Rope Cutters???

[Medskipper]

Can anyone offer any advice about rope cutters? I have been looking at the Stripper, Gator, and Spurs. They are all quite expensive but are they really neccessary? are they worth the money? how much top end speed will I loose? my Birchwood 37 top speed is about 20 knots. I have been cruising motor boats for over twelve years and have never had cutters before and I have only ever caught a rope once! am I just lucky? I am sure there are a few of you who have some horror stories so lets here them! My cruising ground is Thames estury, Medway,south coast and channel. Thanking all in advance for your help, Barry

 

[oldgit]

Never once had rope round prop problems in medway.Plastic bags around aylesford-wouldham yes,but suspect rope cutters will not be much good under those circumstances.however off-shore might just enable you to get home.

 

[byron]

First of all Barry you shouldn't lose any speed. The RNLI reported a gain of ½ knot. On my previous boat I noted a small increase too.
They are worth it, especially when you hear/feel that delightful little chudder and you know that something that would have stopped you dead and calling for a Diver is laying behind you like a line of coloured shredded wheat.

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[hlb]

We've had this thread a number of times. And as usual, you will get all kind of answers. Personaly,. I would not be without rope cutters. Anything that can stop you looseing both engines in a tight spot is worth it.

Haydn

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I bought a boat with rope cutters last year. Removing them increased the top speed by 2-3 knots but I also heard the RNLI story as well. I've never had rope cutters on any boat and never been totally disabled (I'm touching wood very hard now) although I've fouled one or other prop on a few occasions. Its a mistake to think cutters will clear every obstruction, they wont deal with heavy netting or thick rope; in fact they might make the tangle worse
I also think they're very expensive for what they are.
Personally I would do without them

 

[tcm]

Another "nah" vote here. I haddem, tookem off and won 2+ knots or more, but on top speed of 30knots. Not sure if they ever did anything, don't think so. River/estaury obviously more stuff in the water. I'm not having them on a med boat. Fraid I threw the old ones away...

 

[hlb]

Rope cutters a bit like life rafts. You dont need them untill you need them. Also like life rafts, they wont survive every thing. Dont think they alter speed much till over about 25- 30 knots, so if boat dont go so fast anyway, dont make much difference.

In any event, its much nicer to stand on the back of the boat watching bits of lobster pot ropes being gouged up and spitt out for fun. Instead of sitting there like a prat, hooked up by the tail, untill the life boat comes.
I was once in Polpero. One of the fishermen had decided ot use a visitors buoy as his personal Lobster storage buoy. Needless th say. I came along totally unaware and next minute. there were ropes all around both props. Just put engines in slow forward then back a few times and all sliced off. Fisherman not too happy but surved him right.

Haydn

 

[Guest]

Interesting thread. Was thinking about these quite a bit lately after a friend of mine towed a coal sack half way up the Irish sea, overheating his engine in the process.

I wondered if I should fit them - having a twin engined boat it seemed that the chance of being totally disabled by picking up debris was a bit reduced over a single engine.

Which to fit - the disk type or the 'jaws' type - I seem to recall from some previous discussions in the forum, that the disc type may be a better option because there is a danger of damage to the running gear if something 'uncuttable' wedges itself between the fixed and rotating parts of the 'jaws' type (thereby causing the rotating part to stop dead!).

However the speed issue now has me a little concerned - because I hadn't considered that. My boat isn't capable of 20+knots - it's at its best around 18 knots... how much of this will I lose with either type of cutter ?

From my point of view, a loss of 2 knots to an 18 knot boat is worse than a loss of 2 knots to a 30 knot boat....

Or is it the case that at 18knots the cutters don't cause any degradation of performance ? Why is that so ?



louis