Replies Regarding These Shaft Cutters

[MVDarlin]

I have discs like Fish53. They work great. Spurs are less effective for some reason. Essential if you are running in an area with traps. No matter how alert you are you will at some time catch a trap. Some traps are abandoned and collect seaweed that submerges the float over time.

 

[Nepidae]

Often times, at least in MD, traps are like that outside of the channel and access to a marina would be cleared by the marina, if necessary.

Sometimes the 1000 words needs some clarification as to what you are seeing.

 

[Mischief Managed]

If somewhere is that dense with pots, unless I'm in dire need of fuel, I'm just not going there. Not worth the risk.

You would not believe how impossible it is to go around. There are parts of the Maine coast that are just horrendously crowded with lobster traps as far as you can see. I love cruising there, but it can be awful at times.

 

[Birdman]

I agree, here is a better picture of my install. I didn't measure the gap, but it hopefully allows for adequate flow through the cutlass bearing.

That will be perfectly fine! Anything over an 1/8" is perfectly acceptable. I ran hard for 12 years on my last boat (30 rampage) with about 1/8" of space, cutlass bearings still going strong when I sold it. I replaced one when I bent a shaft, but only because it was already out...

P/N SS600

$825.25 each

I need 2. Total cost $1650.50 + tax

Plus cost of s hualout or diver


https://ab-marine.com/shaft-shark/

YIKES!! Wow, they went way up in price!

One example, this pic from Vinalhaven Maine

YOUZA!!! Or should I say, YIKES!!

Are the "lobster" pots using floating line. some of the stories here suggest this. Some of you make it sound normal and expected to come across a line to tangle into.

I think in some instances, yes. But that's not always the problem. Sometimes there is a floating trailer line with a float used to easily hook the line to pull the pot. Think two floats with a 10' line between them. You run it over, your going to tangle something... In my case, they are crab pots. BUT, more time than not for me, it has been heavy fishing line (400 lb mono), or just a floating piece of line in the water. You UN-knowingly run it over and it wraps around your shaft and/or prop. It can tangle and slice into your cutlass bearing(fishing line does this), or just wreak havoc on your prop(s). You will feel a vibration like you dinged a prop, only to find a line wrapped around it... Last summer 80 miles offshore I felt a vibration, my buddy said he would go for a swim. When he came up he had a puzzled look on his face. He said their was a 4' piece of 1/2 line trailing the prop, and it had a 12" eye (loop) on the end of it, which was around one of the blades of my 4 bladed prop. How it got on there like that we will never know! That was the first time in 12 years the shark shaft did not cut whatever I hooked onto.

BTW, is there any reason the prop cannot have a knife edge near the hub?

I don't know hydro-dynamically, but I'm guessing it won't really help most of the time. The line comes from forward of the prop most of the time (unless your in reverse backing down on a fish I guess?), and usually wraps around the shaft and strut before hitting the shaft cutters and prop. I have pulled my boat out in fall, and found small remnants of line still on the shaft more than once over the years. So the shark cut it off, but some was left on shaft ahead of it...

 

[rslifkin]

When he came up he had a puzzled look on his face. He said their was a 4' piece of 1/2 line trailing the prop, and it had a 12" eye (loop) on the end of it, which was around one of the blades of my 4 bladed prop. How it got on there like that we will never know! That was the first time in 12 years the shark shaft did not cut whatever I hooked onto.

With only a 4 foot piece, there's a decent chance it did get cut, but the prop snagged the loop and held on to that piece as it all departed.

 

[Birdman]

With only a 4 foot piece, there's a decent chance it did get cut, but the prop snagged the loop and held on to that piece as it all departed.

Oh, absolutely. But how the heck did a 12" loop get around ONE blade of the prop? You would be hard pressed to put the loop around one blade of the prop on dry land by hand! It wasn't tangled, it looked like somebody docking, put the loop over the cleat (in this case one prop blade).

On that same trip we had several other odd ball things occur. We normally troll for tuna, but that day we stopped on a bait ball and were casting some jigs and chunking (fishing with chunks of bait). A whale came out of know where and banged into the bow of the boat! It thought another boat had run into us, I looked up and there was nothing there... until a few seconds later a whale popped up rubbing on the side of the boat. We see and have whales around all the time when tuna fishing, in 30 years I've never had one bang into the drifting boat!