"Blackdragon"

[Ken Heyman]

and I thought bleeding the fuel system was exciting-----:

http://sailblogs.com/member/blackdragon/

[Lance Jones]

Great story!!! I had to dive on my prop in about the same temp water to free the main sheet about a year ago. WAAAAAY cold!

[Ken Heyman]

I guess occasionally you can get lucky by turning the shaft by hand from the aft cabin or by trying reverse gear. The risk of the latter is torquing and flexing the shaft .  Only other options would be to sail to an area where you can deploy the anchor and wait for help or dive on the shaft in 'ideal" conditions. Anyway we wish Blackdragon well as that was quite a story with a good outcome.

Ken

[waterdog]

You cannot believe how bright and beautiful the day was after a warm shower and hot coffee in the sunshine after a very dark and gloomy night.   Never felt quite so alive.   We are in Noyo River now.    A local fisherman here says he would never dive in the waters near Shelter Cove.  One of the surfers up there apparently "lost his head" to a great white.   Next time I'll throw Scupper in first for a little swim to see if it is safe...       

[Ron Hill]

Steve : While you're on your adventure you need to embellish your stories. i. e.

We were less than 8 hours away from the dock on a 8/9 month cruise when my "assistant" was at the helm and caught a crab pot which stopped the engine !!  She immediately said "we need to throw out an anchor"!   I pointed out that with a 5/6 knot current that we were so firmly affixed to the bottom that we  weren't going anywhere !!!   So I put on the bright red swim trunks (so they could more easily find the body) climbed the rigging to the spreader arms.  I put the knife in my teeth, beat my chest, let out a AHaaaa, and dove into the water to cut the crab pot line from the prop.

Actually I slid down the boarding ladder (tethered to the boat) into that cold water and got he job done!  However, the first version of the story sounds much better!!   A thought 

[Stu Jackson]

Great story!!! I had to dive on my prop in about the same temp water to free the main sheet about a year ago. WAAAAAY cold!

I don't care a hoot about the water temperature or your diving abilities.

What MILLIONS wanna know is how in the world could a MAINSHEET on a C34 EVER get anywhere near the prop?!?    

I just GOTTA hear this one...

[hump180]

I second Stu's inquiry!!

[Lance Jones]

Ok, here it is. Swear to St Patty himself!
We were in 10 foot seas on Lake Lanier and had been dodging Icebergs all night. I had just done an emergency tack to avoid a surfacing Ohio Class submarine........ Good start?

I had a cockpit full of friends. Well, one was a friend the other three were novices. My policy on striking the sails at the completion of a cruise is to have the motor running BEFORE lowering any sails to insure I have power. Yes, it is in neutral.

During this cruise, I had gone forward to help bring the sails down and affix the proper storage device. As my wife wasn't on board, I put a friend at the helm. My wife is familiar with this technique as she does it all the time. My friend wasn't. Unbeknown to us, the main sheet had trailed out over the side. My friend, seeing that we were taking down the sails, put the boat into gear. The mainsheet trailed along side and when he turned, it got drawn down into the prop. Stopped the motor cold! We tried starting and then putting it in reverse and many other variations to no avail.

Although my slip was tricky to sail to, that's why I motored, we sailed to the slip. After stowing all the supplies and putting her to bed, I donned a polar tech liner and went in with my mask and fins. The prop and shaft were totally wrapped. So, I unwrapped it after several dives. Upon getting out, I stripped down and had several pints of rum to warm me up. Yes, I know, it actually thins the blood; but, it also thickens the mind! So, that's the story.
 

[Ken Heyman]

Years ago I used to keep a wet suit on board just in case I had to enter Lake Michigan very early or very late in the season. During the shank of the season we usually can swim comfortably(water temp low to mid 70s).

While not a problem in the great lakes, wet suits do make a diver look more like dinner to those "great white thingies"

Another option would be a robotic knife wielding arm whereby we could cut away the fouled line,while enjoying a glass of rum from the cockpit or cabin . I'll give Raytheon and Garmin a call.

Ken

[Lance Jones]

Robotic arm????? Hummmmmm. The Space Shuttle fleet is retiring, unfortunately, in 2010 or 2011. Maybe we could scarf a couple up from them to mount on, or at least have handy for our boats!?

[Stu Jackson]

Lance got it right with the submarine on Lake lanier!  The real trick, as I think a lot of us are learning, is that cutting the line, while the first impulse, may not be the best unless you have one super sharp knife.  I found that unwrapping, while it took longer, was the ONLY thing that worked.

Guess we should have a little quiz:  Who HASN'T wrapped his prop shaft?

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Stu,
I'm not gonna touch that one with a 10 foot boat hook because as soon as I say "I haven't" , " I surely will.
Sooooo, I'm pleading the fifth. 

Mike

[Jack Hutteball]

I will own up and say I've done it the dumbest way, but at least a good learning lesson, backed over the dingy painter.  Just outside Deception pass here in the PNW the water temp measured 48 degrees and I had to do it with no wet suit like Steve had.  Took 3 dives and probably less than a minute and a half, but it took the rest of the summer day dressed in a sweatshirt and coat to warm back up.  Glad I was younger then because I surely would have the big one now.  Needless to say I always know where the painter is now when in reverse.
Jack

[Braxton]

I use polypropylene line for the dinghy painter for this very reason.   Having a floating painter makes putting up with the draw backs of poly line worth it.

[John Langford]

You can also buy one of those small doughnut shaped floats used by fishermen to keep up a net. Slip it onto the painter and tie a knot to keep it just at the point where the bridle begins. It is a lot of insurance for $1.