Rope cutter - worth it?

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RJJ

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Hi folks. Hope everyone keeping safe and rational.

I am considering fitting a rope cutter before we head off long-distance cruising (Brittany, Biscay, Iberian peninsula, ARC) I mean, hopefully, assuming Covid-19 hasn't killed us all and the world hasn't gone mad, the latter seeming to me the greater risk, but that's not the point of this thread.

Anyway, should I fit a rope cutter? Saildrive Volvo 130s, propeller is Ewol Orion 3. It appears the only choice is Ewol's disc cutter which looks very nice at 190 euros but requires me to change the shock absorber for the prop. Cost of both items is around £400 Inc vat and shipping.

Do I need this insurance-type item? I have done 20k or so miles without ever sailing a boat with a rope cutter or having an incident. And I am a strong swimmer, if it ever comes to cutting it free. There are plenty of other things to spend £400 on, across the various mandatory/desirable/insurance categories.

Thoughts welcome
 
The problem here is that no-one can actually tell you it works or not - other than the odd test done by likes of YBW etc.
Reason is that you only know if it DOESN'T work !!

I had the castellated gator on my shaft ... but a sufficiently strong item got in the prop and ripped the holding bolts ....



I then removed the front half and left the shaft part .... I had to have guy dive under 2 years back to clear old rope I picked up in the river .....

The Disc cutter ? Having had a single 'blade' on my shaft since that failure - I'm not so sure it can be as effective as a scissor action cutter ...

Worth googling YBW Shaft Cutter test ...
 
Refueler said:
The problem here is that no-one can actually tell you it works or not - other than the odd test done by likes of YBW etc.
Reason is that you only know if it DOESN'T work !!

I had the castellated gator on my shaft ... but a sufficiently strong item got in the prop and ripped the holding bolts ....



I then removed the front half and left the shaft part .... I had to have guy dive under 2 years back to clear old rope I picked up in the river .....

The Disc cutter ? Having had a single 'blade' on my shaft since that failure - I'm not so sure it can be as effective as a scissor action cutter ...

Worth googling YBW Shaft Cutter test ...
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Thanks, yep I have seen that excellent article.

I think the Ewol cutter is the only one that fits. So it's that or nothing. Then the question is: what's the actual risk of snaring a pot or a net and what's the impact of doing so.

Anyway, an update from Navily on the state of marinas in mainland Europe means we question whether we are going anywhere ?
 
I beg to differ - you can know when it works.

In my early cruising days, I managed to run over my own anchor rode when under power, luckily the rope rather than chain bit of it. The rope cutter certainly worked.

I managed to recover my anchor and rode some days later , but that is another story.
 
davidej said:
I beg to differ - you can know when it works.

In my early cruising days, I managed to run over my own anchor rode when under power, luckily the rope rather than chain bit of it. The rope cutter certainly worked.

I managed to recover my anchor and rode some days later , but that is another story.
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OK ... but that's like the mooring line I cut at my home mooring ... exception.

Generally when sailing - UNLESS the rope is seen or pops up clearly to show you ... you usually never know if it has or not.

Are they worth having ?

My Gator was fitted by previous owner of the boat but he also lost the front securing section and the gator was then rattling on the shaft. He removed all. I was then handed all in a box when I bought the boat.
I enquired after replacement parts and was given price that basically meant I was buying a complete new set ...
Off down the road to a pal of mine and he inspected the gator parts ... identified the metal used ... and made me a new one. 50 quid.

Fitted and as you see in the photo - exactly same happened to me as to previous owner ...

Would I fit one ... yes if going on extensive cruising yes and especially if boat is fin / long keel and unable to take ground to clear a prop - which is what I can do - being bilge keel.
 
I know that the Ambassador Stripper works - I have cut one of my warps, 16 mm double-braid polyester, and 12 mm polypropylene pot marker without a buoy. Unfortunately, each time it ripped the static part out of my P-bracket. There is nowadays a beefed-up sleeve to put around the P-bracket to avoid this, but of course just beefing things up results in something else failing if the load is sufficiently high. Since these problems I have had a disc type cutter. On the only known occasion that I picked up a rope it did nothing but that was understandable as it was caught by the blades and pulled astern.
P5160053 small.JPG
 
I have never had one on a boat I’ve owned. Caught big clumps of weed any number of times off Devon, Cornwall and Britanny that was cleared eventually by putting the engine forwards and reverse to chop it up. Have 3 times had to dive to clear rope and decided when it last happened in 1998 that I would fit one when I next bought a boat as I was selling the existing one.

When I did buy a boat in the Med in 2010 I waited a season to check local conditions. 10 years later I’ve never been caught by anything, weed or rope so I’ve never fitted one but would if back near UK.
 
I make one similar to the Ambassador for £ 350 each.( none in stock just yet but may make a couple soon as not going sailing for a while:cry:) I had an ambassador & it wore out & I begrudged paying £580. Hence I started making my own. I also make bearings for the ambassador if people supply the cutter. Once an ambassador gets a bit worn the standard bearings are no good & the cutter gets discarded. I can make bearings to extend the life of the cutter.
I have to admit the Ambassador definitely worked & I felt it "clonk" when it chopped a rope a couple of times. If the OP is going sailing round Brittany I would recommend the amabassador as the weed has long roots that can stop a prop & the cutter will free it. I have also had nets & when I had to be hauled out once the cutter had chopped the net many times & if I had just let the engine run for a couple more minutes it would have freed completely, because one could see the cuts in the net & there was just one strand left.
In 2019 I was held fast 30 miles off Cap d Antifer at night in 25 knts of wind & in a dangerous following sea breaking over the stern with sails partly up.
By running the engine back & forth I finally felt the "clonk" as the obstruction was cut & the boat freed.

Get a good cutter
 
Like radar, you might only switch on once a season but then it really earns its keep.

I have direct experience of a cutter saving my boat in the Channel, once with rope, the other with a huge plastic sheet. Life saving.

So I've carried an Ambassador for over 20 years. Not cheap but effective on the "never been pulled up short" scale of 1-10

As most know, some things in sailing you just have to fork out for knowing they'll pay off sometime in their lives. And what are you going to do with the money you think you've saved today?

Disc cutter is useless.


PWG
 
peter gibbs said:
Like radar, you might only switch on once a season but then it really earns its keep.

I have direct experience of a cutter saving my boat in the Channel, once with rope, the other with a huge plastic sheet. Life saving.

So I've carried an Ambassador for over 20 years. Not cheap but effective on the "never been pulled up short" scale of 1-10

As most know, some things in sailing you just have to fork out for knowing they'll pay off sometime in their lives. And what are you going to do with the money you think you've saved today?

Disc cutter is useless.


PWG
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Disc cutter is useless....but I think with the combo of saildrive and Ewol prop that it's the only option available. Happy to look more broadly if anyone has recommendations, thank you.
 
RJJ said:
Disc cutter is useless....but I think with the combo of saildrive and Ewol prop that it's the only option available. Happy to look more broadly if anyone has recommendations, thank you.
Click to expand...

Worked once for me, but not the second or third time (different boat in latter cases). Maybe the non disc ones would have been the same. I think rope size and prop speed have an influence.
 
I've the Ambassador Stripper and it certainly works - the first time I was idling to pick up a mooring and the engine suddenly stopped - one of the genoa sheets was overboard and it stopped the engine - now 1 metre shorter. The second time I was motoring in a calm on our way to Holland and the engine suddenly stopped and we found we had picked up a large pvc sheet. We were debating who was going swimming to cut it free, but I tried going forward and reverse, initially the engine stalling each time but after several attempts the plastic floated away in bits - quite relieved as we were in the middle of a shipping lane. I checked the stern gear as soon as possible but no damage.
 
RJJ said:
Disc cutter is useless....but I think with the combo of saildrive and Ewol prop that it's the only option available. Happy to look more broadly if anyone has recommendations, thank you.
Click to expand...


I have a Volvo 120 saildrive with Ambassador cutter - no probs, it's designed for this rig.

PWG
 
If you were staying round the uk and western europe I would say its a no brainer to fit one.
Once you set off on the ARC it is much less essential as there are a lot less pot lines on the way and in the caribbean.
Having snagged lines in the past and helped others who have done so I would not be without my Ambassador stripper.
 
I have only known it work once. Chugging along and there was a surprisingly loud bang and obvious momentary variation in engine noise. Looking behind a long rope floating on the surface of the type used for trawler nets. It was thick old stuff and the cutter obviously did its job. With a fully protected prop on the IP, I am hoping it will prove a pretty rare event!
 
We had serrated disk one for 18 odd years, not the best on the market but it got us out a few scrapes. The next boat will definitely have one in one shape or form.
 
For all the people who think that a disc cutter is useless I can only relate my own experience that a plain disc works. I have the proof in the form of a photograph of a bucket full of rope including some 16mm braid on braid collected after the disc cutter freed the boat from a mooring riser that had become tangled around the prop. I wrote about the experince in Yachting Monthly, April 2012. More recently I was mooring in Kas harbour going forwar in order to line up with a stern to berth and picked up a thick floating rope that a gulet was using as a bow line. The cutter severed it but stalled the engine leaving me running towards the opposite side, I restarted in time to avoid a collision and revved the motor to stop the boat and go astern, and cut the same rope a second time going back into the berth.
All of the complex designs that require a fixed bracket run the risk of it being torn off, wheras the simple disc has nothing to go wrong. Contrary to what some people think they do not work by sawing the rope with serrations, and a plain disc is fine. The important issue is that the edge must be sharp as they work by the turning propeller pulling the rope tight over the sharp edge and severing strands. If the engine stalls, as mine did on the first occasion as it was at low revs, simply restart in astern, and run back and forward until the rope is cut.
 
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Thanks, makes sense regarding simplicity.

Does anyone do without? Plenty of boats on the hard with nothing...clearly it's a risk some are willing to to tolerate.
 
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