so is there a rope cutter out there that will protect us from the dreaded lobster pot

[strudders]

I decided to start a new thread rather than tack on to the lobster pot one. But the reality is what can we pro actively do to avoid expensive repair bills? Is there a cutter that will do the job. It is getting worrying especially at night as some of the pots these days are a long way out

 

[Tranona]

Yes www.ropestripper.com

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

I have a "stripper" on my yacht attached to a P-Bracket. The last time I got some netting around the prop it cut some of it and then there was a "bang" and the teeth attached to the P bracket pulled out leaving stripped threads and I had to replace it on the opposite side when I got the spares.

I decided to start a new thread rather than tack on to the lobster pot one. But the reality is what can we pro actively do to avoid expensive repair bills? Is there a cutter that will do the job. It is getting worrying especially at night as some of the pots these days are a long way out

 

[dylanwinter]

The only protection is an outboard

no solution really - but I used to fear the bloody things - no no worries

D

 

[pvb]

Of the ropecutters, the Ambassador Stripper is usually deemed the best. There are other solutions, like having a wire between bottom of keel and bottom of rudder, but they can make liftouts tricky.

 

[prv]

There are other solutions, like having a wire between bottom of keel and bottom of rudder, but they can make liftouts tricky.

Having one's prop in an aperture well up from the bottom of the keel is an excellent solution

I guess that's one less thing to be smug about now I have a conventional modern boat

We have a rope cutter, but I've no idea how well it would work. The blades seem a bit short.

Pete

 

[hartcjhart]

I decided to start a new thread rather than tack on to the lobster pot one. But the reality is what can we pro actively do to avoid expensive repair bills? Is there a cutter that will do the job. It is getting worrying especially at night as some of the pots these days are a long way out

move further out?

 

[Robin]

We had Ambassador cutters on our last two boats in the UK and they did the job exceedingly well, however they do not work under sail. UNder engine ours cut off many bits of old net and heavy weed etc lik found in the e the many rafts of weed and rubbish you see floating in The channel and especially the Western Approaches, one time even removing a plastic 'hessian' type scallop bag that picked up on the prop and stopped the 50hp motor at 2,000rpm. a couple of other times however, we picked up pot lines between the the semi balanced rudder and the hull or half -skeg on a Westerly 33 Ketch, one line we picked at 7kts plus in heavy weather off Cherbourg and the shocjk caused the steering chain drive to jump several teeth on the sprocket in the pedestal needing some careful jiggery in harbour to correct so the wheel once again turned the same amount either side of straight ahead, we were lucky the offending line snapped because we might still be anchored to it ( when in harbour we found about 2ft of line with a white sausage float on it still in the gap between rudder and hull.

However good These Cutters are however they will not deal with the wire cables some evil pot layers use.

 

[onesea]

I guess a folding prop and sailing would be another solution...

 

[prv]

I guess a folding prop and sailing would be another solution...

Not going to help much with the rudder though.

The rudder is the only thing I've ever got caught on - though not on a pot, but rather a helmsman who was less experienced than I had thought and decided to motor straight over the pickup pendant of the mooring we'd just dropped . It took him quite some time swimming around to extract the line from the gap around the bearing.

Pete

 

[rotrax]

I have a "stripper" on my yacht attached to a P-Bracket. The last time I got some netting around the prop it cut some of it and then there was a "bang" and the teeth attached to the P bracket pulled out leaving stripped threads and I had to replace it on the opposite side when I got the spares.

It may pay to use the P bracket sleeve offered as an optional extra for use with composite P brackets. I had to do this when a well known Gosport yard fitted my Stripper by drilling and tapping into the composite. As you can imagine, the moment we picked something up it did as yours did-but I suspect a bloody sight quicker.

The sleeve slips around the lower part of the bracket and is secured by vertical legs that are bolted through the upper part. It worked for us-Good Luck.

 

[Leighb]

Having one's prop in an aperture well up from the bottom of the keel is an excellent solution

Although I expect it reduces the risk it is still not zero as I discovered to my cost. Motoring in the dark we wrapped a pot rope round the prop in spite of being a long keel with transom hung rudder, the prop aperture is pretty small but the wretched rope still got in there. It was just about slack water at low tide which I think may have been a factor.

I investigated fitting a cutter after that, but there is simply no room even for the simplest blade type.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Having one's prop in an aperture well up from the bottom of the keel is an excellent solution

I guess that's one less thing to be smug about now I have a conventional modern boat

We have a rope cutter, but I've no idea how well it would work. The blades seem a bit short.

Pete

The only time I've ever caught a pot line in the propellor was on a long keel yacht with the propellor in an aperture half-way up the back of the keel.

Oh, and depth of water/distance from land is no protection - you regularly see them in 70-80 metres depth on the Clyde, and the incident above was several miles offshore.

 

[Sailfree]

Of the ropecutters, the Ambassador Stripper is usually deemed the best. There are other solutions, like having a wire between bottom of keel and bottom of rudder, but they can make liftouts tricky.

+1

Bit like film "Jaws" seeing a lobster pot accelerating to stern of boat as if you catch the line on your keel pot goes at twice your speed.

Found nothing deals with polythene wraps or whole sections of fishing nets except scuba gear!!

 

[tudorsailor]

I have an Ambassador. Once got tangled in the marina's mooring line. About 20mm thick.


I was impressed with the ease with which the cutter worked. The photo was after we returned to the marina and acted surprised when the marina man pulled to bring up the bow line and found it was not intact!

[URL=http://s246.photobucket.com/user/tudordoc/media/IMG_0135.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Neil_Y]

I supply cutters (mainly it has to be said to commercial/military vessels)
There are three distinct types, Scissor, Disc and Shaver. We supply the shaver.

For the record The RNLI and the RN removed scissor cutters to fit the shaver type, these are also fitted as standard to Aquastar, Alicats, Baltic Workboats, a number of Pilot boats including The Port of London boats, ferries and a huge number of fishing boats (our biggest customers) The stern tubes where the cutters are fitted on the new Tamar lifeboats are composite.

Bench tests have show that a cutter with hardened blade can cut 5mm ss wire.

This has been discussed many times here and the reason you see and hear more of other makes is they promote them through leisure boat shows and leisure boat press. They've also been out there far longer.

 

[fisherman]

. We supply the shaver.

.

Can you link to a spec?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I

Can you link to a spec?

In his sig.