kimhollamby
Administrator
Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 3847
Loc: London (at work)
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See http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20030714074141mbmnews.html
Fortunately I was carrying the right gear, including a dry suit, I have cut a lot of rubbish off props over the years (mostly other peoples', in case you think I have extraordinary bad eyesight) and so knew what to expect, the sea was completely calm and at summer temperatures, we had loads of sea room and the tide was virtually slack (we only moved half-a-mile in two-and-a-half hours). Otherwise this would have been a lifeboat call-out as the boat was totally disabled and the net was too much for the cutters to cope with.
In fact, one of the sets of cutters (Spurs) was damaged by the wrap, as you'll see in the account, and had to be removed, both to clear the remaining polyprop netting and to prevent the bits from causing vibration and any further damage.
Net looked to either be an abandoned chunk, cut out and thrown over the side, or might (being charitable) have been torn out of a trawl on the bottom. We were on night passage at the time but it seemed to have been ensnared in a weed patch and judging from its behaviour when released it would have not necessarily been very visible whatever the light conditions. Fortunately travelling relatively slowly when we hit it otherwise it might have bunched up behind the P-bracket and caused a much more serious incident.
On the run back to the Solent two weeks later we missed one of the Western Solent's infamous 5lt plastic bottles, in poor light conditions, by about 18 inches after spotting it dead ahead. It had been laid inside one of the starboard hand marks on the deep water channel; we had aimed for that as soon as through Selsey to try and avoid the minefield across the shallows but we nearly collected one anyway.
Interestingly spoke with someone from the Hayling Island lifeboat recently and he claims they haven't had a single shout for a prop wrap this year, which seemed amazing given the silly markers that get dropped around that area.
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BrendanS
regular
Reged: 11/06/2002
Posts: 37279
Loc: Me: Wilts. Boat: Lymington
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Sorry (glad?) to see that you have similar prop fouling problems to everyone else, and that you see a dry suit as right gear to be carried, and that it's sensible to use it when required in 'suitable' conditions (bad pun)
Me, I'm retiring hurt before the wars start....
Brendan
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kimhollamby
Administrator
Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 3847
Loc: London (at work)
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Always a difficult decision to take to go over the side in open waters; I've done it just twice in 30-something years of open sea yachting and motorboating, on both occasions in calm seas with the right gear and because I was worried in both cases about potential damage from a net wrap which had caused total disablement. But it's not the kind of thing I would see myself recommending as a good idea in a magazine as a standard ploy.
In some respects it was a lot easier than many wraps I have cleared in harbour -- the water was clean and clear, which is more than you enjoy if having to sort out a rope or lump of plastic once moored. In fact, my standard piece of kit ready for use after emerging from such places is a bottle of Dettol!
Also somewhat expecting to reach for the tin hat but quite happy to take views on what others have done in similar circumstances.
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 14718
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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Guess you were somwhat unfortunate being on a mobo. In a sailing boat one option might be to sail to a more sheltered anchorage or mooring and wait for slack water before doing the Jaques Cousteau thing.
I've only had to do it once, in the Adriatic, in very benign conditions. Biggest problem was washing the antifouling from my back afterwards.
Let's Twist Again
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kimhollamby
Administrator
Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 3847
Loc: London (at work)
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Ah yes, the blue rinse hair syndrome. Been there before myself although it's amazing how little you care about such things when the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.
This latest episode was on a boat that is conducting antifouling trials so I might have emerged from the deep looking like a patchwork quilt but it didn't happen. Biggest issue I got this time around was I had forgotten that the boat concerned had rope cutters (hadn't been on it for over a year) and so that skinned the first set of knuckles. It was also covered in barnacles on the trim tabs and sterngear which promptly carved up other parts of my hands. And I had forgotten my old working gloves that I sometimes use when tackling such things.
But at least I had slack water and the most amazing phosphorescent sea conditions that meant I didn't even need a night light to sort it all out; the glow was that bright.
Also another bonus...my trusty set of diver's shears; much more effective at snipping away even tightly compacted polyprop than a bread knife. Used to have a wickedly double-serrated edge folding knife but gave that up (quite literally dropped it in fact) when it caught in a rope one day, folded when it shouldn't have done so and proved its capability with human flesh. Have stuck with a smaller single-serrated diver's knife ever since but it rarely gets used in deference to the shears.
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Talbot
regular
Reged: 23/08/2003
Posts: 12454
Loc: Stavanger, Norway
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Difficult to beat a cheap hobby hacksaw with several spare blades - cuts just about anything and relatively safely!
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bilbobaggins
regular
Reged: 12/02/2005
Posts: 6925
Loc: The Shire
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I consider the laying of illegal crab pots ( 5-litre plastic bottles ) to be a Health and Safety Hazard. How's about a campaign for yotties to haul up the illegals and deposit them somewhere less hazardous - such as the Port of Southampton Harbour Master's personal parking slot?
if they are collected into a skip first, then taken to ABP Southampton and left, perhaps the problem will be addressed p.d.q. by those paid to sort it out.
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Fireball
regular
Reged: 15/11/2004
Posts: 7557
Loc: Chichester
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hmm ... you can pull them up on your winches if you like ... but I'll leave my winches still attached to the deck thankyou ...
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