fishing net

[OldBawley]

Yesterday a yacht came searching for an anchoring spot, made some turns around our anchored boat and then anchored a bit closer to the shore.
I could see the guy had problems, maybe the towing line of his dinghy in his prop, so I went in our dinghy and rowed over to help.
By the time I arrived he had lifted his anchor again and was fiddling with a boat hook at the back of his boat. I know the bottom there well, sometimes go looking for octopus so I warned the guy that he was very close to a underwater wall / quay.
He had a fishing net in his prop and was a bit frantic. The water was not deeper than 1,6 m he said, and asked “ why do they put a net in such shallow water “
I asked for a knife and from our dinghy pulled the net up and cut it. Once free he anchored more east, we could see the starting buoy of the net so he went east of it.

I never had a net in our prop, probably because our boat has a long keel and we simply slide over nets and such. He must have picked the net up pulling his anchor in.

Now my question, who do you think should pay for the cut net ( takes about 10 minutes to knit it back together ) and what would happen if you get into the rocks because of a fouled prop ?
Who would pay ?

 

[Resolution]

The fishing industry seems to get away with a lot less regulation than many on-shore business activities. Yesterday we were discussing plastic waste with our relatives who live in the Shetlands. They take part in organised beach clean-ups three or four times a year and estimate that well over half of the waste that they collect has come from fishing boats. Lots of polyester type line, lots of bits of expended poly what not.

 

[sailaboutvic]

To answer your question , unless the net is marked in a way that is noticeable I wouldn't be paying out of my pocket if I had to cut to save my boat .

Re ended up on the shore I guess it be an insurance job .

We forever coming across pots and nets marked with black or blue plastic bottles , almost impossible to see until your on top of them and in any sea you won't see them at all ,
We once got caught on a net that was laid in a anchorage while us and other were there , the guy laid it around all the boat with the intention of coming back in the morning to collect his catch , not taken in account that some may want to leave early in the morning or that something may happen that a boat have to move ,
I spend 20 mins diving up and down to cut away at the net t 6am , just as I finish another guy came over to say he sew the guy laid the net at 2130 all around the anchorage.

 

[Sea Devil]

Heading for Tunisia in a flat calm, a couple of hours before dawn, I ran into a tunny net which I thought was a couple of miles further off!

Despite it being suspended by large plastic floats a couple about 3 ft in diameter I only saw it at the last moment and put the boat into astern but my faithful Angus Primrose 36 road up between two of them and secured herself on the wire line between the fin and the skeg.....

Couldn´t push the wired down as the buoys were too buoyant so inflated the dingy donned mask and snorkel and proceeded to cut off 3 bouys on either side of the boat which I tied carefully together to the furthest attached buoy so the tuna fisherman could replace them.

Pushed the wire down and got her off. It was a flat calm but on the next lift out I was interested to note the wire cable had rubbed a 50mm depression in the GRP between fin and skeg.... If there had been any ´weather´´ the wire could have holed us!

Felt guilty for cutting off the expensive support buoys but the fact I did leave them attached to the wire for replacement made me feel it was an incident not worth mentioning when we made landfall in Tunisia

 

[RichardS]

It was a flat calm but on the next lift out I was interested to note the wire cable had rubbed a 50mm depression in the GRP between fin and skeg.... If there had been any ´weather´´ the wire could have holed us!

Is that a 2 inch deep groove in the GRP?

Richard

 

[Sea Devil]

Is that a 2 inch deep groove in the GRP?

Richard

Ooops sorry should have written 5mm . It was an apparent groove in the gel coat but not into the fibres... That was with the boat just sitting on the wire. Virtually no swell... The calm conditions made cutting off the buoys really easy - along with a sharp knife...

 

[OldBawley]

While wintering in Turkey, we never went into marina´s, we anchored in bays. We had a cat on board, I started fishing for her food. Pet food was non existing back then in Turkey. Lots of fish over there, we started eating our cats fish.
She did not like that so I bought 50 meter of standing net and learned how to use it.
Only 50 meter long, more work than you think but as many fish we could eat.
No other yachts around, sometimes shallow water was ideal to catch the good fish.
No boat ever went into my net, but one time a monk seal did a lot of damage.
We are now in Greece, I still have my net, don't use it. Not sure if the fishermen would appreciate me using a net.