Help! We are in full swing sailing but one thing that keeps us on our toes is the prop walk we are getting. Our Freedom’s prop walk is very stubborn to the right. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to help. We can counter it, with a slight turn to starboard, reverse throttle burst, straighten the rudder, but it takes a lot of time to get going, and straight. Not great for tight marinas.
Any suggestions 
Thanks
The rudder only has an effect on the direction of a sailboat when the boat is moving. So in order for the rudder to turn the boat, you have to have some speed. Therefore, you have to get the boat moving with a fairly brief aggressive thrust.
Additionally, the 40/40 was designed with the engine slightly to port instead of being centered, and therefore the shaft has a slight port to starboard angle instead of being in line with the center of the hull. There is no real trick to it other than getting used to it and getting the feel for how the Boat handles when you’re coming in and out of the dock.
When coming into the dock, you have to keep your speed up and then be ready to give it an aggressive reverse thrust to stop it. I always go bow in because the 4040 is not easily maneuverable in reverse. When leaving the dock, I gave it a good aggressive reverse thrust so I can maneuver with the rudder.
I hope this helps answer your question
Hey, thank you. That’s exactly what we’ve being doing. Out of curiosity, when you are dead still and want to reverse straight, how do you have your rudder set? Do you set it full starboard with the wall, centred or full port to counteract.
Thanks
Propwalk in reverse gets worse with higher RPM’s. Keep them down and be patient for the boat to gain enough speed for the rudder to work. Keep the rudder centered until you have a little speed. Then back off the rpms and let the boat glide along as you steer.
Start saving for a bow thruster!
That is why I give it a quick hard thrust just to get the boat moving, then lower it back to idle while using the rudder to steer.
I can’t say that I think about it as I am sitting here at my computer. I have had the boat since 2008. I generally back out of my slip by giving the throttle a quick hard thrust then quickly lower it back to idle. This gets the boat moving enough to steer with my rudder.
That makes a lot of sense
I just left my winter haul out marina and brought my boat to her mooring. I had to back off the dock with a stiff breeze pushing me onto the floating dock. I put a fender slighlly forward than usual and had my wife untie the stern and bow line and with the spring still attached i goosed her forward which made the stern push off the dock a bit. Then i went into reverse and had her drop the spring and we left the dock like pros. I didnt really feel any issues with prop walk but i did give her a big blast at first to get her moving and then throttled back to let her momentum carry her.
Your propeller can also make a huge difference. I have a 2 blade Max Prop and it isn’t bad.
Maybe that is why i haven’t really had any issues. Mine is a 3 bladed max prop
Thanks guys. Ours has a strong pull to starboard but maybe I’m nit giving her enough thrust to get her going quick enough. We are back out sailing today so will give it all a try and let you know how we get on
Ben, Keep your rudder centered when you start your movement. When the boat is moving about at a knot in speed throttle back to idle and then gently give the helm a gentle turn as she glides. You may also need to bump the boat into neutral to keep your speed just slow enough to have steerage and not have too much speed.
This all comes with experience. My prior boat was a full keeled columbia and had awful propwalk. Reversing in a straight line was impossible so i had to really master this problem. When I docked my 40/40 for the first time i actually laughed at how easy it is to maneuver compared to a full keeled boat.
Well our last sail was a huge success. Tightened our steering cables after doing some steering work, and would you believe it, prop walk has dropped massively. Haha. Here’s to a summer of sailing.
Thanks for all your help again
Prop walk can be your friend. You can make a 180 degree turn in place by using prop walk.
Turn your rudder to steer left. Give a short blast forward throttle. Do not turn the wheel. Give a blast of reverse throttle. Do not turn the wheel. Repeat forward and reverse short blasts (with a short pause between) and you will spin the boat around.
This only works turning towards the left (counter clockwise) on the Freedom with a clockwise propeller rotation.