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

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.
Watch bbc4 canal boat diary's with Robbie cullims. Forever opening the prop / weed hatch to clear the prop on his canal boat. I have heard of some sea going motor boats having a hatch as well.
 
Watch bbc4 canal boat diary's with Robbie cullims. Forever opening the prop / weed hatch to clear the prop on his canal boat. I have heard of some sea going motor boats having a hatch as well.
They are motoring, not sailing.
 
Wot. no bamboo oyster rafts?

Quite a bit more crunchy and still quite difficult to see, though in the time I've been here they;ve mostly gone LED disco. They do seem to generally be deployed in sufficient numbers to completely deny access inshore though rather than scattered.

Pehaps the mussel farming ops are comparable?
 
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Never been caught by nets or pots when sailing or motoring when I used them sail at sea.

It's noticable when walking the dog on the beach, I can see off the coast of and washed up on Norfolk the buoys the crabbers use are actually white 10 or 20 ltr oil or other liquid plastic containers..

I don't think there are any eel Fisher men left on the broads so no more eel nets, have caught a few fishermen's lines. Their fault, broads regulation 29 says they should lift their tackle and not interfere with traffic on the navigation.

What we get caught up on these days is weed, with the cleaning of the broads from sewage and farm run off the weeds and lillies now are growing everywhere. Some hire boats yards have banned the tourists from going to some places.

We cannot use the nearest broad at the moment due to weed, rafts of it..

I've had to put a pair of little fins in front of the rudder to stop weed getting in the rudder to hull tiny gap.. and the new rudder I designed a couple of years back is heavily inclined on its leading edge to wash off weed. Gone are the plans for a more efficient vertical fin rudder. I did look at a weed hatch but for my little boat , but it was easier to reach over the side with a stick.
 
cruising moroccan waters
I cruised along their coast from Asilah to Agadir, with countless buoys and at night flashing lights of all colours; I happened to be rafted next to the most important (so they said) small ship the local school uses to train young fishermen so I asked the teacher about fishing lines and buoys, he said they all sink very deep and are basically vertical. Now, there can be the odd illegal floating drifting net, but during several close encounters with buoys we have never been caught, engine on or off.
I had made a sort of cutter with two bread knives bolted together but never had to use it; when the fishing vessels are back the quays are filled with sharks, I'd think twice before going in the water.
pots.jpg
 
Yes, a couple of times. Once during a Round IOW race off Bembridge and once off the N Coast of Spain near La Corunna. Very much a nuisance.

Been up and down the coast of Morocco from Straits to Canaries quite a few times. Best for sure to get well offshore to avoid tunny nets, a myriad of fishing boats of all sizes and a zillion poorly marked pot buoys. Can be done during daylight with a good lookout but night time is best spent a good way out.

Around 18 months ago I was delivering a catamaran down that route a d we went inshore during the morning so everyone could get a phone signal, most importantly for a weather forecast. Lurking out of sight beneath the surface was one of those large woven plastic bags builders use that had blown out to sea. It introduced itself to our stbd engine prop and provided us with a couple of hours of 'entertainment'. We were motoring. And I suppose that could happen anywhere.
 
Twice. Once was a long line at one end of a net. It wrapped around the rudder. We managed to get it off. The second time was a pot line. This managed to catch our rudder. It stopped the boat and ended up wrapping around the prop as well. That one needed a knife and a trip over the side. It was blowing pretty hard with big seas, so it got a little exciting. I hate fishing pots and thing they should be banned in certain areas.
 
When I was younger, on an almost weekly basis! (High aspect ratio bulbed fin keel and 6'cased drop rudder. (Shoreham/Brighton, past Selsey and on to lake solent and back most weekends.)
But the lifting rudder saved the day. Very rarely did I have to cut gear or debris off the prop. Perhaps only once a month... :censored:
 
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.
Well, having freed the rudder I ended up with a line in each hand, so it seemed churlish not to!
 
Running west across Poole Bay, benign conditions, tide running west, caught a lobster pot line round the transom hung rudder. Tried pushing it down and off the rudder with the boathook without success. In the end got the engine running gently astern to take the weight off the rudder and finally managed to push the rope off without needing to cut it. Scary at the time despite light weather.
 
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