BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - What are the pros and cons of a folding prop?

(Shen44) wrote:

I don't know what a VP/CP prop is.

Variable pitch/controlable pitch.
I use the terms interchangeably, but as you'll see, others use them slightly
differently.

When our engine is running the shaft is spinning because we have a
Borg-Warner transmission. Our shaft spins whenever the engine is on
regardless whether it is neutral or not. The prop feathers when the
engine is turned off and the shaft stops spinning. The stopping of
the shaft spinning feathers the prop if I understand it correctly.
You really wouldn't want the prop feathered if the engine was on - if
it feathered when you went through neutral when docking or something
it would be very awkward.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

We have a Max-Prop BTW.

I would wonder if once you were underway and using your prop, even going from
ahead to astern (unless you had a shaft brake) that the shaft would generally
continue to rotate on it's own, keeping the prop "unfeathered", though I can
see where the manufacturer might want to guarantee it would stay that way (just
clarifying in my own mind G).

I'm not sure that I understand this question, or if it is a question,
but in our particular configuration (which is NOT the norm) with a
Borg-Warner transmission, the shaft cannot be stopped from turning by
putting the gear shift lever into reverse or neutral (whether the
engine is running or not) which I guess is what is done on most kinds
of engine/transmission linkages. We don't have a shaft brake.

[I do know one man who DOES stop the shaft rotation when under sail
with vice grips but that involves pulling up the cockpit hatch covers
and getting down into the engine room both to start and stop the shaft
rotation.]

In the beginning, we tried to ease the engine into neutral and then
shut it down, but the prop would not feather doing it that way. Some
people go overboard the other way and rev the engine way up before
they cut the power, but that isn't necessary. All that is necessary
is that you not throttle way back before you cut the engine.

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html