10/1 - bad day - but it could have been much worse

[Shortfin]

You can have all the hours on the water you want, if you're putting people in the cold water, in rough seas, with sharp knives....not too smart....seems smarter to me to have the Spurs or another brand and make them fit, or call BoatUS.

I am in agreement with going in cold water but Nantucket sound in sept/october is far from too cold for a 10-15 minute saw job

Oh yeah Boat US is fast asleep at that hour

[SoBoSlow]

I have done some reading on Spurs before. There is another concern with them that has not been mentioned. They cut the line "most" of the time.

The problem is when they do not work, you have a much worse situation. Now you are diving under the boat with one knife in your hand and two or three others on the very shaft you are trying to work on. The concern is that when they do not work they make what was a bad situation that you could have been prepared for into a much more dangerous one.

So you end up even with Spurs on your boat, needing a serated knife, a way to retrieve your diver, a mask, a wetsuit and a pony tank, just in case they do not work. And, when they do not work, you now have a much more dangerous scenario going on under the boat.

[backman]

FWIW - I agree w. you Billy of those were the conditions - then you just wait for daylight and a tow.

I cannot put spurs on my shafts without increasing the gaps between shaft and hub abd thus decreasing the safety factor of my shaft. Breaking a shaft is an experience I never want to repeat.

Spurs would have assured a tow home on Friday with this piece of joy. Notice the hog rings used to staple the float line to the down line as well as the open staples. That was designed to go up into a prop and stay there; nice....

[AssistedLiving]

1) To echo a previous recommendation: A serrated edge works much better than your typical straight edged blade to get through rope (even the small one you find in a leatherman works well)

2) Is there any good reason not to have a helmet of some sort on when you go under the boat?

3) That is one hell of a pot line... looks like some sort of barbaric weapon. Crazy. I'm sure that was an absolute blast to deal with.

[oldmud]

Good thread Larry, i am surprised no one has mentioned "Clean outs" this is one on the last boat i did. Steel hull dory,and 6" pipe. All you need is a small folding tree saw, duct tape and a gaff handle. up here we usually have them on our glass boats also. These are usually built in to the lazzerette and sometimes come up through the deck with a simple bronze cover.

Don

[sushi42]

[QUOTE=AssistedLiving;755230]1)
2) Is there any good reason not to have a helmet of some sort on when you go under the boat?


Regarding the helmet, a 1'4" hoodie should also be added to the rest of the safety package. This will do two things, allow the underwater specialist (or the poor sucker who drew the short straw) to hold most of his body heat which enables him to last longer in the cold water and two will help soften any blows he may take to the brain bucket while under water. I've ended up in this predicament more times than I care to talk about but what I like to do is get under the boat and actually straddle the entire hull where the problem lies. Your upside down but your working the problem usually with both hands free and makes solving the issue much easier. There's no substitute for being able to get under the water and assessing the issue with your own eyes. Good job Jackson.

Every boat needs a Jackson on deck!

[chumtini]

Heard you on the radio LB. Tried unsuccessfully to hail skipjack a couple times. Glad everything worked out.

Not sure what's going on over the sword. I was out Thurs and Fri and saw that chopper flying "stuff" back. Big stuff. And there's a ship positioned directly on the sword. And it didn't look like the cutter.

[backman]

The hoodie is a great idea. I carried a bicycle helmet for a while till I jumped in with it one time and found out the hard way just how much flotation a foam lined helmet has !

And second on good job Jackson as well as Matt...

[Big Fish Billy]

FWIW - I agree w. you Billy of those were the conditions - then you just wait for daylight and a tow.

I cannot put spurs on my shafts without increasing the gaps between shaft and hub abd thus decreasing the safety factor of my shaft. Breaking a shaft is an experience I never want to repeat.

Spurs would have assured a tow home on Friday with this piece of joy. Notice the hog rings used to staple the float line to the down line as well as the open staples. That was designed to go up into a prop and stay there; nice....

Yeah I got you there, when things were tight on my Post, I put drive savers on and spaced the prop back enough to get them on. I've never wound anything up with the Spurs on, and have a piece of 1" nylon similar to your samples for a souvenier. As for BoatUS, in the Newburyport area, the owner of the franchise, Mike Goodrich drives and dives day or night for this kind of thing, sorry to hear guys in other areas don't....