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Sunday 19th March - Lulworth Banks


mike farrants

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Was out yesterday on Tims boat - decided the mackerel had gone so steamed straight out to Lulworth banks (7nm) with frozen bait in search of bream - light tides but a fresh wind against it - forecast 10mph off the land but was well over 15Mph+ - made it quite uncomfortable. and cold.

As we were set to be swinging around we went with 1 rod each - me and tim on small stuff for the bream - jason on a big bait for rays and conger

Tim was straight into the bream - but it was a tough day - Tim had 5 bream (up to 2lb) and a pout, jason had a dog and a conger i had only 2 pout. 

no pics - nothing worthy

a tough day made very tough by what happened next.....

 

A local (very well known) commercial pot boat (assume Whelks) was hauling pots near us - we anchored away from any markers - the area is well known for commercial gear so you have to anchor carefully. 

this baot finished pulling their string not too far from us and was obviously emptying and re-baiting as they went, he then towed his marker buoy around our stern, and proceeded to start dropping his string less than 50yd from our port side (inland of us) and then steamed straight over where our anchor rode would be (75m as were in 60ft water) dropping his pots - quite clearly over our anchor line - with no concern or care for us whatsoever. 

He would have know we were clearly at anchor, and was operating far to close to us - wish i had pics/video, but it wasn't until he motored off that we realised what he had just done

We know full well his string of pots is now laid over our anchor rope at almost 90 degs

When we pulled the anchor the inevitable happened and we hooked up his gear - a lot of driving around, swearing, sweating, risking going over and 3 busted backs later we did manage to hand haul the anchor to the boat with his line clearly across it - we had to (chose to) cut ourselves free, the anchor chain damaged the wooden gunwhales and stainless rails, but we didn't lose the anchor. 

Its a local Weymouth boat so we will be filing a complaint to the harbour master for what its worth. all he had to do was start his drop 100 yards the other side or ahead of us

pic shows how close he dropped his first pot. we could of cast to it

image.thumb.png.d16fea8e57fd058e592cd1739363dd36.png

 

i know commercials are just doing their job - and probably get f'ed off with pleasure boaters, but we weren't in their way, we weren't doing any harm, and quite frankly they did this on purpose with total disregard for us and our safety. 

anyone else we should report to?

 

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Sorry to hear Mike. That does seem like a piss-take from the commercial. As for who else to report it to, the harbour master might be able to suggest some options once you've spoke with him about it?

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So he basically boxed you in, right? Pots across your bows and across your stern? If so then that's plain dangerous. He put you in a position where you risked getting your prop caught in the markers astern whilst drifting after sorting out your anchor issues.

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8 minutes ago, JonC said:

Try not to stress over it, these poor fuckers are struggling to make a living especially starting a lot of them got conned into voting for something stupid. 
They may well have had a plan perhaps working certain areas on a rotation or some shit. In my opinion it’s not worth the row and talk of criminal damage to his tackle certainly won’t help build any bridges. Love and peace to everyone. 

Jesus, has Jesus hacked Jon's account??

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Yes I certainly don't want to upset anyone when my boats in the same marina and we see them all the time.

My mate knows one of the charter skippers so might see if its worth having a polite word. 

the annoying thing is its put us off anchoring there again - and i suspect that was their plan!

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Put the word out in your marina that you caught a PB [insert species of choice] from that mark and watch as it turns into a car park. He won't be able to drop or collect his pots if there's always a dozen small boats anchored up...

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13 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Put the word out in your marina that you caught a PB [insert species of choice] from that mark and watch as it turns into a car park. He won't be able to drop or collect his pots if there's always a dozen small boats anchored up...

I like it - i'll put on facache that the mackerel are in lol

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6 minutes ago, JonC said:

I thought that also, then I read another post on Facebook about them. Seems not many bother. I put one up when it’s busy especially when all the sailing boats are around. 

The reason I say that is he could claim he was unaware that they were anchored…. 

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Sadly no anchor ball - just a big old anchor buoy off the bow - but nonetheless - he shoudn't have been dropping pots that close to us if we were drifting or under way - he would have even less clue about our course/intentions.

they knew full well we were anchored. 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, mike farrants said:

Sadly no anchor ball - just a big old anchor buoy off the bow - but nonetheless - he shoudn't have been dropping pots that close to us if we were drifting or under way - he would have even less clue about our course/intentions.

they knew full well we were anchored. 

 

 

 

I’m not defending him…. Sounds like a quiet word would be useful and if it happens again, a nlbig knife to get your anchor back and goodbye pot string…

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7 minutes ago, JonC said:

Does the orange anchor buoy have any relevance in colregs? @Odyssey
serious question 

No, but the white 360 degree light does.

The orange anchor A3 buoy is just a good visual the show the warp, and would probably be taken into favourable consideration if there was a MAIB incident investigation.

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27 minutes ago, JonC said:

Is the white light very effective on a clear day? I think mine is a traditional filament lightbulb, not as bright as LED. How high is your light mounted? Do you have an arch at the stern? 

Yes, mine is a pole mounted LED light mounted in the top centre of the A frame on the stern.

 

IMG_1290.thumb.JPG.46d322a0e2427e5d7a47b0987b3ad615.JPG

Edited by GPSguru
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Collision Regulation Rule 30 Part A:

(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen:

(i) in the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball;

(ii) at or near the stern and at a lower level that the light prescribed in subparagraph (i), an all-round white light.

So you maybe displaying a marker buoy for your warp but this not a legally accepted means of displaying you are at anchor. However most people would keep clear…

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17 minutes ago, JonC said:

What sweets are in the old flare boxed? I’m guessing you have gone digital nowadays with flares?

I carry pyros as LED are not accepted by MCA…. Hopefully they will be by time I need to renew…. Else have to pay for new ones and disposal costs 😡

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35 minutes ago, JonC said:

What sweets are in the old flare boxed? I’m guessing you have gone digital nowadays with flares?

I only carry one box now, on the port side, and toward the transom. We only ever used one as a dry box, so the second was a waste of space. In the dry box, I carry mainly a few emergency tools, like short bolt cutters, a tool roll of spanners, screwdrivers, etc. Also, a box of fuses and electrical tape. All the stuff you hope you never need !

No, I don't carry flares, IMHO they are a liability on a small boat. I carry a PLB with a homing beacon on my LJ, and the boat has AIS and a Epirb.

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On 3/21/2023 at 1:05 PM, GPSguru said:

Yes, mine is a pole mounted LED light mounted in the top centre of the A frame on the stern.

 

IMG_1290.thumb.JPG.46d322a0e2427e5d7a47b0987b3ad615.JPG

Is that a railblaza light? I use one on my kayak just for visibility in low light conditions. 

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