Wrecks - 19th July

[GPSguru]

Went out on the boat today, a morning trip out to the 20mile wrecks.

Launched a 7:30am and couldn't see across the harbour, yet the met office were giving the visibility as medium. Once out of the nav channel the visibility was probably a little over half a mile, which I was happy with, however, I decided if it got worse I would head back in. I stopped and checked my AIS was working ok, so ships could at least detect my presence. A steady 24kts soon had me out on the chosen wreck, where I was expecting to catch bass.

Each drift kept me busy with Pout, Scad and smallish bass, The stamp of the bass were proper schoolies and I struggled to find one over 50cm, most were around 42cm. However, the scad were monsters.

At about 11:00am the mist cleared as the sun burnt through and the wreck was busy, with me and 2 commercials. At 12:00 midday I decided to come back in, but the day had been fruitful, nothing large, but 17 Pout, 9 Scad, and 8 Bass, with 2 keepers at 49 / 50cm.

The sea was flat, so 30knts cruising. At 14miles out I just caught a glimpse of something green floating below the surface off my starboard bow, I immediately throttled back, but too late, I heard the noise of the prop and the engine suddenly slow, and I was prop wrapped. I shut down and tilted the engine, the culprit was an old-discarded commercial net. I would think it had been probably snagged on the bottom and broke free. To reach the prop you have to climb on the outboard leg, or use a safety rope off the A frame, however, I was on my own so didn't want the risk of going in the drink. The easy solution was to ty-wrap my rope cutting knife to the boat hook, and I soon cut the net away. My prop hub wasn't damaged, as I use an almost solid hub due to the weight of the 4 blade Mercury Revolution prop. Once free, I had an uneventful trip back in.

Now for the next issue. It has been hot today, and I left the boat cleaning until the evening, When I went to clean the boat, I found the starboard side stern tube well deflated (not flat, just well deflated). My initial reaction was a puncture, but the tubes have over pressure valves and close inspection has suggested the valve opened when the tube got hot in the sun (24C here) and didn't close properly, I have cleaned the valve, and reinflated the tube, so will just keep an eye on it. 

Well, the tube has been fine for the last 24hrs, so I am going with an overpressure valve issue. If it happens again, they are easy enough to get replaced.

The scad were big beggars

Here is a bit of the net I cut from the prop

Edited July 20 by GPSguru

[Saintly Fish]

Glad you managed to get the net off without serious incident Ian. But, it doesn't look that old, I'd expect to see more slime and/or some growth on it if it had been trapped on the sea bed for a while. 
Scads a whooper!

[Dicky]

Nice Scad, would make a great livebait over the next few months 😁

[GPSguru]

1 minute ago, Dicky said:

Nice Scad, would make a great livebait over the next few months 😁

True, but I don't fish for the king size Mack 😉🤣

I was also out with my mate last Sunday on the 35 mile wrecks, and we found large scad on those as well, not hoards of them, but enough to keep you busy.

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said:

Glad you managed to get the net off without serious incident Ian. But, it doesn't look that old, I'd expect to see more slime and/or some growth on it if it had been trapped on the sea bed for a while. 
Scads a whooper!

The net was probably 5 or more square metres, way too heavy for me to lift. The bit I kept is the bit that I cut off to free the prop. It is a very heavy duty nylon net.

On the boat, I have a divers knife on my belt, so always to hand. It is SS non pointy, locks into its sheath, and has both flat and saw tooth edges, not cheap, but it does the job quickly.

[JDP]

Did your outfit come with the 4 blade prop or did you experiment with props to end with that particular one. They do often help improve several things with many boats. I've pretty much always ended up changing to 4 blade props on all the boats Ive owned, currently running a 4 blade stainless mercury spitfire on my Yamaha which has to be one of the best props Ive ever used. 

[GPSguru]

13 hours ago, JDP said:

Did your outfit come with the 4 blade prop or did you experiment with props to end with that particular one. They do often help improve several things with many boats. I've pretty much always ended up changing to 4 blade props on all the boats Ive owned, currently running a 4 blade stainless mercury spitfire on my Yamaha which has to be one of the best props Ive ever used. 

When the boat was built in 2019, Ribcraft sea trialled it and found the 3 blade prop supplied by Mercury made it 'under propped'.

Ribcraft normally supply Suzuki engines, but I had specified a mercury 150, and, Mercury (Barrus in the Uk) were keen to do more business with Ribcraft so they sent down an engineer to the sea trials, and he suggested 19 pitch 4 blade Revolution, which they fitted and found it to be OK. As you know, it is basically a racing prop with exhaust vents that can be opened or closed to fine tune it.

I have found the grip the prop gives to be outstanding, with no noticeable slip on a 30kt 'J' turn, and the hole shot is very impressive.

The best thing of all, is the prop cost me no extra on the package, however, I tend to look after it as it would be around £800 to replace.

The only change I have had to make is I had to upgrade the prop hub to an almost solid hub (I believe it is bushed but has titanium rods running through it) as I was getting some 'prop rattle' (due to its weight and grip) at idle and low revs, the new hub was £150 ish

Edited July 21 by GPSguru