What Happens When You Wind Your Dinghy Painter Around Your Propeller? Twice!

        It may have happened more than twice, but that's all I remember so I will relate just the two.

We towed this guy and his big dog in his dinghy from Orcas Landing across to 

Blind Bay. 

•  In our haste, we snagged the tow rope before we got started. We wound it up on the prop killing our outboard motor and then, since we had already cast off, we drifted dead behind the ferry that had just arrived.  For a few worried minutes I was glancing up at the ferry pilothouse, I was wondering if the captain saw us or
  
  was he looking down at us and laughing. I was close to making a radio call, but we got the line loose and moved on a few minutes before the ferry departed.
• More recently in another boat, our dinghy line was tied to the stern rail and I unknowingly dragged it through the water all the way from Stuart to Jones Island. And then, wound it up around the prop when I used reverse while attempting to anchor. All hell broke loose with everyone yelling what to do or not to do as the line wound up tighter and tighter. By the time I put it in neutral our rail had begun bowing and creaking. We dropped the anchor and luckily were able to rotate the shaft freeing the line but someone almost had to go for a dip.

        So knowing this as an ongoing potential issue, I resolved to use only floating lines, and to shorten all lines so that they cannot reach the prop.

Plus I resolved to use painter tow lines that are small enough that they will break before they damage or bend my boat and shaft should another mishap occur.

      The problem is I have procrastinated for years and done nothing, in fact the rope that I  snagged, I'm still using it minus about eight inches I cut off.

         My advice to myself is to follow my advice.

        (update, I think the last little snafu where we wound it up may have bent something because I might be detecting a little vibration at wot.  Its not too late to follow my own advice before I do it again and make the boat unusable costing some real boat $$$$)