Weed Hatch Prop Fouls

[dmr]

Coming up through Manchester on Thursday and Friday we had 3 really bad prop fouls, really bad, second only to the tyre round the prop in Gosty Hill.

I just could not shift one. The wonderful Manchester volunteer lock keeper did it for me, it took him over an hour as we bow hauled the next couple of locks. The next day I spent two hours on one, and a little later got another. This was a camping/fishing chair with a steel frame. Myself and our lock hobbler (Goliath) got some off, some is still there, will try again tomorrow.

 

I suspect its the modern man made fabrics that the good people of Manchester wear then discard in the canal. It rolls into a tight almost rope like knot and is incredibly strong and can also partly melt and reform as a solid. These folk also appear to keep bits of stiff wire in their pockets which binds it to the prop shaft and makes it almost impossible to cut off with a serrated knife.

 

Does anybody have any ideas and techniques? and any experience, positive or negative, of the Bargee Bill type weapons?

[frangar]

I made my own from a patio weed removal tool..,few mins with a angle grinder to make some cutting edges….I’ve also got a frameless hacksaw and some small bolt croppers. 

[Jerra]

4 minutes ago, frangar said:

I made my own from a patio weed removal tool..,few mins with a angle grinder to make some cutting edges….I’ve also got a frameless hacksaw and some small bolt croppers. 

Me too.

[Jon57]

Flexible angle grinder shaft with attached cutting wheel.

[dmr]

2 minutes ago, frangar said:

I made my own from a patio weed removal tool..,few mins with a angle grinder to make some cutting edges….I’ve also got a frameless hacksaw and some small bolt croppers. 

 

I would be a bit unhappy about using a hacksaw down there, though do use a fairly blunt wood saw from time to time (mostly without success). A pair of good sharp scissors achieve a lot. The bolt croppers would not open wide enough to do the camping chair. I cut all the fabric and webbing off with the scissors and knife, the steel had reshaped so would not go over the prop, threaded a rope through it then fixed the ends to a length of 3 by 2 (which I had removed from the canal the day before 😀) two of us were then just strong enough to pull the steel frame off. The camping chair was the easier of the three.

[Mad Harold]

How about dispensing with the gearbox and prop,and coupling the engine up to a big supercharger and using compressed air to drive the boat.

Ah I hear you say,what about reverse?

Perhaps a clamshell type extrusion which slips down over the air outlet.I have seen these on the back of the jet engines on small bizjets to give reverse thrust on the landing roll.

[dmr]

1 minute ago, Mad Harold said:

How about dispensing with the gearbox and prop,and coupling the engine up to a big supercharger and using compressed air to drive the boat.

Ah I hear you say,what about reverse?

Perhaps a clamshell type extrusion which slips down over the air outlet.I have seen these on the back of the jet engines on small bizjets to give reverse thrust on the landing roll.

 

Just go the whole hog and get one of them shallow "swamp boats" driven by a huge fan on the back.

Boating for the deep South of America.......and the North of England.

 

Or if not for all those cyclists on the towpath maybe I could get a horse. The bow hauling was just as fast as using the engine.

[Mad Harold]

3 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

Just go the whole hog and get one of them shallow "swamp boats" driven by a huge fan on the back.

Boating for the deep South of America.......and the North of England.

 

Or if not for all those cyclists on the towpath maybe I could get a horse. The bow hauling was just as fast as using the engine.

Or buy a Hovercraft.Plenty for sale on e bay.

But with the racket they make,you won't have any friends left!

[Murflynn]

14 hours ago, Jon57 said:

Flexible angle grinder shaft with attached cutting wheel.

 

 

just to clarify - that is not an angle grinder fit - specifically it fits an ordinary rotary tool with a chuck.

 

.....  oh, and you don't need to buy two of them.   

Edited October 18, 2021 by Murflynn

[Mike Tee]

I've heard good reports about these for dealing with wire

https://www.knipex.com/products/cable-and-wire-rope-shears/wire-rope-cutters-forged/wire-rope-cuttersforged/9561190

also, as a bonus, I understand they will easily cut through the wire on a tyre rim - and I reckon they would make short work of a steel framed fishermans chair - might also deal with a grumpy fisherman

[dmr]

58 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

I've heard good reports about these for dealing with wire

https://www.knipex.com/products/cable-and-wire-rope-shears/wire-rope-cutters-forged/wire-rope-cuttersforged/9561190

also, as a bonus, I understand they will easily cut through the wire on a tyre rim - and I reckon they would make short work of a steel framed fishermans chair - might also deal with a grumpy fisherman

 

Might be good, I will go and check the diameter of the chair frame, its still on the front deck.

[blackrose]

There are two ways to approach the issue of fouled props. The methods given above at all good for getting stuff off your prop but the other approach is avoiding getting stuff wrapped around your prop in the first place. Prevention is better than cure.

 

Sometimes of course it's unavoidable. I used to moor in west London and some "locals" regard the canal as a legitimate dumping site. But if your prop is getting fouled every time you move then you're doing something wrong.

 

I won't go into the techniques used to avoid or prevent fouled props here as I'm not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs, but the way a boat is moved in polluted water including knowing when to disengage/re-engage gear makes all the difference to how often your prop will get fouled.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

There are two ways to approach the issue of fouled props. The methods given above at all good for getting stuff off your prop but the other approach is avoiding getting stuff wrapped around your prop in the first place. Prevention is better than cure.

 

Sometimes of course it's unavoidable. I used to moor in west London and some "locals" regard the canal as a legitimate dumping site. But if your prop is getting fouled every time you move then you're doing something wrong.

 

I won't go into the techniques used to avoid or prevent fouled props here as I'm not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs, but the way a boat is moved in polluted water including knowing when to disengage/re-engage gear makes all the difference to how often your prop will get fouled.

I’m sure you’re correct please come up on the Rochdale and show us how it’s done 😃

[TheBiscuits]

2 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I’m sure you’re correct please come up on the Rochdale and show us how it’s done 😃

 

Cruise in neutral

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

37 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

Might be good, I will go and check the diameter of the chair frame, its still on the front deck.

I used to have good pair of long handled bolt cutters which would have done that job, unfortunately I gave them away to a mate when I moved onto the boat. 
Maybe I’ll try and reclaim them if me mate has never needed them. 
Too late to help you mind but would be a good bit of kit to have back. 

[Jon57]

2 hours ago, Murflynn said:

 

 

just to clarify - that is not an angle grinder fit - specifically it fits an ordinary rotary tool with a chuck.

 

.....  oh, and you don't need to buy two of them.   

 

2 hours ago, Murflynn said:

 

 

just to clarify - that is not an angle grinder fit - specifically it fits an ordinary rotary tool with a chuck.

 

.....  oh, and you don't need to buy two of them.   

Sorry wrong link. They do one that fits a angle grinder. 

Sorry wrong link. They do one that fits a angle grinder.🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪😜👍

[David Schweizer]

In the twenty years that we had Helvetia, I can recall very few occasions where we had anything serious caught on the prop, and I always assumed that  it was probably because there was something like seven inches between the edges of the prop blades and the Uxter plate. Most modern boats only draw a few more inches than the diameterof their prop, consequently there is only a small gap for debris to pass through. Sometimes we would pick up a sizeable log, only for it to bump the uxter plate several times before it floated off behind us, if the gap had only been a couple of inches it would have probably jammed.

[blackrose]

22 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Cruise in neutral

 

That's basically it. Use the boat's momentum to take you through areas of litter, bags, etc that you can see on the surface, and to avoid the bigger objects stay in the middle where it's a bit deeper and you're less likely to pick something up.

 

It's not foolproof but it will reduce the frequency of fouling.

[Alan de Enfield]

 

One of these mounted on the bow may be of assistance, you could even attach wheels so it could roll along the canal bed. ...................

 

 

 

[magnetman]

Depending on the installation it can be quite useful to disconnect the coupling from the gearbox and slide the tailshaft backwards to free up the jammed prop foul. 

 

I suppose people don't really want to disturb the driveline but in some situations it is worth considering this as an option provided there is space and a straight line and your shaft has not got a groove in it from the packing. 

 

Hmm. 

 

Disclaimer: if you end up getting your legs amputated by this do not come running to me. 

 

 

[dmr]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

Depending on the installation it can be quite useful to disconnect the coupling from the gearbox and slide the tailshaft backwards to free up the jammed prop foul. 

 

I suppose people don't really want to disturb the driveline but in some situations it is worth considering this as an option provided there is space and a straight line and your shaft has not got a groove in it from the packing. 

 

Hmm. 

 

Disclaimer: if you end up getting your legs amputated by this do not come running to me. 

 

 

 

Not thought of that, it just might have helped when we had the tyre round the prop.

[dmr]

3 hours ago, Goliath said:

I’m sure you’re correct please come up on the Rochdale and show us how it’s done 😃

 

2 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Cruise in neutral

 

I've always been a little smug as in general we get less prop fouls than many boats, I suspect a bigger slower prop is probably a good thing.

 

Recent trouble is likely because we were using a lot of power to push ourselves along the bottom of the canal, like actually along the bottom.

Cruising in neutral not really an option as using engine power in addition to the bow haulers,

 

The Manchester chav type plastic clothing is particularly difficult to shift, once we got into the better bits and started picking up nice sweatshirts and hoodies in proper fabric it all got much easier.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Goliath said:

I’m sure you’re correct please come up on the Rochdale and show us how it’s done 😃

Or even Wolverhampton

[dmr]

4 hours ago, Goliath said:

I used to have good pair of long handled bolt cutters which would have done that job, unfortunately I gave them away to a mate when I moved onto the boat. 
Maybe I’ll try and reclaim them if me mate has never needed them. 
Too late to help you mind but would be a good bit of kit to have back. 

 

The camping chair frame is 16mm diameter, which is much much more than my bolt croppers can do, and with the croppers down the weedhatch the amount they can open is reduced even more.

 

There is still a little bit round the prop, will have another go at shifting it when it stops raining, but just now I am hoping for more rain.

[Tracy D'arth]

13 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

The camping chair frame is 16mm diameter, which is much much more than my bolt croppers can do, and with the croppers down the weedhatch the amount they can open is reduced even more.

 

There is still a little bit round the prop, will have another go at shifting it when it stops raining, but just now I am hoping for more rain.

I have a wire saw which copes with most things, steel would be too hard.