I am headed for Annapolis Thursday at o'dark thirty. One priority is to
find a 3 bladed feathering prop. The candidates a Martec Auto Stream ,
MaxProp, VariProp and Gori.

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about any of them? Any others you
would recommend I look at?

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

In npj0f.64$784.63@lakeread08 "Glenn Ashmore" writes:

I am headed for Annapolis Thursday at o'dark thirty. One priority is to
find a 3 bladed feathering prop. The candidates a Martec Auto Stream ,
MaxProp, VariProp and Gori.

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about any of them? Any others you
would recommend I look at?

Any reason Autoprop is not on your list? Price?

I had a two bladed Gori, and think this is perhaps the best two bladed
folding prop. But when I wanted to change to a three bladed feathering
prop, I ended up with j-prop: http://www.bomon.com/jprop/.

I have been very happy with the performance and here in Europe it is
much cheaper than the competition.

There is one question you should pay attention to: If your gearbox has
not about the same reduction ratio of revs on both the forward and
backwards gear, then you better to get an feathering prop that can be
adjusted to different angle of attack of the blades on forward and
reverse. I know J-prop does not have this, but only a few have. It is
possible maxprop has.

- Lauri Tarkkonen


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Lauri Tarkkonen" wrote in message
...

There is one question you should pay attention to: If your gearbox has
not about the same reduction ratio of revs on both the forward and
backwards gear, then you better to get an feathering prop that can be
adjusted to different angle of attack of the blades on forward and
reverse. I know J-prop does not have this, but only a few have. It is
possible maxprop has.

- Lauri Tarkkonen


Max Prop has independent pitches forward and reverse - or, at least, my
manual sez mine does...

L8R

Skip, totally sore from moving house

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
In npj0f.64$784.63@lakeread08 "Glenn Ashmore" writes:

I am headed for Annapolis Thursday at o'dark thirty. One priority is to
find a 3 bladed feathering prop. The candidates a Martec Auto Stream ,
MaxProp, VariProp and Gori.

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about any of them? Any others you
would recommend I look at?

Any reason Autoprop is not on your list? Price?

I had a two bladed Gori, and think this is perhaps the best two bladed
folding prop. But when I wanted to change to a three bladed feathering
prop, I ended up with j-prop: http://www.bomon.com/jprop/.

I have been very happy with the performance and here in Europe it is
much cheaper than the competition.


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach at earthlink dot fishcatcher (.net) wrote in
message ...


Max Prop has independent pitches forward and reverse - or, at least, my
manual sez mine does...

L8R

Skip, totally sore from moving house

New kind of physical therapy huh? ;-)

Where are you and Lydia going to camp until the Pig can fly?

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Lauri Tarkkonen" wrote in message
...

Any reason Autoprop is not on your list? Price?

I had a two bladed Gori, and think this is perhaps the best two bladed
folding prop. But when I wanted to change to a three bladed feathering
prop, I ended up with j-prop: http://www.bomon.com/jprop/.

I have been very happy with the performance and here in Europe it is
much cheaper than the competition.

There is one question you should pay attention to: If your gearbox has
not about the same reduction ratio of revs on both the forward and
backwards gear, then you better to get an feathering prop that can be
adjusted to different angle of attack of the blades on forward and
reverse. I know J-prop does not have this, but only a few have. It is
possible maxprop has.

AutoProp is a neat idea but I eliminated it for a couple of reasons. First
it is not truly feathering. The blades hang loose when idle and produce
some drag which can make them rotate. The other is that it relies on 3
races of exposed ball bearings that I am afraid can get caked up with
barnacle cement and other trash.

I had not thought of the J-prop but I will look at them. The 3 bladed Gori
and MaxProp are near the top of my list.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

In E3m0f.78$784.41@lakeread08 "Glenn Ashmore" writes:


"Lauri Tarkkonen" wrote in message
...

Any reason Autoprop is not on your list? Price?

I had a two bladed Gori, and think this is perhaps the best two bladed
folding prop. But when I wanted to change to a three bladed feathering
prop, I ended up with j-prop: http://www.bomon.com/jprop/.

I have been very happy with the performance and here in Europe it is
much cheaper than the competition.

There is one question you should pay attention to: If your gearbox has
not about the same reduction ratio of revs on both the forward and
backwards gear, then you better to get an feathering prop that can be
adjusted to different angle of attack of the blades on forward and
reverse. I know J-prop does not have this, but only a few have. It is
possible maxprop has.

AutoProp is a neat idea but I eliminated it for a couple of reasons. First
it is not truly feathering. The blades hang loose when idle and produce
some drag which can make them rotate. The other is that it relies on 3
races of exposed ball bearings that I am afraid can get caked up with
barnacle cement and other trash.

If your propeller axis is not perfectly horizontal the three bladed
feathering propeller will vause some drag. I have not heard about the
problem of Autoprop would rotate, but if you put your gear on, I am sure
it will not. I have been asking people who have Autoprops, when I have
seen them working on their boats, but even if there have been some
barnacles on the prop, nobody admitted that it has affected the rotation
of the blades. Of course most people I have met are in the Baltic, where
the barnacle problem is not that big.

I had not thought of the J-prop but I will look at them. The 3 bladed Gori
and MaxProp are near the top of my list.

If you have to fix the angle of the blades differently for forward and
reverse then MaxProp is yours, if it can be symmetric J-prop comes much
cheaper (at least here in Finland). If you choose a Gori, you should
check the vedge that locks the propeller in the axis. Earlier they were
made of brass, and I know a couple of cases, my own boat included where
the vedge has been split into two and the propeller has fallen off.
(They could not find it in the mud of the harbour bottom. :-)). Use
steel.

- Lauri Tarkkonen


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 22:48:15 -0400,
Glenn Ashmore wrote:

"Lauri Tarkkonen" wrote in message
...

Any reason Autoprop is not on your list? Price?

I had a two bladed Gori, and think this is perhaps the best two bladed
folding prop. But when I wanted to change to a three bladed feathering
prop, I ended up with j-prop: http://www.bomon.com/jprop/.

I have been very happy with the performance and here in Europe it is
much cheaper than the competition.

There is one question you should pay attention to: If your gearbox has
not about the same reduction ratio of revs on both the forward and
backwards gear, then you better to get an feathering prop that can be
adjusted to different angle of attack of the blades on forward and
reverse. I know J-prop does not have this, but only a few have. It is
possible maxprop has.

AutoProp is a neat idea but I eliminated it for a couple of reasons. First
it is not truly feathering. The blades hang loose when idle and produce
some drag which can make them rotate. The other is that it relies on 3
races of exposed ball bearings that I am afraid can get caked up with
barnacle cement and other trash.

I had not thought of the J-prop but I will look at them. The 3 bladed Gori
and MaxProp are near the top of my list.



Please keep us posted on what you decide on, and why, and maybe how well
it works? I for one am interested. We will need a new prop for
Windwalker in a year or so, our current fixed blade has slight
"pinking" on the leading edges, no major worry, but owrth replacing
before we cast off. A feathering prop is a maybe, depending on cost, and
benefit.

--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
Unix has security which has been tested by conniving, unscrupulous
college students over generations.

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I had not thought of the J-prop but I will look at them. The 3 bladed Gori
and MaxProp are near the top of my list.

Glenn,

I looked into all of the above, plus J Prop and the Kiwi
plastic ones. I ended up with a _used_ 17" Autostream
bought from a private seller in Oz, but was leaning to the
Kiwi prop for weight (catamaran) and cost reasons previously.

Kiwi:

- cheaper than the rest
- corresponded with one early adopter who had only good
words to say
- blades maybe a bit more vulnerable if you hit debris, but
maybe this saves a shaft or coupling?
- chunky hub

Maxprop
- good track record
- expensive for the VP version


Autostream
- continuous improvement from their earliest models
- Duplex s.s. construction with low corrosion
- simple and very nice engineering. I like this
- seals are simple O-rings at blade hubs with delrin bushings
- independent reverse/fwd. pitch, easily adjustable with a
wrench and allen key underwater
- I don't think their blade area is anything different from
Maxprop

J-Prop
- asked for price from Quebec distributor (out of sight) so
didn't think about it further

All Feathering props:
- must exchange blades to change pitch; usually time limit
on this
- can't change pitch if boat more loaded/fouled bottom
- lower efficicency in head seas/wind
- best choice for racing oriented boats but not cruising
boats IMO

Autoprop
- bloody costly and fairly heavy

Varifold
- no opinion

Evan Gatehouse

In Evan Gatehouse writes:

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I had not thought of the J-prop but I will look at them. The 3 bladed Gori
and MaxProp are near the top of my list.

Glenn,

I looked into all of the above, plus J Prop and the Kiwi
plastic ones. I ended up with a _used_ 17" Autostream
bought from a private seller in Oz, but was leaning to the
Kiwi prop for weight (catamaran) and cost reasons previously.

Kiwi:

- cheaper than the rest
- corresponded with one early adopter who had only good
words to say
- blades maybe a bit more vulnerable if you hit debris, but
maybe this saves a shaft or coupling?
- chunky hub

Maxprop
- good track record
- expensive for the VP version


Autostream
- continuous improvement from their earliest models
- Duplex s.s. construction with low corrosion
- simple and very nice engineering. I like this
- seals are simple O-rings at blade hubs with delrin bushings
- independent reverse/fwd. pitch, easily adjustable with a
wrench and allen key underwater
- I don't think their blade area is anything different from
Maxprop

J-Prop
- asked for price from Quebec distributor (out of sight) so
didn't think about it further

So you did not really look at it. :-).

All Feathering props:
- must exchange blades to change pitch; usually time limit
on this

I do not get this. So far I can understand and have some experience you
can change the pitch on most feathering props, and many of them allow it
to be done without removing the propeller and even under the water and
some allow you to have different pitch on reverse and forward.

- can't change pitch if boat more loaded/fouled bottom

Of course you have to dive under the boat to change the pitch.

- lower efficicency in head seas/wind

Lower compared to what?

- best choice for racing oriented boats but not cruising
boats IMO

So what is the superior cruising propeller?

Autoprop
- bloody costly and fairly heavy

Costly, will change the pitch automatically.

Varifold
- no opinion

Evan Gatehouse

- Lauri Tarkkonen

Evan Gatehouse wrote:

All Feathering props:
- must exchange blades to change pitch; usually time limit
on this

Oops - meant to say "FOLDING" not feathering props!

Evan Gatehouse