Shaft Cutter

[kmary]

Any advice on shaft cutters? We run our boat on the Maine coast, and last season had a flawless 150+ hours of cruising with no accidental lobster trap encounters! But the same could not be said for abandon line, some where early season we caught nearly 50 ft of what appeared to be dock line and floating trap line. Thankfully we were only minutes from our mooring and were able to come in at low rpm without damaging anything. The line took 20+ dives in mid April waters to completely cut from the shaft. Thankful for my winter (surfing) wetsuit and a friend on the swim platform cheering me on. Needless to say this season we will run a cutter. Curious if anyone has advice?

[sweetwater]

I have been thinking of this as well, problem I saw was that there will not be room for a zinc anymore. I installed a nice stainless shaft brush also, but still like the zinc on there. I have seen two different cutter types, one that has two pieces and cuts like a shear, and one that installs like a shaft zinc and cuts like a saw. The later one uses much less space and required no drilling into the boat. " shark" cutter I think?

[sweetwater]

Two more are "quickcutter" and "evolution".

[RobS]

I have been thinking of this as well, problem I saw was that there will not be room for a zinc anymore. I installed a nice stainless shaft brush also, but still like the zinc on there...

Could go with the prop nut anode, boatzincs.com has them.

[rcwhite]

When we first purchased our 28 I installed a line cutter and drive saver.
The line cutter has been most helpful and the drive saver made room for the zinc. I also
installed a brush on the shaft tied to bonding.

Line cutter was something like this.
http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse. ... 10374.html

Drive saver
https://www.gcsmarine.com/content/drive ... rivesavers

[RobS]

... and the drive saver made room for the zinc...

You must have a flush deck with conventional gearbox. Engine box model with reverse tranny would lose shaft length with a spacer installed at the coupler.

[rcwhite]

You must have a flush deck with conventional gearbox. Engine box model with reverse tranny would lose shaft length with a spacer installed at the coupler.

Very true, I should have quailified that.

Thanks

[RobS]

no problem, just don't want anyone to misinterpret the data

[kmary]

Well here is what I came up with for a solution. I did not have a prop holler handy so I went with a bolt on solution from Hamilton (see attached pics). I added a prop zinc, which apparently the past owner had never had (judging by the shape of my prop).

Hoping this is like buying a plow right before winter, and it never snows. Even if I don't snare a thing I am going to credit the prop cutter for a smooth season!

[Tree]

We fitted one of these - Robin is a lovely chap and sells them worldwide.

http://www.ropestripper.com/

[Yearwood]

Out TE 28 came with a cutter installed but no zinc in spite of the fact that it was a sea water boat. Put on a prop nut zinc. Have no idea if the cutter has been effective over the past 12 years on the Chesapeake.