How much to twist a prop

[Finalee]

Yesterday, coming in at idle, the props touched bottom. The city is dredging our entrance channel and the channel changes daily. Anyhow how much does it take to get the props out of wack? There nibral , it was a short shudder, like the tips just touched. Everything was smooth prior to this. It will be easy to tell later today after a trest run.

 

[SEVEN]

Doesn’t take much, a branch, a rock anything hard can bend a blade. Are you sure you didn’t wrap something around the prop? Try this little trick. Put the boat in reverse and rev it up for 30 seconds are so. If there is something on the props it might reverse it off. Works for me when I get seaweed and grasses around the props. Good luck.

 

[Walter P]

Hey Fred, My experience has been that Nibral takes a liken and keeps on tickin. Seriously over the years
I have had experiences when we touched bottom or hit something with the props. Regular bronze props
get messed up much easier than nibral and in fact that's one of the advantages of nibral. Of course as
with most things there are down sides to "stronger" props. The weakest link in a chain is the one that
breaks first and with drive systems on boats you need to decide where your weakest link should be. I
think I would prefer to fix or replace a prop rather than a gear in the transmisssion. I had 4 blade Stainless
Steel props on my last 43DC and they were great but due to their superior strength I worried about breaking
a gear so I installed "breakaway" couplings.

You probably didn't do much damage if any to your props since you were at idle speed but we would sure
like to know how you made out with it.

Walt

 

[Pascal]

If it s hard bottom chance the tips are bent. Softer stuff like sand or mud and they may be fine. Only way to know is to do a sea trial

 

[Finalee]

All is good. Its a horrible sound when they do that. Thanks all for the feedback.

 

[SEVEN]

So nothing happened? If so lucky you.

 

[Finalee]

Pretty sure nothing happened. Been running 20 hours per week these past 2 weeks, and plan on running more if the weather permits, now through December. The boat has been running nice. You know how they do after figuring out and fixing things.
Took it out after services and she runs as if nothing happened. So I'm guessing nothing did.

 

[Fanfare]

Snorkle and run your thumb and forefinger (carefully--they can be sharp!) across both sides of each tip on each prop blade. If they are smooth and even you are probably fine. Sand just polishes them up a little. It can remove the antifouling paint from the tips but there's usually not much left of this left after a little run time anyway.