Hello Phil!
When I had my Nordhavn40, I had a cutter installed on the
prop. Some smart soul suggested I use the canadian version (can't recall the
name, naturally!) which is a simple disc with no moving parts to go wrong. It
is razor sharp naturally! Once when the boat was hauled, I examined it and
could see several dings on the edge so it had done its job at some point!

When I got Cinderella, I had a line cutter installed in Holland, at the
Linssen factory. There they installed the version with spurs. Back in the US
we picked up a rusty very old ( kind not used now) ski tow cable which had
cables going off a rusty steel housing. We discovered it when tryig to dock
(at Ditto Landing on the Tenn R) when a terrible thump thump happened. Gordon,
who is deaf as a doornail, thought it was an engine noise, but I realized it
was something on the prop. We were able to limp over to the dock where they
called a diver who was able to free the mess from the prop. What a mess! It
reminded me of that when I read about the net problem. I am wondering if my
original version, the single disc would have done better than your spurs? I
rather think it might have worked! I see great value in NOT having the spurs!
While they can do a basic job, I think they'd definitely be more of a hazard!
IF I had a boat now, I would definitely look for the Canadian version and
never get the one with spurs!
MArge Griffith

If I understand correctly, the problem posed was dealing with a steel cable
or a ski tow rope with steel cables in it. The British test had a variety of
prop protectors deal with what looked like electrical wires. After cutting
the first wire, they all jammed to varying degrees. If your prop(s) hit a
broken or discarded wire tow rope, you are up the creek unless the prop
itself knocks it away. Cutting such a wire would require a hacksaw (and much
energy) or a long-handled cutter, or an hydraulic cable cutter - and luck.
The extent to which any protector can do anything depends as much upon the
design of the cutter as it does the method of attaching it to the boat. It
is unlikely that anything will work other than a properly equipped and
experienced salvage diver.

Ron Rogers

About three years ago we were looking for line cutters for our prop shafts.
Someone was kind enough to send me an independent study that was done
comparing the top five or so cutters. Spurs were rated #1, Prop-Protectors
#2. They cut everything except cable and net. But by cost factor and ease of
installation, Prop-protectors won out for us.

http://www.prop-protector.com/

I still have a copy of the study (PDF), so if anyone wants to see it I have
it linked to my website. http://www.boatersites.com/HelpfulLinks.htm. Scroll
down to the heading Safety and it's the second link from the bottom of that
section entitled, Line Cutters - research study. It's about 1.7 MB in file
size.

Best,
Bob

Bob DeGroot, D.C.H.
M/V Spirit Dancer
DeFever 49 CPMY

-----Original Message-----
From: great-loop-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of Ron Rogers
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 3:17 PM
To: 'Margery Griffith'; pslinger@mindspring.com
Cc: great-loop@lists.samurai.com
Subject: Re: GL: spurs

If I understand correctly, the problem posed was dealing with a steel cable
or a ski tow rope with steel cables in it. The British test had a variety of
prop protectors deal with what looked like electrical wires. After cutting
the first wire, they all jammed to varying degrees. If your prop(s) hit a
broken or discarded wire tow rope, you are up the creek unless the prop
itself knocks it away. Cutting such a wire would require a hacksaw (and much
energy) or a long-handled cutter, or an hydraulic cable cutter - and luck.
The extent to which any protector can do anything depends as much upon the
design of the cutter as it does the method of attaching it to the boat. It
is unlikely that anything will work other than a properly equipped and
experienced salvage diver.

Ron Rogers

http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop

To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address,
unsubscribe, etc.) go to:
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/options/great-loop