New boat owner here.

I have a folding brass prop on my sailboat that aquired
a lot of barnicles. I have chipped off most of the barnicles but the
prop is far from smooth.

The boat sits in salt water near the mouth of a fresh water river.

My question is what should I use to clear the prop of the remnants of
the barnicles (sand paper? if so what grit) and should I treat the
prop with some kind of anti fouling paint?

Thanks
Steve

If its out of the water a stiff wire wheel on a drill works good. if
you want to polish it do so with a 200 grit paper. I use a paint
scraper if the props under water they pop off with ease. As far as
antifoulant goes, you can paint your prop when you pull your boat, but
if you use your boat alot, the paint will not last long on the prop.
And on a folding prop it may foul up it's ability to fold. I say dont
bother painting it.

Joe

After you get done scraping your prop, much as Joe suggests, you might want
to consider spending some time in the fresh water portion of the locale
periodically if that's possible. That will kill the salt water creatures.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Steven" none wrote in message
news
New boat owner here.

I have a folding brass prop on my sailboat that aquired
a lot of barnicles. I have chipped off most of the barnicles but the
prop is far from smooth.

The boat sits in salt water near the mouth of a fresh water river.

My question is what should I use to clear the prop of the remnants of
the barnicles (sand paper? if so what grit) and should I treat the
prop with some kind of anti fouling paint?

Thanks
Steve

In alt.sailing.asa Steven none wrote:

My question is what should I use to clear the prop of the remnants of
the barnicles (sand paper? if so what grit) and should I treat the
prop with some kind of anti fouling paint?

I have a prop that sounds like yours (3 blade max prop).
Out of the water I used a wire brush on a right-angle grinder to
get the critters off and polish it up (they make these for drill
motors, too).

I was told by our boat shop that most anti-fouling paints will
attack the metal in the prop and you shouldn't paint it.

On their web page, PYI (makers of MaxProp) sell a paint just for
props. My father-in-law used this and said it didn't do any good.

--
Dave * N3WTK (DM04xf) * http://isi.mtwilson.edu * VE

On 7 Apr 2005, David Snyder Hale wrote:

Steven none wrote:

what should I use to clear the prop of the remnants
of the barnicles (sand paper? if so what grit) and
should I treat the prop with some kind of anti fouling
paint?

I have a prop that sounds like yours (3 blade max prop).
Out of the water I used a wire brush on a right-angle
grinder to get the critters off and polish it up (they make
these for drill motors, too).

I was told by our boat shop that most anti-fouling paints
will attack the metal in the prop and you shouldn't paint it.

On their web page, PYI (makers of MaxProp) sell a paint
just for props.

As it happens, I discussed this w/ the PYI technical folk just last
week re. a less than two-year old "classic" three-blade Max-Prop.

The essence of the response was that while they recommend cleaning of
the sort reported above and that and they don't formally recommend
painting, they do recomment such painting "informally" for
geographical areas where painting makes sense. He also said that,
annecodatally, they've heard from users of comparatively very good
results with Interlux' "Trilux" prop/drive anti-fouling spray and
some like products (at least in/for Mid- to Northeast Coast including
the Chesapeake Bay and L.I.Sound and related areas), which, he said,
very probably will not electrolytically attack the prop's metal
since the alloy used to fabricate the propeller itself includes just
enough copper (an active ingredient in the "Trilux" and like products)
to neutralize that effect.

The tipping factor for us in favor of painting the prop - the first
time we've done so - was our confirming that this is very common at
our comparatively large marina which services many sailboats besides
many powerboats.

My father-in-law used this and said it didn't do any good.

And despite having painted, I'm skeptical how long and how effective
the anti-fouling Stuff will work and so await with active curiosity
seeing what an inspection later in the summer will show.