Association Forum - Crab trap float slalom

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Crab trap float slalom

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Ed Cassidy
Captain

Member Avatar

USA
365 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/30/2008 : 19:26:50

In the St Johns river we have thousands of crab traps and in places they are at best 10 feet apart. While out last weekend, at around 1:00 in the morning, motoring back to the dock, I hit one of the ropes, wrapped it around the prop and cut the float off. The engine stalled but started right back up. When I went to reverse the motor at the dock, the engine went into gear and stalled, it would not run in reverse. So, my question is, am I liable for cutting the float off someone's crab trap or are they responsible for damage to my motor? The motor wasn't really damaged, just had a rope twisted in the direction of the prop in forward gear and it got bound up in reverse. I realize this is a 'small beans' question and that the likelihood of actually determining who owned the trap are slim but what if there had been real damage? The floats are color coded by owner. There are so many traps in some parts of the river that on the way back to the launch ramp, i snagged three with the rudder and I was trying to miss them. I wonder how many power boats get damaged.

Ed
HisHorse
1979 SR/SK #1393
Green Cove Springs, FL

Edited by - on

DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 07:43:51

Hi Ed,
We have the same situation in Daytona. I think that it's your responsibility to avoid the traps and I'll bet you could be made to repair/replace if someone could prove you damaged one. Not positive though.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 08:26:52

I think Dave's generally right, although I think it's a state-by-state issue. There might be some room for appeal if the pot is in a marked navigation channel. NC has [url="http://www.ncfisheries.net/maps/DPA_maps/index.html"]detailed maps[/url] on areas that are open and closed to pots--on the web. Maybe other states do too.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 07/31/2008 08:40:00

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 09:10:29

My wife and I once were running outbound in heavy fog thru the Newport Bridge at night. She was anxious as we had heard the "securite'" calls from an inbound freighter. No radar and just a plotter. Finally we are under the bridge, EXACTLY under the green, when we picked up a pot which effectively anchored us under the bridge! We were towing the dink and I was able to climb in and cut us free restart and get the heck out of there! I did not retie!

We just sailed by there two days ago and guess what, the same genius, probably, has dropped another pot in the same place!

Technically, they are trying to make a living so you should retie whenever possible. The way stinkpotters and some inboard engine sailors deal is often by using cutters on the prop and shaft. I think it's not quite fair to the lobsterman, but I do understand the often horrible positions these guys put these things in. It's like a world with no zoning laws. I picked up one at night recently in the mooring field

and may have an internal engine problem on my 6 hp dink motor - different post.

Sten

DPO Zephyr - '82 C25, FK, SR
SV Lysistrata - C&C 39 - Newport, RI

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 09:56:34

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by redviking
 My wife and I once were running outbound in heavy fog thru the Newport Bridge at night. She was anxious as we had heard the "securite'" calls from an inbound freighter. No radar and just a plotter.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Sten, your wife has better instincts than you!

[rant]BTW, how am I supposed to retie a pot warp--jump off my boat? There are many square miles of non-navigable water around here--near rocks, in shallows, on the "wrong" side of navaids,... I'm sorry, but the guys trying to make a living who don't use those areas are taking their own risks (and possibly costing me more than themselves). Currents drag the markers under, and they're not visible at night at any speed...[/rant]

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 07/31/2008 09:59:53

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 09:59:47

I used to be on the Major Stephen W. Pless, a USMC prepositioning ship that was about 900 feet long & 105 wide. We pulled into Casco Bay Maine & managed to wipe out about 3-4 dozen pot markers, maybe more, in the process. The captain ended up reimbursing the lobstermen to the tune of thousands of dollars for their losses, something he knew he was going to have to do when he pulled in. Which still didn't keep some of them from stealing our Avon RIB, running it up onto a rocky beach & slashing all the tubes. Cost him another few thousand to have that repaired.

The irony was, the skipper had lived in Casco Bay for most of his life (and still did when he wasn't driving a big boat around the world), his family owned an island in the bay, and he knew a significant portion of the guys he had to reimburse.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 10:10:46

Ah-HAH! A new way to make a living! Go to a Navy shipyard and drop cinder blocks with pot markers into the channel! I could do that in the Thames River here, and clean up on the sub base and the Coasties!

(I doubt the ferry companies would pay.)

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 07/31/2008 10:12:55

cat1951
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
636 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 10:18:32

When we sailed with my sister inlaw a few years ago, I had the job of spotting for lobster lines. They have a 39' Island Packet and have sailed the Caribbean numerous times. It is no fun climbing overboard in a big swell to remove the entangled line from the prop if you hit one accidentally and wrap the line up.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5895 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 10:36:07

On the Chesapeake Bay, crab pots are usually seen only in shallower waters, so you can forget about them when you get into deeper water, which is most of the time. Also, they're usually strung in a straight line, so, if you sail a course that is different from that line, you'll only cross through them once. At night they can be difficult to see, but if there's any moonlight at all, they're fairly visible.

Watermen are almost always small entrepreneurs, and the trade is traditionally well-protected by law. It isn't easy work, and I haven't seen any indication that they get rich from it. The pots are a minor nuisance, and can occasionally be a hazard, but avoiding them is one of the skills that we have to learn as recreational sailors. The equipment is costly to replace, and if we have to cut the line and can re-tie it, that's a reasonable accomodation to someone using the waters to earn a living.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 12:39:05

Well, Steve, your guys are more considerate than our guys. At cruising speed on the rhumb line between Watch Hill Passage and Block Island (in the Atlantic), and the deep waters between Mystic and Watch Hill Passage, I watch carefully... Then I look around for fast ferries and other traffic, look back ahead, and OOPS! I'll try... I wish they would, too.

Edited by - on

ilnadi
Captain

Members Avatar

452 Posts

Response Posted - 07/31/2008 : 18:01:05

As many things in/on the water, it seems, everybody is right. They have a right to set traps, I have a right to get to open water, the guy owns the house by the channel has the right to not hear motors from the trap boats and the swearing from the snaggees.

My marina in NC is right up against a marked channel (R&G) which is dredged so only one side is passable to the deepest boats (mast-size counts, he with the biggest stick gets the red side, at least when I meet them). There are floats everywhere. I think they drop them right on the edges of the channel, so one set of floats is always in the channel.

One of these days I'm going to snag one in the channel; then what? Do I try to get money from this guy who will have a hard time recovering from just the damaged equipment? That's not going to feel good. Nor does it feel good to have to be constantly be vigilant for someone else overstepping their rights into mine.

Just wondering outloud as I work late...

Edited by - on

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 08/01/2008 : 20:38:19

They stole a USMC RIB? How did THAT happen???

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.