Ropes around prop

[Chiara’s slave]

I’ve only ever been on board a boat once when this happened. RTI race 1992. We were moored on the piles near The Folly. The rope floated down on the tide, it was 0630, everyone excited, nobody saw it coming. Cast off fwd, engage gear, engine stopped. Never mind, says our gallant skipper/owner, and over the side he went with a mask and clutching the ship’s bread knife as the best weapon. He emerged triumphant a minute of 2 later, but between him and the boat floated a veritable sea of turds, through which he had to swim to get back on board so we could make our start time.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Totally dependent upon how the entanglement occurs. I picked up a length of 6 mm polypropylene line that had held a pot marker, evidently broken away. The line was presumably lying to current almost vertical with none on the surface. The boat stopped moving, prop still turning. 10 metres of line wrapped around the prop hub with none of it anywhere near the cutter.

I had the same issue. Compounded by the polypropylene melting and flowing into the cutlass bearing.

This unbiased test video gives some idea how rope cutters might work.