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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Originally Posted by pbryant
Pulling the crab pot line aboard, up through my engine port, in ocean swells, or dangling myself in swells over the stern while trying to snag the line with a boat hook, while the crab pot acts as an anchor (requiring hauling the boat astern to the crab pot - provided the pot doesn't haul me overboard first) can be a difficult and dangerous process. And no, I am not going to try to back down on a line astern with the engine in ocean swells - while hauling it aboard through the engine port just inches away from my prop. As much as I might like fishermen, I'm not going to try to haul the line around to the bow or risk falling overboard or an entanglement with my prop.
I don't mind saving the fisherman's pot if I can do so without risking my life. Provided the crab pot isn't placed in a marked navigation channel, in which case it's as much a vessel trap as it is a crab trap. I have seen many of those around Half Moon Bay. Some clearly abandoned with what looks like years of overgrowth on the floats, meaning there's nothing but crab skeletons inside the traps. Archaeologists will be studying those non-biodegradable floats and line in a thousand years. There should be a maximum amount of time pots can be left in place, after which, people should be encouraged to pull up the abandoned traps, and if they are stuck on the bottom (which is probably why they were abandoned) to cut the lines. Maybe a bounty on cut and turned in abandoned traps and floats would help clean up the mess. By the way, the California Fish and Game code states that crab pots not serviced, or placed in a navigation channel, are a public nuisance.
The environmental laws prohibit discarding plastic in the ocean. Some of those (plastic) floats and (plastic) lines are clearly discarded. And the people who abandon them without removing as much of them as they can (at least the floats) - aren't fishing - they are littering.
As I write this, recreational season for Dungeness crab doesn't start until Nov. 1st, and commercial season doesn't start until Nov. 15th. There shouldn't be any crab pots anywhere. But take a cruise around Half Moon Bay, and you'll find enough of out-of-season pots to turn your cruise into a slalom course.
Maybe someday the technology and requirements will have lights attached to the floats so they can be seen at night. Meanwhile, there is nothing preventing fishermen from applying retroreflective tape to the floats - if they really care about vessels avoiding them at night.
Last edited by pbryant; 02-11-2016 at 05:18 PM.
I have a Nissan 6 HP outboard (model NSF6). There are two annoyances that I resolved.
1) The Ariel's engine mount, a block of wood, allows the engine to slide up that block and pop off it entirely. It is very unpleasant to have the engine flopping around loose under power. In reverse gear, I’ve had it fly up and nearly slap me in the face. Even though there are deep divots that have been worn into the wood by the mounting clamps, to prevent movement, the clamps still have to be torqued down so hard using tools to prevent slippage, that they eventually break. And swells pushing upward against the engine lower shaft eventually loosen the clamps and walk the engine off the wooden block regardless of how severely the clamps are tightened.
I solved this problem by installing a stainless steel bar across the top of the engine port mount. Carefully measured to allow the round clamp pads just enough clearance to pass under the bar when the engine is installed, the bar retains the engine while allowing only very slight movement, and I can install the engine and remove it (which I do after each sail) without torquing the mounts excessively. When the clamps inevitably loosen after a long sail, I only have to reach in and give the clamps another twist. The engine stays put.
2) The Nissan has a “feature” that allows the lower shaft to tilt back when the engine is in forward gear. Referring to the attached drawing, the reverse lock arm (32) engages the thrust rod (12), but only in reverse and neutral gears.
In forward gear, the engine is allowed to tilt back freely. This is a useful feature on a skiff that prevents prop damage when the skiff is run up on a beach, referred to in marketing material as a "Shallow Water Drive." But the free-tilting behavior is completely useless on a vessel where the prop is higher than the keel and will never strike the ground (you’d have to back into something to strike the prop). Plus, the tilt range in the Ariel is too limited to be of any value – only a few degrees before the engine cowl slams into the forward wall of the engine compartment (damaging the cowl).
This free-tilting behavior becomes a major annoyance when you discover that, after raising sail, your speed through the water causes the engine to tilt and force the cowl (engine cover) against the compartment wall when you select idle thrust while in forward gear, and that there is no practical way to restore the engine to vertical besides stopping the boat.
When docking, it becomes a major hazard when you try to go repeatedly from forward to reverse. If you have any forward speed, the engine will never return to a vertical position because the lower shaft is dragging through the water. As you throttle down in forward to switch gears, the engine will tilt aft. When you select reverse, the reverse lock arm can't engage because of the aft tilt, and the engine consequently slams and see-saws back and forth in the engine port.
The kind folks at Svedsen’s solved this problem for me. Referring to the attached photo, they removed the semi-circular swashplate (area marked in orange) so the push rod end (circled in red) cannot engage the reverse lock arm to move it out of the locked position. They then welded a cross piece (marked in green) to the top of the reverse lock arm. Alex in the chandlery came up with this solution. The engine now remains locked in the vertical position in all gears. The modification can be reversed by installing an original reverse lock arm.
Last edited by pbryant; 11-17-2014 at 03:14 PM.
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
Last edited by pbryant; 05-22-2015 at 09:24 AM.
Holy Moley! You are freaking MacGyver, Paul! I'm further impressed that your GoPro didn't record a river of expletives to go along with your quick thinking fix. Glad you're OK.
Kyle
C-65 Lucky Dawg
Yup, the first one eroded very quick a (about 2 months) and then the bolt broke off trying to change it, then I drilled through the plate with a bigger one that was sacrificial enough, so I ended up ruining the lower end. Tohatsu 6hp long shaft #1.
Above was in reference to the the question some time ago about the zinc. In a more general review of the Tohatsu/Nissan/Merc 6 HP I will say that they seem to have really small jets and I am having trouble keeping the motor running more than 4 weeks. I started the season with new gas after having had the engine serviced for trouble last season. I treated with Stabil Marine and within 4 weeks the carb was clogged with white mush. I cleaned it a few times and used Sea Foam. It started running again but 4 weeks later it was so clogged that I took it to a marina along with the line and the tank. They pronounced my gas fine, cleaned the carb and now 4 weeks later the carb bowl has white mush in it again and the motor wan't run. The marina talked me out of using aviation 100 low lead saying it would clog the rings but if I get that thing going I'm switching to ave gas and if that fails I'll sell that and move on. Which which other motors fit because I've had enough of this one? I didn't have much time to use it so basically this ruined the season. I've had guests waiting on board the last few times which we aborted when the motor wouldn't run. Basically we can't make a motor on its third season run more than occasionally. I'm going to take the carb off the old tohatsu with the ruined lower unit and try to make it to the marina to pull out for the season. AAAGH!
Last edited by Orca; 09-24-2017 at 02:40 PM.
Zincs, aluminum OB's, white mush.
White mush could be aluminum oxide,
or corroded aluminum mush.
Maybe yer zincs aren't working,
or missing, or too small, or too large.
Last edited by ebb; 09-25-2017 at 10:46 AM.
Zinc is in place and neither I nor the marina could remove it last month (it is the little square one that is OEM) because it had swollen a bit in the square recess but was still present and when I scraped it it still has some meat. They said we'd try to remove it at the end of the season, basically next week. Maybe it is corroded aluminum mush. It is in the aluminum carburetor after all.
Be sure to disconnect the fuel tank line from the engine at the end of the day and allow the engine to run until the bowl is emptied and the engines stops from fuel starvation. The owner's manual actually recommends this. The procedure accomplishes two things: it allows the engine some cool-down time to reduce thermal shock and -- more importantly, it empties the carb bowl so the fuel doesn't evaporate in the bowl every time you run the engine and eventually develop a residue.
100 "low lead" ("100LL") av gas should really be called: 100 lots of lead. It has more lead than leaded car gas once had. It will foul your plug. Yes, 10% ethanol gas will absorb water, but I doubt the water content is causing the fouling.
Last edited by pbryant; 09-27-2017 at 09:51 AM.
I only ran the motor twice after the carb was serviced and I ran it dry. I disconnected the fuel line and tank and put them down below on the cabin sole in case water was permeating the line or something. I've been running 100LL in my scooter for about a month, I'll pull the plug and see what it looks like. Quite honestly if 100LL cut the life of my motor by 30% I'd never notice it. I seems like it would last a real long time never running which is the present situation. A plug would be easy to change, carb, not so much. I did think of keeping an extra carb on board though as its a real pain in the butt to load that motor into a dinghy from my mooring and row it to the beach.
I installed a "Racor SNAPP One-Piece Snap-In Fuel Filter Water Separator - Filter Assembly w/ Bracket & Drain - 2 Micron" between the fuel tank and the engine two years ago. It has a clear bowl that allows you to see if any water has accumulated. Pilots will know this device as a "gasculator." They're common on most airplanes. I have yet to see one drop of water in the inspection bowl. But it made me feel good to install it.
The engine problems I had were:
1) I failed to recognize that after the engine is shut down while bouncing around in swells that the fuel would run down hill out of the carb bowl back to the tank - making me pull the cord about 10 times before the fuel pump would refill the bowl. Solution: squeeze the primer bulb until it's "stiff" before restarting the engine.
2) Since my fuel tank is slightly below the carb bowl, fuel doesn't feed the carb by gravity. The fuel pump MUST be able to draw against a partial vacuum to be effective, and... I wasn't getting an air tight seal where the fuel line connects to the tank. Solution: clean the connection at the fuel tank regularly with a wire (bronze) brush.
3) The fuel cap was a fancy CARB (California) approved type that required a partial vacuum in the tank before the air vent would open. That vacuum was too great to allow fuel to flow. Apparently, California thinks a few fuel molecules evaporating out of the tank is a major source of pollution. I discovered this after the engine died about a dozen times -- always obeying Murphy's Law by failing at the harbor entrance, near rocks, while crossing in front of big boats, or on final approach to my slip, -- and I finally saw the sides of the plastic tank pop out when I removed the fuel cap - along with a loud whooshing sound when air rushed into the tank. Temporary solution: screw the cap on very loosely. Permanent Solution: Find an old-style cap that fits the tank that has a simple non-pressure controlled vent (please don't report me to the CARB).
I have about 300 hours on my engine, using 90 octane / 10% ethanol fuel (it does seem to like 90 more than 87 octane - but that might be my imagination), and I've had no problems yet besides the problems above that someone smarter than me would've spotted sooner. I always let the engine run out of fuel at idle throttle at the end of every sail.
Last edited by pbryant; 09-27-2017 at 06:15 PM.
I've been fighting the ethanol fuel issues for several years now . I was happy to see that Tohatsu now has a new 5 hp/6 horse power propane fueled engine similar to the gasoline powered one in all respects. Since it was designed based on the same motor that we all have and love, it shouldn't have the mechanical issues of the LEHR propane engines which are cheaply manufactured in China. I don't know – – it looks like they made the tiller 5 inches longer which means it may not fit in our well anymore! The dimensions look exactly the same as the models most of us have however, the length from the back of the Motor cowling to the very front tip of the tiller goes from 26 inches to 31 inches, 5 inches more. And this isn't just on this propane model, it's on all the models and it looks like they have increased length of the tiller. Hmmmm. If the tiller only rotates as far back as my current motor does that would leave a couple inches of the tiller sticking up preventing closure of the lid to the well. If I were to try to put one of these motors into the well with the tiller facing into the cockpit and sticking through the opening instead of vertically, that may be hard to do or maybe impossible. I guess I'll have to see . Anyone have one of the new models with the longer tiller? How does it fit? These motors are very reliable mechanically. But I'm afraid that the gasoline we have to put in them causes us to have to take exceptional actions to keep them running reliably .
Last edited by Hull376; 02-25-2018 at 04:22 PM.
Kent
Carl Alberg designs are legendary for their steering instability while motoring slowly astern. Will it go port or starboard? Toss a coin!
One of the great features of having an outboard in a well is the ability to rotate it for steerage while motoring astern at very low speed. Tightening the rotation friction on the engine to prevent it from wandering around while motoring forward prevents rotation in reverse. So, if you use this friction adjustment, you must reset it constantly. And at least with my engine, the friction can't be set tightly enough to stop wandering while underway.
If grease from the rotation housing ever contaminates the friction adjustment, the adjustment becomes completely ineffective.
Here's photo of how I solved the problem.
Last edited by pbryant; 10-08-2018 at 12:33 PM.
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