Nissan 6 HP 4 cycles

[pbryant]

Rather than a knife on a pole - I suggest using a boathook and a knife from your pocket. That way we can re-tie the crabpot lines back together after freeing ourselves while not screwing the owner out of making a living or doom generations of crabs to a useless death.

PHM
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And with a team of Navy divers, I might have accomplished that. If you watch my video (link below), you'll see my predicament. There was:

• At least 100 pounds of tension on the line trying to pull my engine down through the engine port into the sea. The swells were adding shock loads that were way beyond anyone's ability to pull the engine up out of the port. I would have broken my strongest gear trying to haul the engine up against the shock loads. The crab pot float was jammed between the anti-cavitation plate and the prop.
• Ocean swells were boarding my stern. I was effectively "anchored by the stern in swells." Boats sink that way from waves boarding astern.
• I had no way to reach the line, or even see it.
• The line went vertically down into the water, so it could not be accessed from any angle over either side or the transom.

I'd been bobbing around for over an hour with swells boarding my stern, pooping the cockpit, while trying every other method to access the line, including keel-hauling a line from the bow to grab the line (the swells just forced the line forward of the stern).

It was now sunset. With daylight nearly gone, what would you have done?

And for the record, I don't believe I cut the line, but instead impaled the float with my knife and forced it to slip under the engine shaft, as the video shows. Since there were two floats on the line, the fisherman should still have been able to retrieve it. Not that it would be worth very much, after I dragged it half a mile across the bottom.

Crab season ends June 30th. Until then, I'm going to add a tree trimmer (http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...mage_17978.jpg) to my gear. This happened in very mild swell conditions - 3 to 4 foot swells. If it had been the usual 8 foot swells that I sail in, I could have lost my boat from waves boarding astern. I've spent $600 on LED lights placed on my bow to spot crab pots at night. I've done my part. But it's a mine field out there! And I see very few crab pot floats with reflective tape on them. Apparently the fishermen don't care enough about losing pots to add $1 worth of reflective tape. I do care about losing my boat and my life.

https://youtu.be/Nj8oXKjRZxE