Just had my first and hopefully only tow of the season.

I only have a 3mm suit but have socks, gloves, rash vest and hood.

Plus a Mini B with a 10 litre tank :)
 
It seems our adventure was captured on camera.The fisheries vessel that towed us back to harbour just Happended to have a local photographer on board.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/showallphotos.aspx?mmsi=235069379

We hit something completely submerged. I found out later that it was a mussel farm thing that had broken free from the Porthallow area somewhere. We were happily motoring along at 7 knots and it stopped the boat. We looked behind and saw two blue lines drawn out like bow strings behind us.

We backed up to see if it would release and then the cutter chopped it into pieces. The problem was that the engine seemed to be straining and I thought that by running it I might pull the propshaft out and damage something.

The Fisheries guys did a grand job towing us to Mylor and then the harbour launch took us alongside. A couple of local divers took a good thirty minutes to cut all the line away. It was really jammed between the prop and the hull. I am glad we didn't run the engine any more than necessary.

Biggest issue was that we missed our weather window to get to Scilly so we had to hit the high life in Penzance instead.
 
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Ex-SolentBoy said:
.......

A nearby Fisheries rib towed us back to Falmouth (thanks again folks) where a local diver spent 10 minutes hacking away and eventually cleared the problem......
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Ex-SolentBoy said:
.........

The Fisheries guys did a grand job towing us to Mylor and then the harbour launch took us alongside. A couple of local divers took a good thirty minutes to cut all the line away........
Click to expand...

Been drinking again ?

Stopped taking the tablets ?

:confused:
 
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Blueboatman said:
The only thing I can think of ( having once anchored by the stern inadvertently with a pot line wrapped around a quarter prop ). One 'might' have a go with trusty bread knife wired to an oar having practised this out of the water to familiarise oneself with the underwater shape and requisite actions...
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I have picked up my own mooring with my prop in the past:o. As it was early season there was no way I was going in the water. I tied the bread knife to the end of the boathook (7ft) and worked away at the rope from the dinghy which was tied fore and aft alongside. Took a while but it worked and was eventually free. At end of season there were a few cut marks in the GRP around the prop & shaft that needed filling.
 
In total innocence;- Slackening off the propeller nut would give some clearance between the prop and the skeg (provided the prop would move down the shaft).

On second thoughts, on my boat with an Aquadrive, I can back off the prop shaft by loosening the flange bolts.

Just a thought and probably a stupid one but might be worth developing.
 
Just a thought, but can you improvise a "wet-suit" from ordinary clothing? Of course, it wouldn't be as good as a proper one, but many of us aren't divers or even dinghy sailors, and a wet-suit would simply sit in a locker deteriorating a lot of the time (hopefully, most of the time!).

A wet suit works by trapping a layer of water next to the skin; the water gets warmed by body heat, and so insulates the body from the cold water outside. Surely something that would be at least somewhat effective be improvised using tight fitting clothing, or tying garments off at the cuffs?

EVen ordinary clothing unmodified will give SOME protection but probably not enough.

I ask because I happen to have first hand experience that you can make a very effective set of waders with waterproof trousers and wellies! You put the waterproof trousers outside the wellies, then tie (firmly!) round the outside with a bit of cord. This worked routinely for us in the Arctic, and only leaked if you hadn't taken care to fold the waterproof trousers flat against the outside of the wellies. I wouldn't like to use it for standing for hours fishing, but it works fine for a short period. Basically, the water-pressure tends to hold the waterproof trousers against the wellies, making a pretty water-tight seal.
 
Those suction lifter thingies are good on the topsides, but pretty useless on all but the shiniest of bottoms!
A rope passed under the hull to hang on to helps a lot.
Never needed to cut a line off the prop, but I used to clean my hull by diving.
 
The prop cutter is an Ambassador.

I didn't need to fashion a wet suit as I had a proper one on board. And fins, and a mask. And I am a qualified diver. Just didn't have a BCD and tank with me.

However, my prop is a long way below the surface and I cannot hold my breath long enough to do any meaningful work. Nothing on the end of a pole is going to achieve anything on my boat.
 
Hadenough said:
Thanks, I too have an ambassador. When we lifted out recently I found evidence of it having done it's work quietly on some 12mmish rope. From your experience it sounds as though it would struggle with large quantities of bigger stuff.
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Actually no, it chopped it all up into little blue pieces and it drifted away.

The problem was that whilst it was all spinning around some of it got caught in the gap you can see between the cutter housing and the hull. Its only a small gap but the force of then engine dug the rope in so tight it took them 60 minutes (:D) to clear.

PICT0009.jpg
 
Galago said:
........ and maybe a cheap canoe helmet.
Click to expand...

I will second that as a skipper or crew member was killed a few years ago when the stern of the yacht smashed down on him as he surfaced from clearing a prop whilst in a seaway!

It also proves very useful when aloft at sea to save your head getting smashed against the mast or having an ear torn off by the stays. :eek:
 
That's not Falmouth bay I've sailed around there for over 40yrs and I don't recognise it.
Similar but not.










Ex-SolentBoy said:
It seems our adventure was captured on camera.The fisheries vessel that towed us back to harbour just Happended to have a local photographer on board.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/showallphotos.aspx?mmsi=235069379

We hit something completely submerged. I found out later that it was a mussel farm thing that had broken free from the Porthallow area somewhere. We were happily motoring along at 7 knots and it stopped the boat. We looked behind and saw two blue lines drawn out like bow strings behind us.

We backed up to see if it would release and then the cutter chopped it into pieces. The problem was that the engine seemed to be straining and I thought that by running it I might pull the propshaft out and damage something.

The Fisheries guys did a grand job towing us to Mylor and then the harbour launch took us alongside. A couple of local divers took a good thirty minutes to cut all the line away. It was really jammed between the prop and the hull. I am glad we didn't run the engine any more than necessary.

Biggest issue was that we missed our weather window to get to Scilly so we had to hit the high life in Penzance instead.
Click to expand...
 
To the OP I am intrigued by this. When you say thick blue line do you mean 10mm or 20mm? If as you say it was taut like a bowstring this implies it was floating between two weights or somesuch on the bottom. The most likely would be rope between two pots in a string, but the average span is 12-15 fm, and the water there is too deep for it to surface. Someone seems to have left a very long rope anchored both ends.
 
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