Has anyone ever been fouled by a net or pot while sailing only?

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Thresher

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While motoring, yes of course, I've done it a few times myself.
I ask because I am thinking of cruising moroccan waters and have been told that their fishing nets are a nightmare. If I was just sailing would I pass right over them?
 
If you have a long keel then you can sail over a fishing net suspended on floats ( i did it in the dark)
If you've a fin , spade or skeg hung rudder or propellor and shaft on a p bracket then all can easily get caught up with pot marker ropes or nets.
 
Sailing a 26ft old-gaffer from Guernsey to Saltash we caught a pot marker line in our rudder south of Start Point at 02.00. Bread-knife time!

There was a bit of a slop splashing over the stern while we were attached to the pot-line. It wasn't very pleasant. :(
 
Thresher said:
While motoring, yes of course, I've done it a few times myself.
I ask because I am thinking of cruising moroccan waters and have been told that their fishing nets are a nightmare. If I was just sailing would I pass right over them?
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Has never hapend to me in 30 years but then I have a long keel and the aft part projects a little under the rudder so a line can't be caught in the gap.
 
A number of times saiing round UK & in N Britainy. Made worse by Brunton autoprop, which does not fold but snags on anything in the same way a fixed prop might. Sailing off Blakney one night, I picked up 3 in short sucession around the keel
Worse was something off the French coast between Cherbourg & Dieppe one night when the stern was held tight in 20kts of wind. I was also seasick. Autopilot had given up as usual. I could not get the sails down. Even my torch failed & I could not see a thing. I let the wrong ropes go & got in a total mess with sails & boom hanging over the side. Waves lapped over the stern. Suddenly it let go after about 20 mins
 
Yes - I got caught, anchored with a 2k tide goose winged and single handed!!
Had to drop all sails then go over the stern to free. Lifejacket and harness line over stern and use feet to push line of rudder.

STOP THINK - enter water and lifejacket will inflate!! Took lifejacket off, put on a safety harness and attached, went over bathing platform and feet reached line to push off rudder shaft and slide down rudder. Nioce weather light winds and no sea - LUCKY!

This summer on the south coast found fishermen now marking pots with Footballs ( Blue and Black) How do you spot?Crab Pots.jpg
 
Daydream believer said:
A number of times saiing round UK & in N Britainy. Made worse by Brunton autoprop, which does not fold but snags on anything in the same way a fixed prop might. Sailing off Blakney one night, I picked up 3 in short sucession around the keel
Worse was something off the French coast between Cherbourg & Dieppe one night when the stern was held tight in 20kts of wind. I was also seasick. Autopilot had given up as usual. I could not get the sails down. Even my torch failed & I could not see a thing. I let the wrong ropes go & got in a total mess with sails & boom hanging over the side. Waves lapped over the stern. Suddenly it let go after about 20 mins
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You are an honest man.

Very sobering nay downright scary to be ‘anchored’ by the stern gear with waves lapping over the stern.

I always liked the idea of an inspection tube glassed or welded over the prop with a hatch top above water level .
Totally impractical on a yacht of course but a nice idea used on waterways I believe.
 
Yes. Fin keeled Bavaria. Line between 2 markers. Wrapped around the front of the keel then down one side of the spade rudder. Fortunately just outside Poole Harbour on a peaceful Saturday afternoon. RNLI cut the rope and rejoined it to free me. Just over an hour from call to coastguard and continued on to Yarmouth. Annoying as I have sailed through that area of whelk pot fishing dozens of times and had changed course to avoid a marker, but clearly missed the other end.
 
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Caught a pot a couple of weeks ago about 15 miles north of Holyhead, so hardly in a predictable spot. It was broad daylight and we saw it and passed about 20m away however it was trailing a line and we ended up quite tethered once we spun round a couple of times with a L shaped keel. Took about an hour to get free...tolerable in the 8 knot breeze, would be much less so at night or in 20 knots. I am however now the proud new owner of a large round buoy that will do sterling service as a roving fender.
 
I also sailed a mate boat last year from holyhead to Dublin and we passed a pot at least 30m away that was trailing an enormously thick line, probably.1.5 inches, at a very shallow angle. We were 20 miles offshore at the time. It caught us but fell off after 10 seconds or so. They are a total menace.
 
Pretty much what Rappey's said, we did once hook a net on the rudder shoe but only because we were sailing at about 1.5 knots and it was easily cleared. A bigger issue we had down the Moroccan coast (Atlantic) were the fishermen's 'disco' lights; very difficult to judge how far away, where they were going or even which way they were pointing
 
Yes. Low spring tide in the Minquiers. Miles of floating polyprop line on a string of pots ended up around our spade rudder. Managed to cut line, free ourselves and rejoin line without going in the water 🤞
 
A year befor covid, I was motoring from Ostend to Ramsgate against the wind in heavy seas, at night, trying to dodge some gales, when I saw a small light ahead. I altered course to miss it & saw that it was actually a lobster pot marker.
First time I have ever seen this & it was difficult to see in the waves. But marked all the same, on a pole 3 feet clear of the water.
So a plus to someone.
 
BobnLesley said:
Pretty much what Rappey's said, we did once hook a net on the rudder shoe but only because we were sailing at about 1.5 knots and it was easily cleared. A bigger issue we had down the Moroccan coast (Atlantic) were the fishermen's 'disco' lights; very difficult to judge how far away, where they were going or even which way they were pointing
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The net got as far as the rudder shoe? Past the keel and prop. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of underwater configuration do you have?
 
Arcady said:
Yes. Low spring tide in the Minquiers. Miles of floating polyprop line on a string of pots ended up around our spade rudder. Managed to cut line, free ourselves and rejoin line without going in the water 🤞
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You rejoined their lines? That is very sporting of you. In my incident above we completely demolished the whole thing so that nobody else needs face this misery.
 
It is a good question.

I still worry, but in 18 years of full-time cruising, we haven’t ever snagged a lobster pot while sailing, so the risk must be small. We did catch a floating fishing net once in Greece that was laid across the entire entrance to anchorage :mad:, but even this only caught on our keel then rudder, so it could be freed quite easily.

I think it is mostly down to feathering or perhaps even better-folding props. We have managed to run directly over some lobster pots. One example is when we were coming into Sinclair Bay on the northeast tip of Scotland close to dusk. Nailed the pot perfectly :). It was blowing 40 knots, and with the single-digit water temperatures, I was not looking forward to swimming, but the float bounced along the hull and exited at the stern without catching anything, this experience is not unusual.

I think this one of the underrated advantages folding props.

However, I am still reluctant to sail at night in shallow water (offshore is fine) in areas where lobster/crab/fish pots abound. Maybe we are too cautious?
 
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