Jump to content

Bent prop, but was lucky


Sinbad
 Share

Recommended Posts

On fridays return from swanage, with my daughter on board, we were chatting awayand didnt see a pot bouy pushed

low in the water in the confused ebb race at old harry.

 

Suddenly we were over it,and with a thump like we,d struck the bottom, I cut the throttle immediately. I expected, a loop of rope round the prop, but the bouy popped up astern, so we got through the race, and stopped to take a look.

 

Luckily, the gearbox seemed ok, but the prop was like a cauliflower.. After a few thumps with the mallet, it was good enough to go, but the vibration above 8knts was awful. So we limped into poole and stuffed the boat on her mooring...

 

I was amazed by how much damage a rope can do. Good job we werent miles out either.....im now thinking an alloy prop is pretty fragile and having a spare wouldnt be a bad idea...though changing it in an emergency would have to be a last resort...Oi.

 

So, time for a trip to propeller solutions...unless, anyone knows of an alternative?????

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just about anything can destroy an alloy prop very easily!

 

personally I got fed up after the 2nd one (meaty one on a 90) got trashed by a nylon bailing strap - and switched to SS .

 

whilst changing the prop on an OB with the boat in the water is one of those 'just about manageable when everything goes right and the sea state is flat calm!' tasks, I don't like those odds.

 

otoh experience tells me that you can just bend the mangled blades until they snap off and run back pretty efficiently on almost the hub alone ie even 1" of blade root will give good drive.

 

the argument against SS as 'hitting something may damage the gearbox' just doesn't stack up for me - running back any distance with an off balance damaged alloy one is even more likely to cause damage to my mind - and SS ones will take a lot of abuse, especially shallow running in sand and shale which just polishes them (yes I know the water pump suffers ...but that's a different issue)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a wind up!!!

Boat is finally sorted with a new prop, but not without a certain amount of faffing arround today...

 

Apparently, I knew nothing about propellers except how to take one off, so much so that I couldnt get a new one until I'd gone down to the boat, fetched her off the mooring and checked the numbers on the prop (13.5 x 15)

 

Then nowhere in Poole could come up with one, Prop Solutions and salterns drew a blank, but promised more coming in next week !! sad.gifsad.gif

 

So the only option was 3 hours in the car on a friday pm and a trip back to lymington and BHG.

 

However, I'm pretty chuffed with the new one.. it sort of slices the water instead of thrashing it like the other one did. Even before it was 'bent to buggery' the leading edges had become pitted and blunt...and it was probably out of balance.

 

End result is a lot less vibration and the performance even on a short run up the channel tonight was amazing... biggrin.gifbiggrin.gifbiggrin.gif

 

All I've got to do on Sunday is to remember how to catch fish... its been a while....blink.gif

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...