bills are going skyward - £8K+ at the last count.

Is the boat still stuck in Weymouth?

 

[ricky_s]

That's why I always make sure bow lines are shorter than the boat.

I learnt that lesson on that day.

 

[tico]

Yup, picked up 2 lots of net so far this year. The first one wasnt too bad, just stopped in a convenient bay, lifted the leg and untangled it, no damage done.
The second wasn't so nice. Anchored up and tried to cut it off with the trusty breadknife (serrated, much better than a plain blade) and before long realised that it included heavy wire, about 1-2mm thick. Had to remove the props to clear it and resulted in chnks out of the blades. Rope cutters wouldnt have dealt with it.

One reason why i keep the diving equipment on board, as well as for fouled anchors, but thats another story!

 

[nicho]

Is the boat still stuck in Weymouth?

It was a few days ago, unless it's back on B Pontoon at Hythe.... We were moored beside it when we visited Weymouth 10 days ago. The engineers were really struggling to get to the starboard engines' forward starboard engine mount (if that makes sense!?) and were looking at getting to it through the second cabin wall. A new gearbox was also being fitted, and they were about to check underwater fittings too.

Most unfortunate, but hoepfully the insurers are picking up the bill.

 

[powerskipper]

I do

It's only happened once to me back in October '06, and powerskipper may remember this as she was with me, taking my new to me 305 on its first passage from Puerto Solente to Sovereign Harbour we picked up some netting round the starboard drive whilst waiting to lock in after a successful run. It more or less locked the drive solid but luckily no resulting damage to the drive, probably because we were just holding position at tickover. Had it happened in my previous single engined boat we'd have been blown onto the concrete revetment within a minute or two....

Some weeks later I came across a field of pot/long line(?) markers off Hastings where the idiot fisherman had seemingly used floating polypropylene between them. I saw the the rope before hitting it, so it just hooked under the outdrive and was easily freed. The damage was restricted the the nearest markers which disintegrated under the force of trying to stop five tons of boat traveling at 20+ knots. Shame. There must've been 20 or so markers connected in this way over quite some area.

I Do, so glad it happened at the end and not the beginning of the trip.

 

[Neil_Y]

The damage is usually caused by the debris wrapping between prop and bearing carrier whether P bracket or stern tube, what this does is try to pull the shaft aft.

In practice and we have seen this more than once, the weak link on a vessel with a few hundred Hp is the gearbox to engine mounting. Fishing boats suffer worse damage as they have more torque. It is quite common for a gearbox to seperate from the engine, one case brought o our attention this year was a fishing vessel where the gearbox was pulled off and it was then dragged back through the inboard steering gear before it stopped.

So check for damage as a result of this type of load, P bracket bent forewards, coupling stressed/pulled apart, engine mounts still fixed to boat and engine.

 

[Bandit]

There is a fair ammount of **** around here, floating ropes, fishing nets, crab pot lines some times submerged in strong tideways and general floating rubbish. I passed a submerged rigid plastic dinghy and a pallet last week both of which could ruin your day at sea.

Plastic bags are of specific danger to outboard and outdrive boats as they can quickly cause an over heat.

I have twin diesels and rope cutters I have chopped up unseen pot markers and lines and floating small rope you certainly know when they are working they make a hell of a noise.

In my old boat with no keel, I picked up a floating cheap woven tarpaulin one stopped both engines, middle of nowhere and not land or a boat in site, eventually fired up and freed one engine, starb and turned to nearest port to south and proceeded with starb engine only, strong sw chop pushing the bow to port, i could only effectively turn about 5 degrees to starb and on several occasions my bow was knocked to port by the sewll and i had to turn 350deg to port to resume my course. Result a wheelie bin of tarpaulin from my port prop, bent propeller and shaft.

Rope cutters wont cut everything we sometimes see 40mm rope no doubt from fishing boats these tend to shear off the cutters.

Without cutters you sometimes see rope jamming and melting between the p bracket and the prop, starving the cutless bearing of water flow causing the cutless bearing to fail.

In bad cases i have seen netting or rope winding around both props and pulling the shafts toward each other.

After removal of debris preferably out of the water where you can have a good long look at it inspect each prop blade carefully, see if a blade has changed pitch or been back, make sure the prop and shaft turn easily, inspect for movement back from the p bracket and inspect what you can see of the cutless bearing, inspect the shaft and rope cutter if fitted.

 

[ChrisKaye]

Some more pics, this time underwater. What do you think, any damage done ?
I am going to get the engineer to come out with me (in the next few weeks) to check internally if any probs and then a sea trial to see if any vibration etc..

Just one thing to add. If anyone needs a diver then I would recommend MMC Divers on 07966 579965 were brilliant, they were there the next morning at 8.30am

 

[Solitaire]

Some more pics, this time underwater. What do you think, any damage done ?
I am going to get the engineer to come out with me (in the next few weeks) to check internally if any probs and then a sea trial to see if any vibration etc..

Just one thing to add. If anyone needs a diver then I would recommend MMC Divers on 07966 579965 were brilliant, they were there the next morning at 8.30am

I had the same bunch out to me. Very quick - picked up this lot on way back from Newtown Creek. Stopped the boat off Gurnard and was on the way in less than an hour from making call to Seastart.

 

[ChrisKaye]

Hi Dave, you've got nicer coloured rope than I got but I think mines better quality

 

[Solitaire]

Hi Dave, you've got nicer coloured rope than I got but I think mines better quality

But Chris never mind the quality feel the width! It was interesting that the dive guys had been doing several boats that weekend. In fact when I rang Seastart on another matter - no not a break down - they said that the weekend of 17th-18th was a nightmare for picking up ****.

 

[crazy4557]

I'm off on holiday from Southampton to Salford and then onto Channel Islands from this weekend for a couple of weeks, but I don't have rope cutters so have joined Sea Start today and hoping for the best!!!!

If I do get caught out I bet it'll be out of Sea Start's range ...that's called sod's law!

 

[strakeryrius]

I picked up a 6ft length of green polypropylene rope around the starboard props off Hengistbury Head on the way home from the Mercury Meet last year.

We were doing 28 knots, idyllic day, and suddenly bang and we came to dead stop in 2-3 seconds throwing us all forward. Managed to get the rope off with drives raised and trusty junior hacksaw and serrated boat knife, but on throttling up there was nothing from the starboard drive except lots of black smoke.

Limped back to CQ at 7 knots on one engine, and it was subsequently revealed that the drive shaft had sheared right in two, with torsional stretch marks clearly visible. They gave me the bit as a souvenir - the straight-through internal splines look like the rifling of a gun where the whole thing has twisted under the strain.

One new drive shaft and gearbox rebuild and we were back in the water.

Only 6 weeks later we hit something massive floating just under the surface off Kimmeridge - never saw what it was but I suspect that it was a container or similar lost overboard off a ship. That completely destroyed the starboard drive, gearbox and all, as well as mangling the port drive too - not a scratch on the hull weirdly. The total bill was over £13K - thank god for insurance!

 

[Richie]

That completely destroyed the starboard drive, gearbox and all, as well as mangling the port drive too - not a scratch on the hull weirdly. The total bill was over £13K - thank god for insurance!

Holy ****, best time to check the small print in the insurance. Wouldn't want to be coughing up that kind of dough if there's that much **** floating about!