Have you snagged nets or pot lines?

[GulfSailor]

On our cat, which is powered by twin outboards, we had regular problems with snagging pot lines when sailing at night (and in daylight too sometimes), until we fitted prop guards like this:

This isn't really practical for our boats, but a common solution for shaft driven boats is to use 'SPURS' or a similar product: http://www.spursmarine.com/Images/pdf/Shaft_Brochure.pdf

Has anyone here fitted these, and what has anyone else's experience been with prop entanglement?

 

[dencarst]

GulfSalior

When we bought our R27 I ask adding this for our boat and per Ranger Tug this is not recommended.
Because there is a clearance problem between the prop and support for the drive shaft.
You might talk to Ranger Tug.

Dennis

 

[GulfSailor]

GulfSalior

When we bought our R27 I ask adding this for our boat and per Ranger Tug this is not recommended.
Because there is a clearance problem between the prop and support for the drive shaft.
You might talk to Ranger Tug.

Dennis

Thanks, I guess this is another one for Andrew. 😉

 

[tuggertoy]

I hate to speak to the obvious, but avoiding nets, pot lines and other forms of fishing gear should be your first line of defense against a fowled prop. Where we boat on the Chesapeake Bay most of the gear that we encounter in the water has been set by commercial fisherman who make there living off of this equipment. When you run over lines with a vessel equipped with spurs you may keep your prop from being fowled but you are at the very least making it difficult for that fisherman to retrieve the gear tethered to that line and at most costing him the pot or other equipment and it's catch if he is unable to retrieve it at all.

I understand that it can be frustrating at times having to navigate through or around the areas where commercial fisherman are working the water but these guys have a hard enough time making a living without us cutting there gear to shreds.

Eric

 

[GulfSailor]

I hate to speak to the obvious, but avoiding nets, pot lines and other forms of fishing gear should be your first line of defense against a fowled prop. Where we boat on the Chesapeake Bay most of the gear that we encounter in the water has been set by commercial fisherman who make there living off of this equipment. When you run over lines with a vessel equipped with spurs you may keep your prop from being fowled but you are at the very least making it difficult for that fisherman to retrieve the gear tethered to that line and at most costing him the pot or other equipment and it's catch if he is unable to retrieve it at all.

I understand that it can be frustrating at times having to navigate through or around the areas where commercial fisherman are working the water but these guys have a hard enough time making a living without us cutting there gear to shreds.

Eric

Well yes, it is fairly obvious that if you want to avoid getting fouled you should avoid the obstacle, and though I'm guilty of making many mistakes on the water over the years, charging blindly through a field of pot markers isn't one of them.

However, as I'm sure you're aware, it's sometimes impossible to find a clear path through the maze, and it's a problem exacerbated when the lobsterman has fitted a line long enough that the float can be seen at high water and you happen to be transiting at low water.
With the best will in the world you can be avoiding the lines snaking around on your starboard side only to find you've engaged one or more to port.
Sometimes one is forced into the floats by the necessity to avoid other traffic, or by being washed into them by the inconsiderate passing wake of another boat.

In a perfect world, pots would always be laid at the edge of the channel and with a sensible length of line, you would always be able to travel in the center of the channel, and there would be no need for any interaction between recreational boats and pot lines.

Unfortunately life's not like that, and at the end of the day I would rather be the reason that a pot gets lost than to put my boat or the lives of my passengers in danger.

Also, I would welcome any suggestions to be able avoid the issue when making a night passage.
While radar, if properly tuned, will show floats in flat calm conditions, it's not at all practical to use for avoidance unless one is travelling at idle speed.

At the end of the day I want to have avoided all obstacles, and on our cat the prop rings I mentioned in the earlier post allowed us to do that nicely in regard to floats on lines, but if it's a choice between a line wound around the prop that brings the engine to a violent stop, or automatically cutting that line before it has the chance to halt or damage the boat I'll take cutting the line every time.

Finally, if there is a commercially available solution that I could use which is similar to the prop rings for outboards, I would be more than happy to hear about it.

I would much rather be protected from snagging a line in the first place, than having to cut one that does snag.

 

[RProffer]

Here is a tip. If I encounter a fish trap area (or some other hazard) and it is not already marked in my Garmin Chartplotter, then I will manually mark it in the chartplotter. That way, if I should return to that area at night or poor visibility, I will know of the hazard.

 

[GulfSailor]

Here is a tip. If I encounter a fish trap area (or some other hazard) and it is not already marked in my Garmin Chartplotter, then I will manually mark it in the chartplotter. That way, if I should return to that area at night or poor visibility, I will know of the hazard.

Yes, that's good advice for everyone.
We always take care to detour around areas marked like that on the charts.
The problem here in FL is that some trap fishermen tend to act as a law unto themselves.
The majority are responsible, but it only takes a few idiots to ruin your day (or night).
Marking your charts when you find a hazard that's not shown is the sensible course of action, but once you get offshore there's often little consistancy in where the traps will be laid from week to week.