Having just returned from a four day/three nights aboard trip on the Great Ouse system (and a lovely trip up the Little Ouse to Brandon on the Suffolk/Norfolk border) a big problem for us at this time of year are weeds clogging up the rivers. We had two instances of the boat suddenly slowing and the engine straining and vibrating a little after what I take to be hitting and getting entangled with clumps of weed lurking beneath the surface. Churned up weed left in our wake suggested that the problem was being solved butin fact the rough running continues until a bit of reverse or turning whilst mooring which seemed to completely clear the problem.

However what about rope and weed cutters - does anyone have one fitted and do they work at all? Or do others have a procedure (like going into reverse or turning the boat etc) to clear weed entanglement?

We used to suffer this problem with our old boat in the old mooring basin we used to moor in.

The outboard used to clog up with weeds and vibrate as we tried to open up once out of the basin and on the main river.

Obviously as an outboard we could tilt it up to clean it, but we soon tired of this and usually found a burst of reverse cleared the problem.

The tidal Thames suffers hugely with plastic bread bags jamming props ( have not risked the Birchwood down there, but we have encountered them in our 15 ft open boat!).

Ropecutters would probably help, but have you seen the price of them!

To answer your question, this months Motor Boats Monthly has an article on Rope cutters and compares different types on the market  

Duly bought Motor Boat Monthly (to be frank I buy it only very occasionally as I get rather depressed being unable to afford the very large boats they largely feature nor maintain the floosies that usually drape the stern!) and I see that rope cutters also slow you down by at least 1mph - given our existing slow speed I can't see us wanting one of those!

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being unable to afford the very large boats they largely feature nor maintain the floosies that usually drape the stern

You can rent both....  

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No Regrets wrote : Quote : being unable to afford the very large boats they largely feature nor maintain the floosies that usually drape the stern You can rent both....

And you can use your own chopper on them instead!!!