Please help us with your reports

[Castletine]

Having been beach side recently, I was horrified at the amount of litter dumped and smashed bottles just ready for little feet and hands to get cut up on.

I can only imagine that a lot of this gets swept out to sea and thus begins to spread the litter.

Why not further alert Councils to this problem as they have recnetly introduced the £50 on the spot litter fine (smokers beware with your fag-ends), an on the beach patrol could be quite financially viable for them and clear up this mess

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Jerbro]

Agreed. This is a real problem around the Portland in-shore passage, and often they are just below the surface.

<hr width=100% size=1>Jerbro
====
Click here for <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.btinternet.com/~jerbro> My ex-boat pics</A>

 

[Jerbro]

Our boat was delivered professionally from Hamble to Weymouth in early May. Skipper fouled stbd prop 3 miles from Weymouth. Limped back and commissioned diver to remove net from prop. It was rather nasty looking thick green net - more like cargo netting than fishing net. Rope cutters would not have helped. It was approx 18 inches square.



<hr width=100% size=1>Jerbro
====
Click here for <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.btinternet.com/~jerbro> My ex-boat pics</A>

 

[Little_Russel]

Twice at the top of the Alderney Race! First time was a huge sheet of polythene and the second it was a stray fishing net. It took three days to get back to Cowes that time. We have had a lobster pot off Treguier and also one in the Helford River. The other day I caught a black satin shirt round the prop up by The Folly!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Sail the Se7en seas...

 

[bumblefish]

Not on a yacht, but, two weeks ago I was on the SeaCat coming out of Dieppe when we got 'something' entangled in the prop. We went astern for 20 minutes to try and free it but in the end we crossed on three engines and the divers went down in Newhaven to sort it out. Not sure what the final conclusion was nor if it was reportable.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[aod]

I came through the Needles Channel again on Tuesday 19th August after the Fastnet race and the same bloody 5 gallon blue chemical pot markers still litter the channel. I also saw a fishing boat laying pots with orange markers all around the Hurst narrows. I am sure someone has already thought of this but it would be interesting to know how many call outs the RNLI have for fouled props/rudders/keels etc and indeed what the insurance companies have to say about it.
I really hope the information/concerns/experiences mentioned in this forum add weight to any lobbying for change because it's quite clear that we ALL share the same general concern that a rogue lobster pot will either cost us a great deal or still worse lead to a serious accident.

All that any of us seems to be asking for is responsible and marked laying of pots. I am sure that once a yotty or power boater (for once we are united) sues someone for recklessly laying a pot the plague will go into remission. For myself I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that if in the future I snag a pot and sustain damage I will as a racing certainty sue the b*****d that layed it.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Chris_Stannard]

East Looe Channel

On passage from the Solent to brighton i went through the east Looe Channel to the North of the Owers. This is marked by two buoys less than 100 metres apart. sure enough some nice fisherman had got two floats, marking his pots or whatever in the centre of the channel.

to make matters worse going from Brighton to cherbourg I picked up a football sized lump of discarded netting around my prop.

Regards

Chrios Stannard

<hr width=100% size=1>Chris Stannard

 

[Twister_Ken]

Heard on Ch 16

this weekend, yacht with rope fouling prop requesting assistance 4 miles south of Portland Bill. Probably hairy enough (situation, not the rope) but on a day with some real breeze it could have been disasterous.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[robind]

Hi Kim!
My recent incidents involving a cargo net (port engine prop and shaft) on the 26th of august 2003 and a plastic bag ( starboard engine intake filter) on the 27th occured within approximately 10 miles of each other (Mid English channel on route to Hornfleur from Brighton)

Cargo net 05.12N 00.03.W ( Bright green polyprop)
Polybag 05.02.09N 01.02W (white no markings)

Regards
Rob

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rejuvanu.com>RejuVanu</A>

 

[Nick_XChurch]

I can agree with all the notes about the Christchurch ledge, this area being on my back door, as I go down to Poole a lot. I'd estimate generally 20-30 tiny black bouys, but most of which disappear and lie .5 metre below the surface on a spring high (and as Christchurch harbour is so shallow, that's when the traffic is highest frequency). I have an outdrive so I'm not that worried, but I've made a few night passages, and know it's only a matter of time before I pick one up.

Surely is isn't that hard to buy some orange markers instead of black balls that you can't see easily even in the daytime? The point in one of the earlier posts about the small black bouys looking like swimmer's heads is very real - I've cut the throttles quite a few times as I've thought I've seen a swimmer off hengistbury head - and there was a swimmer killed 2 weeks ago outside bournemouth swimming zone - maybe the skipper thought it was a lobster pot marker..

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[zefender]

Re: good report and bad report

En route from Portsmouth to brighton 13/9/3 saw loads of pots, all very badly marked about 3 miles south of Chichester. They were a mixture of once orange (now almost black) 'bouys' about the size of a loo cistern float and 1litre oilcans. Despite the fact it was very sunny and calm, they were still very difficult to see and not laid in any particular pattern. The worst ones were just a few metres to the NE of the West entrance to the Looe channel, which is really stupid.

On passing the channel, just off Bognor/Littlehampton, we saw plenty more pot markers. But these had I metre poles and two black flags attached. They were in groups of two and pretty easily seen some way off.

I can't be unreasonable surely to insist on:

1, Minimum distance from navigation points and areas of high traffic (eg Portland Bill)
2, Minimum size of marker buoy and designated colour
3, 1 metre (or 2 in some areas) pole - top flag black, lower flag orange
4, Name of vessel (licence number on each buoy)
5, Fixed penalty (or confiscation) for all owners of buoys found in breach of the above.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: good report and bad report

I second Zeff's ideas for pot marking.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Alienor]

Suggestions to solve the problem

We've all had these scares, mine includes a lobster pot stopping a 52 footer dead in the Round the Island Race a couple of years ago.

There are obvious problems with black pots, some have sticks and flags but these are useless at night and in a strong tide most bouys get pulled under. Seems to me with the advent of cheap solar panels and low consumption LED light sources, it shouldn't cost more than say £5-£10 to make them visible at night.

It is not beyond the ingenuity of man to design a new Euro standard pot bouy and Brussels would have great fun persuading the French to take it on.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[robp]

Re: good report and bad report

Agree. I've long thought it reasonable to mark pots with owner's details. It needn't be a great expense to keep a register. Unmarked pots to be lifted and pooled for the general benefit of registered fishermen. Or to pay for the register.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[robp]

Picked up two large pieces of green polyprop net, within two weeks whilst on holiday. One which was in horrible conditions, could have been nasty.

I'm not sure how the net is abandoned. Is it that it becomes damaged whilst deep fishing, and then cut free?

Whatever the reason, the first course is simple communication direct to the fishermen, of the dangers it's causing. "Of course they know" someone will say. But A5 colour flyers can be printed at around £160 per 10,000. I've even thought of having it done myself.

Printed in French and English, they can be put on fishing vessels/in offices both sides of the Channel with ease. The individuals need to see them. I bet it would lower the incidence considerably.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[chas]

14 Septemeber about half a mile north of Brixham Harbour entrance - small orange net.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Firstmate]

EASTBOURNE
Twice this year with fouled prop fromethe line running out from the pot marker a good 40 feet away,this is just my experience ,I have been cruising in company at Eastbourne,and they also have got into trouble ,The place is a minefield.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[PeterGibbs]

Unacceptable sightings / experiences:

1. Walton on the Naze point, Essex. A series of sall round weed-encrusted buoys just showing on the surface by day, having no flags or other warnings above water level. Sighted late September. Situated in the path of all traffic up the Essex coast and making for Harwich estuary.

2. Off Felixstowe, a series of small flags, no more than 12 inches high and invisible in all but a dead calm. Sited directly in the path of traffic making northwards towards the Deben entrance. Sighted early October.

3. Off the entrance to Eastbourne Harbour, a series of 5 litre cans in the entrance to the harbour, which route is constrained by shallows, so reducing the scope for avoidance. Sighted several times this and earlier seasons. Personally fouled by one cluster in August 2001 requiring a blade to free the boat (38 footer!)

4. 5 litre cans and similar in the Orwell estuary directly in the path of traffic entering S of the shipping channel. Sighted early and late this season.

All these are by their nature hard to see in good conditions, impossible in a seaway and at night.

This summer I sailed over 1000 NM in French waters - plenty of pots there but all marked by flags at least 1m tall and many 2m with flagging. It can be done, it is not ruinous to fishermen, and it is about time it is enforced here!

PWG

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[pvb]

Sovereign Harbour...

You're right, it's a minefield! My rudder got caught last year on a piece of floating line connected to a string of pots, right next to the comically-named "safe water mark". Couldn't free it, so ended up dragging the pots back into the harbour entrance and then letting the marina workboat sort out the mess. During a subsequent frank exchange of views, the marina manager claimed that he couldn't do anything about the pots right outside the marina, even though they're laid by berth-holders in his marina! Talking to the people in the harbour, they were well aware that some of the "fishermen" operating from the harbour use cheap floating line.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Piers]

Alderney Race

Entering the Alderney Race, there were two pots some 150m apart, one either side of track. The pot on the stbd side of track had its smaller marker buoy about 15m from it. I left them well on the stbd side.

It turned out the marker was not attached to the pot on the stbd side, but the one on the port side, with about 120m of rope!

I snagged it....cut it off as best I could, and limped into St Peter Port. Thankully, it was almost flat water in the race, otherwise it would have been unpleasant to say the least.

The Guernsey diver said he was seeing this more and more, and that a 'rogue' potter was laying them with this length marker....

<hr width=100% size=1>Piers du Pré
http://www.dupre.co.uk