Pot markers

[Rosa]

Coming back from Cork after a quick respite from the family after Christmas we picked up a late present courtesy of the local pot fishermen. Late that is, black as !!!!! and a nice wind up the poop. Suddenly, we are hanging around. Distinct lack of progress to home and the warm bed. Bit of a !!!!!! really. Course I got the blame, why didn't you see the flag. Flag??? A bit of black rag on a bamboo stick. Who thinks black flags are easy to see at night should have been with us with their extra terrestrial night vision.

Sorry to the fisherman but at least the lobsters will live to see another Christmas.

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[longjohnsilver]

A perenial problem, lucky to have had one on a stick, so many are small floats, often black or covered with weed, equally invisible. Always keep a sharp lookout and sharp knife just in case.

Heard a story once of a club whoich became so fed up of the things being put in the fairway that they organised a pot shoot!

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[snowleopard]

try new england

i gather up there the pots are so close together you can't get into some ports without a protective basket round the prop.

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[StephenSails]

This subject I feel very strongly about, I think that these fishermen who are supposed to be the great mariners should think more carefully.

I would like all pots to have a flag, and a flashing light on them. The way the fisherman leave pots along the south coast is dangerous and inconsiderate to other users of the sea.

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[Trevor_swfyc]

Its what they call:

POT LUCK /forums/images/icons/mad.gif



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[charles_reed]

You have my sympathy - it wasn't the knot of them off Hook Head was it?

I found that the radar on the 0.125 range to be superb for picking up markers - that or keeping well out to sea in >50m.

The latter solution goes for a burton off the Portuguese atlantic coast wher you find the damn things on 180m.

The other googly the continental european potters have to bowl, is to have 2 flagged markers at each end of a line from which 5-7 pots are suspended. Choose the wrong side and you're really wound up.

You've only got a prop to wind up, me I've got a wing keel as well and I can assure you that attracts lines like moths to a candle.

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[JeremyF]

Man from Hursley\'s been busy

I'm sure Ambassador Marine, a.k.a. Prop Protector, in Hursley is busy every night laying traps for us, so we all go and fit his rather spledid but very expensive rope strippers.

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[Jacket]

At the very least, you'd think they'd choose some colour other than black. Or is someone selling black bouys cut price?

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[Guest]

Myth or Fact that...

...unlit black flags are more visible at night than any other colour. Is there a scientific explanation? There sure are a bunch of 'em out there. Can't just be cheap cloth all these years and so widespread.

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[Guest]

Agreed. After many years of yachting, sail and power, I have a low opinion of the selfish fisherman of all European nationalities. Often cruel to fish and other sea dwellers, navigation regardless of other vessels (sometimes they are run down by larger vessels), laying and scattering lines and nets regardless of others, polluting the seas and leaving the disgusting synthetic line to lie adrift.
Yet the media regard them as heroes. Now they think they can fish out North Sea and other waters to destruction.

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[Guest]

Yes, and block off ship-to-ship VHF channels with continuous inconsequential chit-chat interposed with plenty of bad language - illegal as it happens.

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[Trevor_swfyc]

Here Here, agree with you 100% /forums/images/icons/mad.gif

Trevor

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[Guest]

Fishermen

...sound like the worst form of stinkies.

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[Gunfleet]

Re: Myth or Fact that...

I'd always imagined they used black because it couldn't be confused with anything else - danbouy etc.

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[Gunfleet]

Re: Fishermen

Thing is though, Edward, it's their living. They aren't millionaires which is why they're out there in rotten weather pulling the pots up. As for the vhf, I agree it's annoying, but do you talk to colleagues at work? I think that's how they see it. As long as it's not on ch 16/13/70, and as long as they keep it clean I don't think anyone has the energy to tell them to stop it. Anyway, they're not half as annoying as club racers telling you to keep off a channel because they're using it. Racers are just out having a lark like you and me, but have decided to be bossy about it!
ps in general, if your boat breaks down, fishermen are very generous about giving you a tug!

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[Guest]

Re: Fishermen

JohnM, my comment was misleading - I was responding to the earlier postings castigating fishermen. As a leisure sailor who can for the most part pick and choose when I sail, I have great sympathy for those obliged to do it day in and day out for a meager living regardless of sea state and weather. Regarding VHF misuse, as a Westcountry sailor (where the VHF is relatively quiet), I think Solent sailors have much more to answer for than UK fishermen when it comes to airwaves abuse. (French fishermen are something else....)

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[Twister_Ken]

Re: Myth or Fact that...

>Can't just be cheap cloth <

No, it's usually bin liner.

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[Twister_Ken]

A blast from the past - The Pot Bobber Act

Here's one I cooked earlier (with apologies to long-lived readers)

"Fishermen and fisherwomen shall ensure than all pots and nets laid for catching any form of marine life (or for any other purpose) shall be attached to a marker by a non-buoyant line. The marker shall be coloured to British Standard Dayglo Orange, shall be sufficiently buoyant not to be towed under in tides of up to 3 knots, shall carry a pole or post coated in a retroflective material and projecting at least 3 feet above the sea surface, such post being capped by a spherical top mark coloured in British Standard Dayglo Yellow of not less than 300mm diameter. All such markers must be clearly marked with the registration number of the fisherperson's vessel.

HM Coastguard and other competent authorities such as marine police and harbourmasters or harbourmistresses shall have the right to lift pots and nets laid in positions deemed to be dangerous to other vessels moving in recognised fairways and channels, and shall notify the registered vesel that such pots have been removed and can be collected from the nearest harbourperson's office on payment of a fine of £25 per item, the level of such fine to be reviewed from time to time.

Failure to comply with the above provisions will lead to confiscation of the said fishing gear with gear and contents being auctioned to help defray enforcement costs which will otherwise be met by a levy on recreational craft owners."

Now, quick, anyone fancy setting up a pot-bobber manufacturing and marketing operation, before MDL get in on the act?

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[Trevor_swfyc]

What Collision Reg

Says that a fishing boat dropping pots can assume right of way on a yacht sailing.
Comming out of Harwich Harbour the area is a minefield of pots. A fishing boat was dropping pots off my starboard bow. I had given him 100 yds clearance but suddenly he decided he wanted to claim the water dead in my path, he went past my bow 50 yds ahead then immediatly circled back as though claiming an area of water his own. I was forced to take avoiding action after already giving clearance so don't collision regs apply to fishing boats?
I know they are trying to earn a living but these waters are part of the harbour.

Trevor

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[snooks]

Paint it black...

I thought they used black on the basis that any other colour is lighter so the pot markers should be visable against it....Where as white could be lost in the foaming seas...just a though

A few years ago we were also sailing along the southern coast of Ireland and we sailed over a net! Not a small one either, it was set from North to South, dunno about fish, but it caught a First 285!

Luckily we had enough way on and a telescopic boat hook to help it past the prop!

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