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Tips and tricks for getting rid of crab/lobster floats

8K views 29 replies 20 participants last post by  PalmettoSailor 
#1 ·
The title should be self-explanatory. In the Chesapeake forum, we discussed that it would be nice to share what to do when you caught that float around your keel/shaft/rudder/prop. Of course here we fight the crab pots but this is surely a wider problem. I have sailed in Maine and the lobster pots there are just as thick there as the crab pots are here.

Not that I can much contribute. I purchased, just for this purpose, an extendable 11' pole, from Hookit. If I am lucky I can push the float line off the boat. If not, at least the pole allows me to pull up the line to deck level. At which point the feature role is taken over by a sharp knife...

Of course I don't like damaging someone else's property but I usually single-hand and I will not go over the side in the open Bay when I am by myself.

So, let's hear it. What tricks have you up your sleeve in that situation?
 
#2 ·
If it is around the shaft or wheel DO NOT try to run the engine in hopes of freeing itself, it wont. If it is wrapped around shaft or wheel the only way to get to it is cut it out which isnt always easy. I once spend 50 mins under a lobster boat because they were steaming with both engines while the starboard was fouled ( yes they knew it was fouled ) by the time they got 20 miles in it was a knotted mess on the wheel and a plastic ball around the shaft because it had melted to do excessive heat and friction. Try to cut it out yourself, get a tow, or call a diver. Thats why I have a response boat.
 
#4 ·
Put a line cutter on your prop shaft and forget about them. I have a blade , bolted to the front of my aperture, running down at a 45 degree angle, just touching the prop hub. Any line trying to wrap around this blade is instantly sliced.
Cutting the odd crab pot line is just a part of cruising. If they want to save their pots, they should keep them out of main channels. We cruisers should not have to bear the costs of such foolishness (bent prop shafts, wrecked trannys and bell housings, etc.).
 
#9 ·
I HAVE a line cutter, in the space between the strut and the prop.

Are you saying I should move the line cutter all the way back until it touches the prop?

Two weeks ago a line from a crab pot got in-between the line cutter and the prop. I had to do a quick haul-out (at the cost of several hundred dollars) and it may have bent the shaft slightly.
 
#5 ·
Brent,

Line cutters work, right up untill they don't. I had to replace the shaft of my last boat due to a line wrapping the shaft and torquing it out of true. Sadly the line cutter couldn't make it through the wire leader in the line.

I generally assume I am going to have to cut away crab traps when they get hooked. Sometimes you get lucky, but if the engine is running they almost always wrap, and if you are sailing they tend to slide off without getting a bite on anything.
 
#8 ·
I find that most of the pots that I have hooked actually hook the toggle on the propeller. In this case, you can grappel the pickup buoy and if you know which side of the wheel it is on (usually determined by current direction), you walk forward with the pickup buoy on that side. Once you have walked well forward, you pull really hard and you can usually get the line to come off the forward end of the prop. Then you just need to get it passed without it hooking again.
 
#10 ·
The line cutter is supposed to cut line as well as "seal" the "space" from the strut to the collar of the wheel. Like anything one day they are bound to meet their match. I absolutely hate diving on vessels that have them because they can, will and have taken fingers and a half of a hand.
 
#11 ·
As far as lobstermen & crabbers splashing their gear, remember that those pots are easily dragged. If the tide is high and line has not been added to compensate it can be light enough to drag in a current, or lets not forget vessels snagging them unknowingly and dragging them about. As a former lobsterman the last thing they want is to lose those pots. Sometimes it is a risk when placing them but sometimes dragging happens.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Just wondering if crabbers consider having their lines caught around props and cut the cost of doing business?
I know a lot of commercial crabbers here in Puget Sound. They do lose a lot of gear and it's not uncommon that they run over their own gear or the gear of a neighboring crabber. They typically grab their buoy and hook it in their power block and then just let the boat turn circles while they tail the line, sort crabs and re-bait the pots. No one is driving during this minute or two, the boat just circles which puts their neighbor's gear at risk. It's not uncommon to see a crabber lying on the swim step clearing a fouled prop. The commercial guys at least use a leaded line. The darn recreational guys will often use a floating line. That's just a hazard.

I carry a shorty wetsuit and snorkel gear on the boat in case I ever have to clear a line on my boat. I hope I never have to use it because the waters here are too cold to use a shorty comfortably, but I think I could do it if I had to. I never want to find out though.
 
#15 ·
I've seen a few boat while shopping that have installed cages around prop/shaft. Not sure how well they work to avoid lines.

I've run over a few lobster floats so far, but haven't become fouled on one yet. Then again, I haven't sailed anything with an inboard yet either....
 
#18 ·
As DivingOtter said, cages can be a nightmare. Very few are closed on the aft end so they are still susceptible in reverse. I have seen the whole works bent up more than once with the actual buoy inside the cage.

In Maine, I think that a lot of buoys could be saved if they put their toggles much closer to the pickup buoy, like 4' not 30'. They would be slightly harder to pick up but you wouldn't be forced to run between the buoys and toggles. A timed release of the buoy could be cool. The low tech way of doing this is bags of salt but that would be a whole lot of salt.
 
#16 ·
I've been trying to think of a mechanism that would work to drop a pot with a submerged float that sits 7' below the surface, perhaps with a 10# monofilament leader and a bobber to the surface. Then you'd pick it up with some kind of a rake assembly. The crabbers would lose fewer pots, and the boaters would lose fewer props.
 
#17 ·
DM- I have actually worked on boats that have those. They may work they may not. When the line DOES get fouled its a real hassel. Since theres no room to get a knife or blade in there to work. Therefore it needs to be removed before working which ups my time and ups my pay.Good for me bad for the owner.
 
#21 ·
I've always cut one end of the line and cleated it off. Once cut, the buoy can be retrieved from the other side. I then re-tie it and throw it over. All done without going in, but have to take down the sails and use a boat hook. It just takes a little time, but I figure it's worth it....after all, I ran into the buoy and am at fault. These guys work hard for every dollar. The Chesapeake is easy in comparison to some places in Maine. If it's wrapped around the prop and you're motoring....then you have bigger problems.
 
#28 ·
....after all, I ran into the buoy and am at fault. These guys work hard for every dollar...
I wish they would work a little harder to place their crab traps, fish nets and buoys outside of marked channels and away from aids to navigation on the Chesapeake Bay, particularly for those of us who sail at night.

Are they placing them near the NavAids because they are easy to find? I suppose some animals frequent the channel bank to feed, but they could easily locate these markers farther away from boat traffic.

I sailed into the entrance to the Great Wicomico River at night in late June. The next morning when I left the river, I was amazed that I had not run into one of the unmarked, unlighted fish traps positioned close to either side of the channel leading into the river, or one of the numerous crab traps surrounding the navigational aids.

Many of these floats and traps have become serious hazards to navigation on the Bay.
 
#22 ·
this is a growing problem thats only going to get worse,more boaters and fewer places to crab/lobster in,makes me think of the old west between the cattle men and the homesteaders [fences etc] I've accidently snaged a pot or two before and thats not fun,pot bouys are hard to see when theres lots of chop! the next time i haul my boat i'm going to put on a slasher
 
#25 ·
Interesting that some have noticed that line can get between the prop and cutter, I assume this was with scissor or disc cutters as this is what we have seen on fishing boats. Net and pot boats.

The quicKutter was designed to shave off debris that is caught by a prop in this way and protects from the build up of debris. It is also safe for divers to work with as there are no scissor blades or any blades that revolve with the shaft. So even if you need a diver they can rotate the shaft with no risk to their fingers.

It does need a spool attached to the prop to give a flat surface for debris to wrap onto, they are used by the Royal Navy and the RNLI as well as Christensen, Aqua Star to name a few.
 
#26 ·
That was me who had the incident with line caught between prop and cutter. Indeed, I have a disk cutter.

I googled quickutter. They say this happens frequently when going astern. Indeed, this is exactly when I had the problem.

What I did NOT find was any indication how much this 'shaving' system (quickutter) costs and where it is sold.
 
#27 ·
Last summer in Narragansett Bay, going from Newport to Providence the channel was littered with trap buoys. A slight chop made many invisible until i was upon them. Not near the channel, not close to the channel, right in the buoyed shipping channel. There was not a clear path, period.
I think these fishermen should be required to use significantly sized buoys with their fishing ID numbers prominently displayed on them & if they wish to fish in the channels, they should take responsibility for their actions and pay for damages they cause by not leaving a fairway for vessel travel. I worry not at all about THEIR losses of equipment, just the cost to me when they do not leave me any clear route, IN A BUOYED CHANNEL.
 
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