2GM:    June   2006  Feedback

Hi John,

 Just a quick note to let you know that Escapade is back in the water.

 I didn’t give it full stick, but the boat was going fabulously as far as I could tell.  Excellent reverse which I’ve never had before. 
In both forward and reverse seems to have heaps more bite, even at low revs.  When I get a chance, I will test more thoroughly – but it is looking good. 

 The sail-makers still have not finished my new genoa.  When this is done I will go for a sail and a motor over to Bucklands Beach.  Should be weekend of 17/6/6.

 Have to bear in mind that I also have flash new anti-foul on.  Sprayed on Micron 66 which is apparently very slippery.

 I will keep you posted.

 Cheers, Jeremy  

Hi John,

 I took Escapade back to Bucklands Beach on Sunday.

 I have to say I was very pleased with the new propeller, which to me feels exactly like a fixed blade propeller in use – yet it folds back when sailing.  

 Under motor, on flat water, I was able to pull the same revs as the motor did before: 3200RPM (manufacturer says it should go 3600, but it never has). 
At these revs, the boat was consistently over 6 knots, sometimes reaching 6.5 knots (on my log which I suspect is a little low). 
With the old propeller, the boat would go only 5 knots at these RPM.  So a big increase in boat speed on flat water, and not bad for a little 15 HP motor. 
At my cruising RPM (2800) The boat would manage 6 knots even – great!  Very noticeable is the ‘bite’ the prop has at low RPM. 
It will easily go 3 knots with few RPM on.  Very good for manoeuvring – both in forward and reverse. 
However, you have to put it in neutral to go slow – it goes quite fast even ticking over!     

Sailing, I noticed no extra drag.  Although the boat has been anti-fouled recently, so is very slippery right now anyway. 
Didn’t seem to matter whether I had the motor in or out of gear.  I don’t think it turns or drags in either case.             

 
I will have to test in more conditions now.  The motor sounds quite different to before, I guess because it is under load at any RPM (in gear) –
not just flat out as with the old 2 blade centrifugal job.  I still need to be sure that the blade doesn’t have a little too much bite. 
I think I will only notice this in a big seaway.  But I will let you know if this is the case. 
If that happens, I guess its just a matter of adjusting the pitch a little.

 
One application I think will work much better now, is the situation when you are motor-sailing in light winds eg. to get home after a weekend away. 
I think the boat will be much quicker now doing this because the prop will still work well at a higher boat speed.

 
So, I am very pleased with the propeller to date.  Thanks!

 I will keep you posted as I use it more.

 Regards, Jeremy 

2GM:    January   2007  Feedback

Hi John,

 You will pleased to know we have got back from our holiday on our Farr 10.20 ‘Escapade’ ok.  We went to Great Barrier Island for 2 weeks.

 
Just to report back on the hybrid prop. Now we have truely tested it under a wide range of conditions.  From motoring on a flat sea, in a rough seaway, motorsailing, and even pulling up a stuck anchor (ie fully loaded) .  In all conditions the prop was fine.  We can motor on a flat sea at arround 6 knots and still over 4 knots in rough conditions, which is not bad for our little 2 cylinder Yanmar.  In is about half a knot faster than before (or maybe even .7).

 
To me the prop behaves just like a fixed prop.  Having a reverse is great advantage (the old prop was awful at that).   So, all good.

 Thanks very much.

 Regards, Jeremy

Results of  Haul Out  April End - 2007

Hi John,

 Just thought I would drop you a quick note. You will remember I have been trying the hybrid prop on Escapade.

 Its all gone pretty well, but the prop did seem to have a hiccup the other day.  I had sailed to Cactus Bay on North side of Waiheke.  Then when I started the motor to take the boat to anchor, it did not seem to be pushing much.  After anchoring, dived under and found the prop VERY covered with barnacles.  Not sure if this alone caused loss of push, or whether the blades were not properly folding out.  Anyway, cleaned it off a bit and made sure the blades would move out fully, and it all seemed to get going better.

 So, not a major failure – but of course the prop does have to be clean of barnacles to work best.  I note that there seems to have been a lot of marine growth in Bucklands Beach river where Escapade is kept on a swing mooring.  I guess it is pretty important to anti-foul the prop well. 

 I took Escapade out of water a week ago at Okahu Landing.  Apart from doing a few bits and pieces, I cleaned the prop and anti-fouled it again. Applied one coat of primacon, then two of Trilux.  Should be good now for (say) 6 months or so.  Do I need to do anything else.  Do I need to take apart or regrease?  It seems to be working fine.  Looks good.  It’s a tiny bit woobly, but I think that’s normal.

 Oh – the zinc on the end of the sail-drive was hardly corroded!  I think it could go 1 or 2 years because of have the hybrid prop.  Excellent!

 Just in case you want a look at the prop, Escapade is on the hard at Okahu Landing (Oraki Bay) until next Wed.

 Overall I am very happy with the prop.  It may need to be re anti-fouled 6 monthly I think.  That’s ok for me, because I would usually check and clean Escapade that often anyway.

 Cheers,  Jeremy

 
The photo taken below shows the unit ready for lauching again post greasing - note the very low levels of corrosion on the zinc

3HM35:    January   2007  Feedback

Hi John..................sorry about not getting back sooner but its been a bit hectic because of the Australia Day weekend and the post recovery

 However I can report the following.....

 Left Geelong on the morning of Thursday 25th to Melbourne for the passage sail/race back to Geelong on Friday morning the 26th but as there was minimal or no wind we motored with the main up at 5knots for 4.5hrs before the wind came up.

During that period the prop performed faultlessly and the motor appeared to actually run with less revs and less vibration.........however we don't know whether the mainsail being up was a plus or minus in this situation.

 Later in the day the prop worked for approx another 30mins as we motored up the Yarra river into Melbourne and again for 1hr next morning when we left Melbourne and headed to the race starting line.............all again with no probs.

 On the passage sail/race back to Geelong we sailed basically a 'pacing' lets see how we stack up against some of the other boats especially the Geelong boats and we succeeded in getting a number of noses out of joint    even though we gave them all 600mtrs start and were only sailing with a crew of three and no spinnaker.

 Sailed past a Farr 40 of similar vintage as us and in response they hoisted their spinnaker but could still not haul us in.......and when they got back to Geelong they complimented us by stating that our prop appeared to be 'working.'

 This Wednesday's twightlight race had us second around the first mark and looking good for the the second mark when due to a navigation error we lost the plot and ended up 9th out of a fleet of 23 and the Farr 40 came 22nd.

 Have not had the chance to run the comparative 250 rpm gradients.

 All is behaving well it appears............only thing I have noticed is a slight vibration after selecting reverse as one increases the revs.....but then the vibration goes.

 Hope to do the rpm comparisons next week.

 Will let you know as soon as results are in.

 Thanks once again.

 Regards........................Leo

3HM35:  Installation shown below:

Results now available for  SDC motoring vs previous  fixed 3 bladed unit graphed below:
Initial trials limited to 3000 rpm max vs the 3400  of the 3HM35.

MD11C:    July  2007 -  Feedback from aboard the  Nonsuch 30'    " Fiesty "  in transit to Florida from Vermont

John:

Great timing! I was just going to give you an update.

Attached is the photo log of our first week out. As you can see much of

it was as a "trawler:\" and the prop is functioning superbly. As I

write this we are moored in Boston Harbor having transited Long Island

Sound and the Cape Cod Canal after our second week out. We arrived in

time to celebrate Samantha's (granddaughter) 3rd birthday

The schedule to get here was quite tight as I was still installing stuff
(radar & plotter) the morning we left. Actually I'm still installing it.

Need to complete tying it in to the radio but that is not essential so

I've let it slide. The radio is new also and has DSC which means it can

share information with other DSC radios (Lat/Lon etc.) Since few other

DSC radios are in service it is moot for now.

 From now on we will be less schedule driven and it will seem like less

of a forced march.

We've gone thru about 45 Gal of Diesel so that amounts to about 60 Hrs

on the engine and prop. I run at 1800 RPM and get almost exactly the

same 6 kts I did with the fixed two blade so I think the pitch setting

is perfect. We have experienced the first of what will be many Lobster

buoys and are being diligent to avoid them.

We've had only a few sails so far but yesterday we had a good long one

with 15 to 20 kts of wind on a beam reach. over 7kts boat speed so the

Prop sure "got out of the way" :-)

All for now. More news as it develops.

Doug & Billie

Return to Home Page