Feathering props

[Kyhendrix]

Anyone have anythoughts to which feather prop is best. We are looking at a Max Prop right now and would like to know if anyone has had any good or bad with them.
Thanks
Bryan

[svhoneybee]

Honey Bee had a 16" Max Prop when we bought her 3 years ago. It had no obvious vices. We re-engined 18 months ago with a 54 hp Yanmar and fitted a 20" Max Prop Classic. Honey Bee is a 12m Van de Stadt Carribean. We get 6.5 - 7 kts at 2000rpm (depending on conditions) and have averaged about 3 litres / hr diesel consumption over about 250 hours of usage on an extended cruise this year.

We are very happy with the prop. It is smooth to engage and very assertive in reverse, though it walks strongly. Occasionally we have trouble feathering it, but a short burst of reverse generally fixes it. The anode on the prop tip vanishes fairly quickly, but they are not incredibly expensive and I guess that its better the anode than the prop or your hull (HB is steel). There is also a very good discussion here:
http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/f44...prop-6523.html

[Nicholson58]

Bryan,
depends on the size and displacement of your vessel. We are 55000 disp and 58 feet. We have a Hundested infinitely variable 24 inch 3-blade. We can vary the pitch by handwheel from the cockpit. This is really great for digging out of a dead stop, big waves or a light grounding. At higher speeds we can stretch the pitch out and maximizxe fuel economy.

[mico]

We have a Hydraline feathering prop on our 6.2t 33' Alajuela cutter Mico. www.thelifeextraordinary.com

It can be adjusted and was significantly cheaper than others we had looked at and the company were extremely helpful in helping us fit and set the correct pitch for our configuration.

Produced in Sydney it was the only aperture feathering prop that came in a size that would fit our rudder opening. It works a treat but scared the hell out of us when we first put it into reverse and shot across the marina at 6kts!

Our previous prop was a 2 blade folding prop that you had to really kick into reverse to throw the blades open. Now days we are a bit more sedate when backing out of our pen

[Kyhendrix]

Displacement on this Bristol 41.1 is 28500 lbs. three blade prop and wow what a sticker shock on the maxprop feathering prop. Never done this before so just looking for some advice if anyone has done a Bristol before. Planning on changing it out and setting sail for a circumnavigation. Figured it will gain us a few days for this trip. Any more thoughts?
Thanks for the input so far. You all are great.

[svhoneybee]

We got lucky when fitting the new engine to Honey Bee. The local broker had brought in a 20" Maxprop, then his client decided he didn't want it and we picked it up for $A1700, second hand, but never been in the water.

I think the boat sails much better for not dragging a fixed prop through the water and our preference is to sail not motor or motor sail. Might depend a lot on where you are planning to sail. If you expect 25 kts of breeze all day, every day, then you probably won't notice much difference, but its surprising how much light weather is out there and that's when the drag matters.

[capta]

I think you'll be very unhappy w/a fixed prop unless you install a shaft brake. A spinning prop of course will affect your sailing performance quite a bit, but the noise is of a lot greater concern, at least to us.
As much as I hate to say it, I doubt that you will regret biting the bullet and buy the MaxProp. However, if you are venturing far a field, you should consider carrying a spare prop (a two blade is easiest to store and cheapest), key and nut, should there be a problem w/the MaxProp.
We love our MaxProp, by the way. Works very well and the boat handles very well under power. Many, many cruisers down here in the Caribbean are using them now.

[Kyhendrix]

Capta, thanks for the insight.