Posted by f35sail (s.goward@…>)
Paul:
Sorry for the slow response. We have been enjoying the great fall
sailing season on the Cheaspeake Bay.
We have experienced several years of serious fouling problems with
both our current F35 and previous Pearson 365. WE actually had
overheating problems with the 365 fixed 3-blade as early as late June
because of barnacles on the prop. Lot of growth going on in recent years.
A year ago a local “pro” recommended the Pettit “tranducer” paint,
which as our colleague at North Carolina “inner banks” noted is a
aerosol spray. Prep for this paint is specific - will only adhere to
bare metal. I carefully sanded prop and shaft in late February and
sprayed 3 coats of the zinc tranducer paint as recommended. We are
now into late September and still have a GPS SOG of 6-6.5 knots (2800
rph) as long as we are not fighting tide or headwind. For us this is
a serious first. I will report again when we have the boat hauled for
the winter at the end of October. For now we are really impressed and
plan to spend some “quality” time next Feb. sanding the prop and
shaft, and spraying the paint (available at WM). Maybe it won’t work
next year ??
Sam
F35 Suzee
CHeaspeake Bay
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “ptecca63” <paul.tecca@…>
wrote:
I’d be interested to know which zinc-based paint you are using on
your prop and where you keep your F35. I am in Narragansette Bay, RI
and I really struggle with keeping the prop clean. I’ve not found
anything affective at fighthing the growth and rely on manually
cleaning the prop. Which is no fun this time of year (burrr!)Paul
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “f35sail” <s.goward@>
wrote:To add to confusion in this discussion. We have the fixed 2-blade
prop that came with our F35. So long as it is clean (we now used
zinc-based paint in the spring), we are able to achieve 6+ knots at
2800 rpm through out the season (depending on wind and current).
This
is from GPS readings not the BG knot meter, which is misbehaving at
the moment.SO! What are your sailing speeds at 15 knots true. We see 5.5
Knots
upwind, 7+ on a reach and 5.5 knots wing-on-wing. I debate about
the
value of a Max or Kiwi 3-blade but I have not heard much to convince
me yet. I have strong positive control under powerS. Goward
F35 Suzee— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “ptecca63” <paul.tecca@>
wrote:Correction. I have a Max-prop 3 blade feathering prop. Not a
Martec
folding prop…The pitch on the Max-prop is defintely adjustable. I downloaded
the
installation instructions from PYI and it seems pretty straight
forward. Anyone ever done it?