If only we had SPURS
SPURS® cutters proved best of the bunch by far
Having a serious problem in the mid 80’s with weed in the river Frome, and Japanese weed in Poole harbour, we decided to fit a cutter. As at that moment had no time to do it myself, I hurriedly instructed the yard to fit one, suggesting they use Ambassador Marine’s ‘Stripper’. I was furious to find, in the event, they actually fitted a ‘Spurs’ cutter, marketed in the UK by Harold Hayles, Yarmouth IOW. They assured me that it was the best of the bunch by far and was used by the RNLI and fishing boats all over the world, but I was not convinced as the cutting blade root seemed too small to take the force of cutting big lumps of ropes etc.
From that day to this we have never been stopped and have chopped our way through fields of weed, many unseen pot lines, a carelessly laid kedge anchor warp, my own dingy painter (courtesy of a grandchild), one of my mooring warps (you can’t get the crew you know), polythene by the acre and much to my amazement, unseen in the dark, a huge agricultural fertiliser bag. This stopped the engine dead before I could get my hand to the throttle. It encased the prop completely and the boat hook could not shift a bit of it! A few minutes of quick alternating ahead and astern chopped the thing up into small pieces and I shortly resumed our course into Falmouth sporting a big grin on my face. 20 years later we still have this cutter!
c/o Paul H, Sabre Forums Tech Officer
