Strippers!

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neil1967

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The Ambassador rope stripper on my newly purchased Oyster 406 is a write-off - it looks like the plastic bearings have been allowed to get too worn and the rotating cutter and stationary cutter have cut grooves in each other. Replacement parts will be +£300 +VAT. Aside from that, it looks to be a well engineered piece of kit. Before I blindly replace like for like, are there are other rope strippers that folks recommend? Our yacht will eventually be a liveaboard blue water cruiser, so I want something I can trust and will last!

Many thanks

Neil
 
When the nylon bearings on mine got worn the thing rattled which lead me put new bearings in. The kit with bearings, new bolts and a new sprung steel jaws was about £18 + VAT :):) Are the faces of the two halves so badly grooved that they are worn and no longer flat enough that new bearings won't fix it?

Very well engineered and blooming expensive but a top bit of kit.

I don't suppose this is the right size for your boat.
 
Do you know how long the stripper has been on the boat, unchanged? The bearng needs to be measured and changed as necessary.
I think, but I'm open to correction, that if you have a saildrive a stripper is the only option. Otherwise there are lots of options.
They have been reviewed so I'm sure you could buy the article from YBW.
 
My Spurs Cutter (supplied by Harold Hayles Yarmouth IOW) has been superb and continues to be. Bearings need to be replaced occasionally (c.£15 inc P&P), anode every 2 years (c.£10 inc P&P). Both very easy to do. One telephone call and the spares are in the post.

Service has always been efficient, prompt and friendly. Highly recommended.
 
Strippers

I believe the Oyster 406 has shaft drive, so there are several rope cutters available on the market.
Unless the situation has changed, the only rope cutter for a saildrive is the Ambassador, and you need a modified, (and expensive) Volvo anode for it, although the modification is simple if you have basic engineering skills).

There was a rope cutter test report in one of the mags. a couple of years ago, PBO or YM for sure as I do not read any others.

Cheers,

Michael
 
ospreyk30 said:
My Spurs Cutter (supplied by Harold Hayles Yarmouth IOW) has been superb and continues to be. Bearings need to be replaced occasionally (c.£15 inc P&P), anode every 2 years (c.£10 inc P&P). Both very easy to do. One telephone call and the spares are in the post.

Service has always been efficient, prompt and friendly. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

+1 Excellent quality as well.
 
I've got an Ambassador, it worked incredibly well on two occasions a couple of years ago, once on some net and once on my tender painter:(.
Good bit of kit IMO.
 
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Sailing Today did a test a long time ago. Stripper was the most expensive and the best. My boat had a stripper when I bought her. It certainly made short work of my 14mm kedge anchor line when I reversed over it whilst kedging off. (don't even ask!) If my next boat doesn't have one, I will fit one without hesitation.
 
+1 for the stripper - great piece of kit

I run a small engineering company and when we priced up making a batch of similar products on our state of the art cnc machines we could not come close the thier prices. For once I think fellow yachties are getting reasonable value.
 
There are three distinct types for shafts.

Scissor = spurs/gator/stripper
Disc = shaft shark + many makes of single/double plain and serrated discs
Shaver = quicKutter

QuicKutter was not tested during the IPC/yachting monthly/practical boat owner test, despite it being the cutter chosen by the RNLI and the Royal Navy, as well as Aqua Star, AliCats, Christensen, Port of London pilot boats.

This was simply because the test rig as seen in the video was made for a scissor cutter (Gator) and hence had a large gap from prop to bearing/bearing carrier, we also had a problem with the test methodology as the debris was fixed at one end to the P bracket leg. This caused it to be drawn tight across the cutter region, where as, we believe debris winding on a prop will wind up to and put pressure axially on scissor and discs as it gets tighter.

The quicKutter has no moving parts or bearings and has shown on fishing boats it can be effective for more than 4 seasons with no maintenance.
 
I am replacing my Ambassador which was damaged/displaced when I snagged a rope it couldn't cut.

Many designs seem (IMHO) vulnerable/prone to put a shock load on a device that is held in place by self tappers screwed into (in my case) a soft bronze P bracket.

Add to that the precision fitting/adjustment that is required every time you replace a cutless bearing, flexible coupling etc and the simplicity of a disc cutter becomes very attractive.

I shall replace it with a disc type cutter on the KISS principle.

I have managed to track down the YM report to the April 09 issue, but can't find my copy. Can anyone tell me which of the disc cutters performed best in that test?
 
neil1967 said:
The Ambassador rope stripper on my newly purchased Oyster 406 is a write-off - it looks like the plastic bearings have been allowed to get too worn and the rotating cutter and stationary cutter have cut grooves in each other. Replacement parts will be +£300 +VAT. Aside from that, it looks to be a well engineered piece of kit. Before I blindly replace like for like, are there are other rope strippers that folks recommend? Our yacht will eventually be a liveaboard blue water cruiser, so I want something I can trust and will last!

Many thanks

Neil
Click to expand...


Phone the guy at Ambassador and see if he can do anything with it -he is very friendly and has a can do attitude, quite rare these days.

Ambassador stripper has worked for me every time!!

No connection etc.
 
Hi Neil,
I have used H4's Quick Kutter (I thinks thats how it is spelt) to very good effect. Not sure but I believe the RNLI use this rope cutter too.

Regards

Paul
 
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