What's the best course of action when you get tangled up on a crab pot? Happened to me today after a GREAT afternoon sail. Ruined my day. Took me hours to get back to my dock. I just hope I did not damage any drive shaft components!!
Crab pots
- Thread starter Broke sailor SV Marcell
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Over the Side
You might try an alternate method of freeing the pot, but many times you have to go over the side to free it up (sometimes only from the dinghy). Diligence, prudence and caution are the best alternatives, but the thing you may try is: 1. If you don't think it's too tangled, put someone on the helm, the boat in neutral (or shut off) and back the shaft down by hand from an accessible hand-hold. Try to unwind the line from the prop or shaft. If it frees, you are golden. Otherwise plan on getting wet or call a tow. Line cutters will not always work for you. In the future, just be watchful and keep your distance. If you can't avoid one, immediately slow down and put the boat in neutral while trying to glide by. Good Luck in the future.
You might try an alternate method of freeing the pot, but many times you have to go over the side to free it up (sometimes only from the dinghy). Diligence, prudence and caution are the best alternatives, but the thing you may try is: 1. If you don't think it's too tangled, put someone on the helm, the boat in neutral (or shut off) and back the shaft down by hand from an accessible hand-hold. Try to unwind the line from the prop or shaft. If it frees, you are golden. Otherwise plan on getting wet or call a tow. Line cutters will not always work for you. In the future, just be watchful and keep your distance. If you can't avoid one, immediately slow down and put the boat in neutral while trying to glide by. Good Luck in the future.
Over the side
We haven't hit one in a long time. While in the Keys we hit several lobster pots. A times it seemed that they were everywhere. This was on a Hunter 30 and they hung up on the prop. While sailing I or my daughter would go overboard and kick it off. But I snagged one while motoring and after about 20 minutes in the water I reluctantly cut the line. It was a bad situation in that we couldn't move and were in 3-4' waves near shore. Did I mention that it was getting dark. It would be very hard to get free of these floats without getting wet. I am a diver and pretty good at snorkling someone not comfortable in the water might have a hard time. Funny thing: After my daughter freed us a few times I made a mistake of bragging on her doing a good job and not being afraid of sharks or anything. "Sharks" she exclaimed "I didn't know that there were sharks". After that she wouldn't go overboard. I had wrongly assumed that she knew that there are sharks in Hawk Channel.
We haven't hit one in a long time. While in the Keys we hit several lobster pots. A times it seemed that they were everywhere. This was on a Hunter 30 and they hung up on the prop. While sailing I or my daughter would go overboard and kick it off. But I snagged one while motoring and after about 20 minutes in the water I reluctantly cut the line. It was a bad situation in that we couldn't move and were in 3-4' waves near shore. Did I mention that it was getting dark. It would be very hard to get free of these floats without getting wet. I am a diver and pretty good at snorkling someone not comfortable in the water might have a hard time. Funny thing: After my daughter freed us a few times I made a mistake of bragging on her doing a good job and not being afraid of sharks or anything. "Sharks" she exclaimed "I didn't know that there were sharks". After that she wouldn't go overboard. I had wrongly assumed that she knew that there are sharks in Hawk Channel.
Happened to me
It happened to me last season leaving a small "cocktail cove" type place. Once I realized what happened I immediately dropped anchor. The wind was up so I started drifting backwards. The idiot moored behind (and downwind) from me just stood there staring at me slack-jawed. Finally my wife told him if he liked his boat he better move to another spot. He copped an attitude...like I did it on purpose!! Anyway, over I went. I tried to untangle the mess but it was wound too tight. I had to cut it free. I did manage to piece the line and pot back together so the owner would see that mouth of the cove was a pretty stupid place to leave it. Sure enough the same pot is back there this season... I installed a Prop Protect blade on my prop shaft this year (see link). We often sail up the coast of Maine there are spots where I swear you could walk for miles on the pots without getting your feet wet they are so thick. The water there is dark and cooold. I do not want to go over up there. We also now carry snorkle gear just in case... Andy
It happened to me last season leaving a small "cocktail cove" type place. Once I realized what happened I immediately dropped anchor. The wind was up so I started drifting backwards. The idiot moored behind (and downwind) from me just stood there staring at me slack-jawed. Finally my wife told him if he liked his boat he better move to another spot. He copped an attitude...like I did it on purpose!! Anyway, over I went. I tried to untangle the mess but it was wound too tight. I had to cut it free. I did manage to piece the line and pot back together so the owner would see that mouth of the cove was a pretty stupid place to leave it. Sure enough the same pot is back there this season... I installed a Prop Protect blade on my prop shaft this year (see link). We often sail up the coast of Maine there are spots where I swear you could walk for miles on the pots without getting your feet wet they are so thick. The water there is dark and cooold. I do not want to go over up there. We also now carry snorkle gear just in case... Andy
Gardening Stores!
Gardening Shops sometimes carry a gadget to attach to a long pole which is used to trim overhanging branches. They are operated via a length of cord. I bought one and made a fitting for my extending boathook. My 376 is too broad at the stern to allow working on the pot line and it will immediately turn downwind and thus make it difficult to get the main down leading to a dangerous situation. Over the side is also V dangerous except in light conds, warm seas and with a tether. So far, in the UK in the last 12 months we have only had ONE TOTAL LOSS but many thousands of pounds worth of damage. For info, fishermen set 20 pots on about 200 yards of line with a float on each end. Every pot is weighted so hopes of a tow succeeding are just pure optimism. Also fit a stripper and make sure your coupling is tight. There have been sinkings when the shaft pulled clean out of the boat!!
Gardening Shops sometimes carry a gadget to attach to a long pole which is used to trim overhanging branches. They are operated via a length of cord. I bought one and made a fitting for my extending boathook. My 376 is too broad at the stern to allow working on the pot line and it will immediately turn downwind and thus make it difficult to get the main down leading to a dangerous situation. Over the side is also V dangerous except in light conds, warm seas and with a tether. So far, in the UK in the last 12 months we have only had ONE TOTAL LOSS but many thousands of pounds worth of damage. For info, fishermen set 20 pots on about 200 yards of line with a float on each end. Every pot is weighted so hopes of a tow succeeding are just pure optimism. Also fit a stripper and make sure your coupling is tight. There have been sinkings when the shaft pulled clean out of the boat!!
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