Diving gear for cutting nets/ rope off props

[bluetooth]

What do folks carry onboard?

I'm thinking an old bike helmet [as I tend to head butt things do DIY], a cheap diving knife and shealth with hand rope and some 2nd hand diving weights.

Any experiences gratefully received. I've a long south coast cruise planned and planing for the worst. In 20 yrs I've been lucky so far

TIA

 

[julians]

The bike helmet sounds like it will be more hassle than it's worth, due to the fact that they're made from foam and will want to float. Try it out in calm water without the pressure of having to remove a stuck rope first before using it for real.

Are you thinking about just diving in without a scuba tankand wetsuit (no tank or wetsuit is what I would do for a smallish boat) , if so then I wouldn't be using dive weights either, I think they're a recipe for disaster if your not experienced and don't have tanks and a wetsuit with buoyancy to overcome.

Maybe some fins might be useful?

 

[harvey38]

A 5 litre pony, simple reg. set up and a mask.

 

[bluetooth]

The bike helmet sounds like it will be more hassle than it's worth, due to the fact that they're made from foam and will want to float. Try it out in calm water without the pressure of having to remove a stuck rope first before using it for real.

Are you thinking about just diving in without a scuba tankand wetsuit (no tank or wetsuit is what I would do for a smallish boat) , if so then I wouldn't be using dive weights either, I think they're a recipe for disaster if your not experienced and don't have tanks and a wetsuit with buoyancy to overcome.

Maybe some fins might be useful?

I routinely clean the waterline in the summer months and am always whacking my head on bathing platform when doing the legs. Hence a helmet, was thinking plastic only, and some weights to keep me down as I always float up.

Having never had to cut anything free I'm trying to imagine what's needed. I'm a pretty good swimmer and can see underwater without googles although have them if needed.

I think I'm wise trying to have a plan just in case

I use suction cups when doing the sides of the boat but these would be too intricate for the stern.

 

[Den100]

I carry a pony bottle wetsuit mask fins etc. I am an experienced diver but would only go under the boat in certain conditions, I managed to pick up a net over the easter weekend in the Solent, got back to the marina on one engine but with the vis and tide there was no way i was going under to deal with it myself but the marina were excellent and lifted me on Sunday.

 

[bluetooth]

I carry a pony bottle wetsuit mask fins etc. I am an experienced diver but would only go under the boat in certain conditions, I managed to pick up a net over the easter weekend in the Solent, got back to the marina on one engine but with the vis and tide there was no way i was going under to deal with it myself but the marina were excellent and lifted me on Sunday.
View attachment 174940

Suppose with outdrives might be easier. Granted weather conditions need to be benign.

Those pony tanks look fun. I tried to buy one a few years ago but was a 50£ scam. Just looked online and seen them again. Could you recommend one? I enjoy underwater swimming so to use for a few mins would be great. Appreciate there are scuba training issues but I'm only asking for 2-3 minutes use.
TIA

 

[tico]

Serrated Bread knife or hacksaw excellent for cutting rope - better than a smooth knife.

 

[Den100]

My pony bottle is a 3ltr that you would carry as an emergency back up on the side of your main tank I use one of my regulators and a very basic tank back pack, personally I don't like the 'spare air' type bottles with the tank and reg as one unit but can see they would be ok for 2-3 minutes use, I would suggest visiting a local dive store for their advice on what's best.

 

[julians]

Your thread title about diving gear made me think you'd be needing to be underwater for a while, but if we're just talking about an out drive boat where the drives can be raised, or not raised but are still quite shallow, then I'd just carry a mask and snorkel and serrated blade for cutting ropes, plus wetsuit if the water is cold.

 

[bedouin]

If you must go for a helmet then go for one designed for watersports - I don't think a bike helmet would be useful. I would probably go for a full face snorkel mask.

If you aren't an experienced scuba diver I would have thought trying to rig up a set up with tank and regulator would be both difficult and potentially dangerous.

 

[bluetooth]

Your thread title about diving gear made me think you'd be needing to be underwater for a while, but if we're just talking about an out drive boat where the drives can be raised, or not raised but are still quite shallow, then I'd just carry a mask and snorkel and serrated blade for cutting ropes, plus wetsuit if the water is cold.

I'm not sure if I got tangled around twin drives then whether lifting might cause damage. Thinking assessing in water might be easy first step?

 

[julians]

I'm not sure if I got tangled around twin drives then whether lifting might cause damage. Thinking assessing in water might be easy first step?

Maybe, I'd expect to need to get into the water regardless, but with drives up or down a snornel and mask should be all that's needed?

I've had a rope wrapped round a duoprop drive that was an absolute sodto remove, because it had gone round each prop and was tight against each prop. That one damaged the drive.

 

[Portofino]

Serrated Bread knife or hacksaw excellent for cutting rope - better than a smooth knife.

Yep it’s what I carry and have experienced using .
Also have a mini dive bottle ( 20 mins ) + regulator .

Once in St Tropez we arrived mid May on spec , so not so busy and via radio directed us to a visiting pontoon .Stern to .
A few boats but about 2/3 rd full .Fairly inexperience crew we berthed stern to .
One bow line .One boat to stb , a space to port .

Next day when we left and the bow guy untied the bow line and dropped it as we set off it tangled in one of the props .
It was as it turned out diagonally placed and didn’t drop properly so ended up snagged up .

As it wound up the tightness at slow speed started to steer the boat .
Cut a long story short I re parked the boat and immediately changed into swim wear grabbed the bread knife and saw , plus snorkel and carefully cut the rope off bit by bit .Gets pretty tight you have to saw it in sections .No amount of blind R thrust freed it up BTW .Probably double wound it ? Talking shaft drive here .^


With a stern drive bombing along and one engine revs drops , super charger kicks in , boost is lost speed drops .
Again warm Med , August this time .So limp into a shallow sandy bottom bay anchor up .Jump in snorkel on
On examination a piece of that black bailer band builder use to wrap blocks of bricks was tightly jammed in between the two props one one leg .Some how gotten edge on in between down that 1- 2 mm distance / crack and pretty much ceased up solid.

The fix was to remove the outer prop in situ in the water to gain access .Had the VP manual and very carefully watched form shims / washers etc after removing the spinner .You need the correct VP tools too .
Then once the outer prop was off used the saw + knife to cut away what was now seemingly fused plastic to the shaft .

Reassembled.= good to go .

 

[simonfraser]

wear some swimming goggles when under water, plenty of cr@p in there

 

[BobnLesley]

Based on actual experience:
As suggested by julian, bike helmets are lined with foam and want to float, so in calm waters they are 'more hassle than they're worth'. That said, the water doesn't need to be much beyond 'glass-flat' before that aggravation is offset by the protection they provide; we carried an old bicycle helmet halfway around the world and utilised it several times (not always on our own boat) including mid-ocean on a couple of occasions and if I set-off again, I'd be shipping another one.
The 'trick' is not to fight the helmet's floatation, just allow your helmet-clad head to press against the underside of the hull; that's the best place for your head to be anyway as it doesn't allow the hull to build-up much momentum before it hits you - think like a boxer...
I'd also draw your attention to tico's post: Forget about that razor-sharp, whizz-bang knife you bought at great expense from the Chandlery/Boat Show; instead, use a cheap and cheerful, coarse-toothed, bread knife with a hole drilled through the handle and a rope lanyard threaded through it.
If you're really lucky, you'll never need either.

 

[Gustywinds]

Just stumbled on this thread and I thought I'd throw in my 2 penneth in based on experience in a completely different environment. As Bob said above, you want a lanyard hole and, as many have said you want a serrated blade, You also want to minimise the risk of stabbing yourself and it is often very good to be able to pull on the cutter as well as slice, so you have some leverage.
Thats what these things are designed for https://www.force4.co.uk/item/Force-4/Rescue-Knife-with-Locking-Hooked-Blade/
A similar thing is a hunters knife with a gutting hook but that are a bit more dangerous in the self injury sense

 

[bluetooth]

Just stumbled on this thread and I thought I'd throw in my 2 penneth in based on experience in a completely different environment. As Bob said above, you want a lanyard hole and, as many have said you want a serrated blade, You also want to minimise the risk of stabbing yourself and it is often very good to be able to pull on the cutter as well as slice, so you have some leverage.
Thats what these things are designed for https://www.force4.co.uk/item/Force-4/Rescue-Knife-with-Locking-Hooked-Blade/
A similar thing is a hunters knife with a gutting hook but that are a bit more dangerous in the self injury sense

That's great link reference. Agree safer than a breadknife which I hadn't yet bought

 

[Alicatt]

My diving knife has a replaceable serrated blade on one side and a rasp like blade on the other side, the point is a chisel shaped blunt plastic like material, and strapped to my arm I kept a small Kitchen Devil knife that also had a scalloped blade it was razor sharp and useful to cut monofilament nets which did happen occasionally while diving.

Our biggest problem here on the side canals is the weed catching on the keel and the saildrive, 99.9% of the time it requires a touch of astern to free the boat and then move forward again, it's not always possible to avoid the patches of weed and it can add a lot of time to the journey