subject: Sailing Race - Fouling the Prop [print this page] Sailing Race - Fouling the Prop
Sailors sometimes must use their boat's engine. A mishap known as "fouling the prop" proves that power and sailing don't mix all the time. Getting a rope tangled up in the propeller is a drag; when it happens on a boat with an inboard engine, the engine stalls and the propeller gets stuck, unable to turn. Next thing you know, someone (probably you) has to jump in the water (probably cold) and untangle the prop. Usually the culprit is a halyard or sheet (or dock line or tow line) from your boat.
Preventing a fouled prop is simple. Keep your lines out of the water, and always look around the boat before turning on the engine.
Unfortunately, people aren't as vigilant as they should be, so here's how to deal with tangled ropes on an inboard engine propeller. (If you have an outboard, what are you waiting for? Pull it up and unwrap the rope!)
1. Turn off the engine immediately (it may have already stalled out).
2. Find the transgressing rope and gently pull it with the shift in neutral. Pull harder and pray, because if the rope doesn't release, you're swimming.
3. Consider whether you really need the engine. If you don't really need the engine, or if the conditions are too rough and dangerous to go in the water, then you just have to sail. Keep in mind that in big waves, the boat is going up and down fast, so swimming underneath it, near the propeller blade, is no fun. If you delay the swim until later, tighten the fouled rope and tie it off on deck.
4. You can try, as a last resort, putting the engine in reverse (dead slow) just for an instant and then pulling hard on the line. We've never found this trick to work, but you never know.
5. If the conditions are safe, or after you return to shelter, you can jump in. Before swimming, stop the boat and make sure that it's dragging a line that you can grab. A mask, snorkel, and fins are nice.
6. Using the wrapped rope as a guide, swim down to the prop (engine's off, right?) and try to untie the knot down there.
7. If untying the knot is impossible, get your knife so that you can chop that stupid rope into tiny little pieces. Hey, be careful with that thing!
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