Feathering and folding props

[FredSprigman]

I recently purchased a 2001 Catalina 36. So far, so good. I would like to improve performance motoring and sailing. She is equipped with a 2 blade, fixed pitch prop. The Autp Prop. Max Prop, and Fex-O-Fold folder are of interest to me. They are all three bladed, the first two are feathering and the latter is a folder. I am of the opinion that the Auto Prop is a better prop for motoring but the Max Prop is better when sailing. Both are good in reverse. I am short of information about the Flex-O-Fold or Jensen. Can anyone give me info on all of them or your experience, etc. Regards-Fred

[jinga]

Hey Fred,

Do you have saildrive or shafts ?

Like you, for shafts, we would have selected autoprop because the pich of the prop is balanced by the shaft rpm to maximise drive.

But if you have saildrive - have a look at the Volvo 3 bladed folding props - they are about 1/3 rd of the price of autoprops and offer very little resistance under sail. We have now used these props for 2 years & have had no problems whatsoever.

Jinga

[FredSprigman]

"Islander" is shaft equipped. I am interested in the Auto Prop, Max Prop, Flex-O-Fold, and the Gori folder. Since she motors so well (6.5 kts. @ 2200 rpm ), with a 2 blade, fixed prop, I will concentrate on sailing. I will research which of the props is best when sailing. Fred

[audbydez]

fred

i use the stainless steel martec 3-blade feathering prop. it is much less expensive than autoprop or maxprop. it is easy to install and more importantly pitch can be adjusted externally without dissasembly. simply put, if you had to, you can go under water with snorkel, mask, box wrench and allen key and set the pitch.

pitch for reversed can be set independant of forward. you get excellent performance under power, great torque and control in reverse and near folding prop performance under sail.

i set my prop pitch on my beneteau 40 with perkins 50 engine to give me 6.8 to 7.5 konts at 2800 to 3000 RPM. Max rpm on my engine is 4000 RPM and the experts at mack boring say to ocaasionaly run my engine under load to no more than 3400 RPM.

according to them, if diesel engines are run too frequently at the same rpm, they tend to wear and score internally at that rpm. they suggest constantly varying the rpm. also - diesel engines like to and need to be run on a frequent and consistent basis. most diesels are good for 14,000 to 20,000 hours of operation. boats with low engine hours are not circulating and using enough diesel fuel which degrades quite rapidly. stagnant engine parts in salt air environments corrode very quickly.

treat your propellar system and engine system as one unit running and servicing both regularly.

Regards,

Captain Ron