Keel to Skeg wire to reduce risk of Pot Ropes round prop

Got my doubts for several reasons. First is that a prop works by "sucking" water in at the front and expelling it at the rear, so you are just as likely to get floating rubbish sucked round you prop with the wire as without it.

Second is that you could get rubbish round the wire itself and also round the prop - so the rotation of the prop puts a huge load on the centre of the wire which ( basic trig) is multiplied even more where the wire fastens to keel and skeg. Depending on how strong / well fastened you could even pull the skeg off - a pal of mine pulled his gearbox off the engine with a mooring chain rouind the prop..

Thirdly you have even more underwater protuberances for rubbish to catch on - the wire itself.

Fourthly - are you sure you will never run aground, partially dry out etc. On uneven ground. Load on center of the wire, multiplied load on the skeg and keel fixings.....
 
JohnTH said:
Speaking as one who has actually cleared a fouled prop (and lived to tell the tail) it may be of interest to note my use of a half inflated dinghy to lay in and an immersion suit. Even on a hot summer day the Clyde is too cold to mess with.

73s de

Johnth
Click to expand...

Very many moons ago, I was at the helm of my Dad's Halcyon 27 long keel yacht when we got a lobster pot rope in the prop. This was off the East Coast of Scotland in summer. As the helmsman at the time, I volunteered to go in the water to clear the prop. I never want to do it again!

1) I went in with my Dad and my brother as "handlers" from our inflatable. The first time I went down, I could just about heave myself into the dinghy. The second time I couldn't quite, and the third time I had to be heaved into the dinghy as a dead weight by my Dad and my brother. Fortunately I'd cleared the rope so I don't know what would have happened if it had needed more! Moral - even in summer, the water offshore the UK is too cold for prolonged immersion. Any plan based on going into the water is inherently dangerous without proper diving gear.

2) The Halcyon is a long keel design with the rudder hung on the back of the keel, and a small cut-out for the propeller. The propeller is far better protected than the arrangements shown here - but we still picked up a rope. So, the various suggestions for protection won't be terribly effective.
 
Laying flat in a half inflated dinghy it is easily possible to get at the prop and rudder of my Centaur.

Not being fully immersed and with an immersion suit on it is still possible to get extremely cold. I agree with AntarcticPilot, this is not something you would undertake lightly. However, sometimes, needs must, I lived to tell the story !

73s de

Johnth
 
Cutting rope

The design in Roberto's link is interesting using 2 bread knife blades.
However my experience cutting ropes on dry land tells me they won't be cut easily. The typical rope that OP was worried about on a cray (lobster) pot is about 10mm polypropelene cheap floats and not easily cut.

I have always been impressed by the power of garden secateurs. I have some with 2 ft handles that will cut through perhaps 20mm of wood. I really reckon these would be the best bet in cutting rope.
So if you were able to hook the offending rope out of the water to where you could reach it with secateurs you might have a chance. I have seen the whale savers trying to cut ropes tangled around whales etc and wonder why they don't use secateurs rather than hooked knives.

I like what Fisherman is trying to explain by catching the offending rope well down and fastening it to the bow to take the load of the rope where it is fouled and get the boat facing tide or wind.I am not sure how effective the chain might be in gripping the rope.(perhaps more explanation if it works that well) What we need is some sort of spring loaded rope grabber on the end of a pole then on a rope that can be attached to the bow. Powerful spring loaded jaws that will snap together. But then why not fit cutters and fix in one strike. Or at least cut the rope away from the pot.
Another thought that if you got a boat hook onto the rope and twisted the hook so that the offending rope is wrapped around the hook many times this would provide a grip that could take the load off the foulup. You would have to either have someone hold the boat hook handle to keep it twisted or devise some clamp for the handle.

Many years ago on on tele one of those inventors shows a guy had a pot with the rope on a spool with a float. An ultrasonic receiver was fitted to the rope/float release. So the pot was thrown in with rope and float stowed. When the fisherman wanted to pull the pot he transmitted a coded message to the release mechanism. Float appears and all is pulled up. The advantages are that no one else can empty the pots and the floats can't foul other boats. Apparently the idea was never taken up, cost I suppose. However the more ropes we cut the more reason they will have to use this device or at least keep their ropes short.

olewill waffling again
 
Old Glow In The Deeps said:
As promised:
Photo of the Prop-Guard which is a mod to the Voyager.
Click to expand...
I considered similar mods to mine but this would cause rather serious problems when it comes to lift out as the strops need to be positioned above the props.

How have you coped with this..?
 
Easy!

DogWatch said:
I considered similar mods to mine but this would cause rather serious problems when it comes to lift out as the strops need to be positioned above the props.

How have you coped with this..?
Click to expand...

On the Voyager bilge or fin-keel would not be a problem. Gina is a bilge-keel and I have made small grooves in the rubbing-streak and painted them red. This to allow easily identifiable positioning of the lifting strops when in the water. These then sit / are positioned fore & aft of the keels away from the prop.
 
Maybe I'm Lucky?

I've always avoided catching pots by sailing through the most pot infested areas, rather than motoring.
A racing type folding prop doesn't catch ropes when folded.

I would suspect that the leeway a lot of boats make will mean a wire led from keel to skeg is going slightly sidewise through the water and hence likely to draw submerged pot markers into it.

No magic answer I reckon. I like the knife on a stick concept, most ropes are very much easier to cut when under tension.
 
Two buoys

The fin to skeg wire may not always be so effective. A lot of pots have two buoys with a rope between them floating near the surface. I think this aids pot pick-up. It also aids prop pick-up. When this rope passes under the yacht and catches first on the keel, the two buoys hold the rope high on the keel and trail the sinking line nicely past the prop for entanglement. The fin to skeg wire would not help.

What might help this situation is a) a rope cutter on the prop or b) a rope snare cutter on the root of the keel.
 
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