Tom, reread Scotty's original post. He is talking about a 3 bladed
FEATHERING prop. By definition, the blades are flat, symetrical and
reverse to the same pitch as forward. The great feature of a 3 bladed
feathering prop is 3 blade power in both directions and NO propwalk. I
have a 17" Feathering 3 blade PYI Maxprop on a fin keel boat. Zero
propwalk and it stops in its own length from 3 kn.



On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 10:22:17 -0800 (PST), (Thom
Stewart) wrote:

Yeah Donal,

Prop walk it is. Scott's Sidelminn has a pretty fine, cut away stern
and bow. The Prop walk of a 3-bladed prop will spin his hull off course
very easily. He would have compensation going forward with the prop wash
going over his rudder but in reverse a real problem. The flow from his
rudder would just be fed into the Prop and used for Prop walk.

By the way, that folding Prop in your garage, is it the same size as
your original Prop? On my boat I use a fixed 13x13 Std bladed and a
folding 13x13 with streamlined blades. The Folding outperforms the
fixed by a mile.except in reverse. I have to pop the RPM high enough to
open the blades and it sure does kick the stern over.

Another problem with the folding Props is sometimes there isn't enough
room between the end of the shaft and the rudder to let the blades fold.
If this is the case and racers want the folding prop, they must settle
for a smaller Prop. This may have been what happened with your Props.
That may be the reason Scotty is talking feathering.

Ole Thom