I've raced, cruised, and voyaged, here, in Europe, and around the
world, on deliveries, charters, other people's boats, my own boats,
and boats I have built for others. I've talked to a lot of people in a
lot of different places, many of whom like MaxProp and some of whom
prefer other brands.
I have not done anything like a proper comparative test, ala Consumer
Reports or Practical Sailor. So all I have is impressions and opinions
based on experience.
The problem with assessing the goodness of many marine items is that
you can look at two of them, side by side, and they both look fine.
The fit and finish appears to be the same. Yet one of them is the
name brand and the other is 2/3 the price. If you manage to take them
out and test them, one may perform better, but is it the good long
term choice -- hard to tell.
It's hard to make a choice. You can't test longevity easily. Ours is
a difficult environment. Corrosion is an issue. Will they both last
ten years? Twenty? What is the failure rate likely to be? Are they
both built out of the best materials or did one maker cut corners --
and, of course, the corner cutter might be the name brand?
Sometimes word of mouth tells you. On our circumnav almost all the
voyaging boats had watermakers. About half were a common brand, widely
sold. Most of their owners bragged about the wonderful warranty
service they got. It turned out that most (maybe all) had had to use
it. I have no clue how good Sea Recovery's warranty service is -- we
put 700 hours on ours without incident. Which watermaker won't I buy
for Fintry? One guess.
On feathering propellers, the issue is less clear cut. I've had good
experience with MaxProp on a variety of boats. I've used others and
had one or two failures. People I respect, who are just as careful
with their money as I, pony up the extra for MaxProp. Is this
definitive? Absolutely not. But in selecting carefully machined bronze
that's going to sit under the boat, occasionally slam back and forth
between forward and reverse, now and then take hits from logs and
tangles from nets, I take into account everything I know. And, BTW,
PYI (the USA distributor for MaxProp) are good people.
------
I don't understand, "Lots of serious cruisers switch props for
different portions of their voyage." I can understand changing pitch
if you were going up a strong current, for example, and wanted to use
all of the engine's short term horsepower rating instead of the more
usual use of the continuous rating. I can also imagine a really
performance minded person taking off a MaxProp in Panama and putting
on a folding two blade for the next 7,000 miles where there's good
wind and little motoring -- but I don't know anyone who's done it.
What did you have in mind here?
-----
Finally, FYI:
Martec AutoStream 6000 series $3,000
MaxProp 70322, $3,035
(Both three blade, bronze, 22" for 1.375" shaft)
Other sizes may differ. Martec's stainless series are cheaper, but
I'm not sure I'd want a stainless prop.
http://www.martec-props.com/prices-feathering.htm
http://www.pyiinc.com/?section=brows...sku=70322&sn=5
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com
(Truelove39) wrote in message ...
Why wouldn't you use anything else for serious cruising? What others have you
used and dismissed for serious cruising? Lots of serious cruisers switch props
for different portions of their voyage.
BTW, a Martec Autostream feathering prop costs 2/3 of a Max-prop and works just
as well.
John
S/Y Truelove
(Jim Woodward) wrote:
We took a three blade Max-Prop around the world on Swee****er and I
would never use anything else for serious cruising.