The Steamboating Forum

I promise not to gloat (at least not very much) when Bart is hanging over the stern trying to get stuff out of the prop.

Mike

With the growing aquatic weed problem, maybe steamers should think about installing wells over the prop like the old gillnetters had so you can get to the prop with a hook or hand if your arm is long enough.

One caution, before you remove the well cover be sure the boat is trimmed so that the top of the well is above the waterline or it could ruin your whole day. We sucked a loop of straying purse line through stays on the basket and around one of the prop blades. At first dad thought, no problem we get at it through the well ,but fortunatley he realized, that with the load of fish we had onboard, the top of the well was below the waterline before he removed the cover

Well Well?

Dave

Oilking wrote:With the growing aquatic weed problem, maybe steamers should think about installing wells over the prop like the old gillnetters had so you can get to the prop with a hook or hand if your arm is long enough.

One caution, before you remove the well cover be sure the boat is trimmed so that the top of the well is above the waterline or it could ruin your whole day. We sucked a loop of straying purse line through stays on the basket and around one of the prop blades. At first dad thought, no problem we get at it through the well ,but fortunatley he realized, that with the load of fish we had onboard, the top of the well was below the waterline before he removed the cover

This is what the narrow boats do in England - there's far too much crap in the canals that wants to wrap itself around the shaft.

With a proper hook and perhaps a blade on a pole, this just seems like a good idea, esp. if the opening hatch is in the rear deck and is a proper well... my brother and I have been kicking this around for a bit; we'll have to see how reachable the prop would be. I got some line tangled round Otter's prop in the San Juans last summer; with a couple of us on the foredeck to raise the stern my brother was able to reach enough of the prop from his low aluma-craft to detangle things. With a bigger boat that would have been more complicated - or at least wetter.

- Bart

With all the worry about weed, lines and bags etc fouling the prop, how have people found the line cutters like the Spurs etc



Seems like they might help.

Cheers

Paul

Seems pretty effective.

Wonder how it would cope with a supermarket trolley?

(common prop fodder on our canals)

I have used the 'spurs' and one other product like it on my sailboat. They work great on crab pot lines and jib sheets (don't ask!) and sometimes help with kelp tubes but don't do much with eel grass and kelp fronds.

Mike

Hmmm. I can generally clear biological fouling by reversing... but various lines have been a real issue. Of course, I've never gotten tangled up in kelp fronds.

Perhaps a worthwhile addition...

- Bart

I've been bobbing around in the ocean for quite a while [not as long as Mike!!] and have never found it necessary to cruise into kelp beds! The Eel grass is quite thick where we tie up for wine &cheese at the Victoria Classic Boat Festival but is quite deep so other than fouling up the anchor it is no problem. Eel grass is not that long -perhaps 30 in or so and if you are fouling your prop one would think you may be in water that's a tad too shallow!! That being said I have tested my charts to see if they are accurate-They were! only once -never again! Nothing broke and it definately was not Eel grass I rubbed on! Den

The eel grass beds are, indeed, rather shallow but it seems to come loose a lot and drift about. On my return from McConnell Island last Summer, I arrived at Lopez Island with a great big ball of grass on my prop. Still moving forward but much vibration and slower progress.

Mike

The sidewheeler, no worry about grass, just steam right over it. Shallow water, full steam ahead. Have kicked up the rudders a few times, they are hinged to swing up as they are the deepest part of the boat. It is nice to be able to go into the shallows for exploring places where the other steamers dare not go. Can go just about anywhere, except the dock!