There is n’t a boat angler on the face of the planet who has n’t run over a line once or twice or 1, 000 times. And you’re probably aware of how serious damage this can be if you own an offshore ship. Fishing line is cut into the prop seal by working its way up to it. Water gets into the lower unit oil, and catastrophic failure is n’t far behind.
Obtain that fishing collection off of it, pronto!
Odds are, you’ll never see when you pick up a line while cruising. In fact, most of the time you wo n’t be aware there’s any issue until your lower unit blows out. In that case, there just is n’t much you can do about it. However, if you purposefully place a line around the ball, the first thing you should do is to immediately shut the machine off ( assuming it’s healthy to do so ). Before it has a chance to cause any damage, you need to get the collection out.
Look for a free end to the collection by tilting the offshore upward. If you can get one, you might be able to take it in a powerful way to make the prop spin ( be sure to be in neutral, of course ). In this situation, you frequently have the option to relax the range and travel your way. If not, one person can take on the line mechanically while another spins the ball in the correct way.
You might be able to open a piece of line by snagging it with a rope or pulling an exposed section with pliers if the line has already been worked in firm. Finally, you can work either way to free it. However no joy? That requires pulling the ball.
On a few boats, pulling the ball in water deeper than you can walk in will be possible, but for the most part, this is a formula for disaster. It’s nearly impossible not to lose a significant piece of hardware into the waters, and that’s only if you can use enough liquidity on the clip nut to roll it completely in the first place. It’s possible to get out of the boat and stand behind it, but it’s still a little difficult. And that’s assuming you have all the tools you need to complete the task.
In this kind of a situation, you’ll typically have to grit your teeth and simply pray that the line does n’t cut into the hub before you pull the boat and remove it. And most of the day, you’ll come out ok. Just do n’t ignore that line and pretend it never happened, or one day you’ll likely hear lower unit groan in protest … and have one heck of a repair bill.
