On our way to the Med for the summer on the day of the Round-the-Island race we were about 22 miles south of St Catherines point off the I.O.W. when we picked up a sustantial amount of fishing net (three different types), fishing line and lumps of wood etc which was hidden in a lump of weed that had been held under the water by the weight of it all. The engine stopped dead with a loud thud.The Rope Cutter chewed through all the fishing line and rope but not the heavy polypropylene net. "Her in training" was given her next task of trying on her new wet suit and testing it for an hour with a variety of sharp things kept for such an eventuallity. 90% of the net was removed but the last piece was having none of it! My first pan-pan to the Solent Coast Guard produced the life boat which arrived within the hour complete with in-house film crew. They were very impressed with our large and varied collection of fishing tackle which was now begining to consume our boat like some monster from the deep. The wash produced by the lifeboat turned our 36 footer into a bucking bronco and how we all laughed when the remaining piece of net about a meter square complete with a hole in the middle the size of our prop floated out to receive its 15 minutes of fame on the lifeboats video! Well, to late to carry on to Le Havre we headed back to Northerny Marina only to meet up with a power boat crew who had picked up an identical piece of netting in a similar position which had taken out their stern drive. A few days later we were walking past the fishing boats in Cherbourg when we noticed a couple of lads "tidying up" the end of an almost identical net and dropping the remnants over the side into the harbour. C'est la vie!!