Line Cutters - Prop Spurs and the like

[steve c]

I had spurs on two boats that I owned in a previous life. I found they were high maintenance items due to frequent bearing and zinc replacement and and the need to keep the blades sharp. They also caused a performance loss of appx. 1 kt on each boat due to the disruption of clean water getting to the props. The boats were a 32 Blackfin FB with Cats and a 31 Rampage with Volvos. Another consideration is the damage and loss of gear for the commercial fisherman. The gear is not cheap. To put the shoe on the other foot the commercial folks could simply switch to steel cable and not have problem with lost gear. I'm not a commercial fisherman but just trying to see both sides of the problem. r

[Captain Ralph]

Another consideration is the damage and loss of gear for the commercial fisherman. The gear is not cheap. To put the shoe on the other foot the commercial folks could simply switch to steel cable and not have problem with lost gear. I'm not a commercial fisherman but just trying to see both sides of the problem. r

If the pot fisher folk were worried about their gear, They would not place the traps IN the channel.
I understand close to the edge, close to the bottoms contour change. I can see some moving during weather and fast current events, but not farms of them in the channel as here in the St Johns River from Jax to Lake George.

[Pascal]

Same in the keys. Some of the channels crossing the keys like channel 5 are all clogged up with pots. Hawks Channel is a nightmare too the whole way

[steve c]

Pots in the channel...I agree completely , cut them off, but anchoring in a pot field is not a great idea.

[Freestyle]

Follow up from my original post.

Installed Shaft Sharks and cruised from Tampa to Bimini through Marathon in daylight and then the Hawk at night.

North of Marathon lobster pots can get dense. We believe we dodged most in daylight with one confirmed kill. We lost count of dodging maneuvers around 30 so estimate 50.

Night time was Shaft Sharks time to shine. No dodging maneuvers.

We arrived Nassau with the remnants of 14 lines wrapped between the Shaft Sharks and the prop.

Did the Shaft Sharks work?

Yes, we arrived in Nassau without incident caused by crab pots.

No, we had remnants of 14 lines around the shaft.

Both, what did I expect?

As a half full guy, I say they worked as expected. We probably cut free at night as many as we dodged during the day.

Bruce

Freestyle
1985 62 CPMY (54MY with ext)
Tampa en route to Eleuthera