So I went to my family's for Xmas lunch yesterday and left all the hatches open, came back a few hours later to a massive storm and a flooded boat. I'm the idiot here and learnt a lesson.
Today went for a sail over to Bribie Island, got into the channel and turned into the wind to drop the sails. Started the engine to keep her into the current and realized there was no thrust happening. Dropped the pick, got the sails sorted then jumped overboard. No prop!! That was a surprise for sure. It was a 2blade folding prop. 24 tacks into the wind later and I was back outside the channel off Newport Marina where the coastguard met me and towed me to my berth. I'm flying to Switzerland early tomorrow so it all pretty hectic. I got an anode and just wired it onto the saildrive shaft, hopefully that will be enough. What do you wise folks think?
Vernon.

Craig66 said..
Im not sure the anode will provide thrust

enjoy Switzerland

....good one Craig

Craig66 said..
Im not sure the anode will provide thrust

enjoy Switzerland

you positive about that !

I think sail drives are just bad. Too many dissimilar metals, need a big hole in the hull to fit them, the thrust is not properly transmitted to strong points of the hull, complicated mechanicals, expensive to replace etc., etc.,etc.

cisco said..
I think sail drives are just bad. Too many dissimilar metals, need a big hole in the hull to fit them, the thrust is not properly transmitted to strong points of the hull, complicated mechanicals, expensive to replace etc., etc.,etc.

Well that's a mute point, my boat HAS a saildrive. But they are more efficient as the thrust is going back at 90 degrees as opposed to a shaft which is sometimes on a massive angle, pushing thrust downward bit backward. But yeah, it my fist boat with saildrive so time will tell.

Dexport said..
Well that's a mute point, my boat HAS a saildrive. But they are more efficient as the thrust is going back at 90 degrees as opposed to a shaft which is sometimes on a massive angle, pushing thrust downward bit backward. But yeah, it my fist boat with saildrive so time will tell.

Pros and cons for anything as usual. Also like most things, if correctly maintained should give you years of trouble free service.

With what you have planned, extensive cruising, now is the time to get it right.

I hope it works out for you without breaking the bank.

Yara said..

cisco said..

Dexport said..
Well that's a mute point, my boat HAS a saildrive. But they are more efficient as the thrust is going back at 90 degrees as opposed to a shaft which is sometimes on a massive angle, pushing thrust downward bit backward. But yeah, it my fist boat with saildrive so time will tell.

Pros and cons for anything as usual. Also like most things, if correctly maintained should give you years of trouble free service.

With what you have planned, extensive cruising, now is the time to get it right.

I hope it works out for you without breaking the bank.

Saildrive is mostly standard on the modern production yachts. However, if designed in from the start, it is easy to reinforce the hull to take the thrust bending moment. Also saildrive makes design of internals a lot easier.

I like shaft drive, but most of the older boats I have looked at have almost impossible access to the shaft seal.

Dexport: Can you fit a fixed blade prop on the shaft? Not as elegant, but might save some big bucks.

Hi Yara
yeah I could put a fix blade on there but it would be a bit of a shame to have this fast boat and then attach an "anchor" to it. I've got a couple of months now though to think about it and research options.

Ramona said..
Cruise ships use asipods which are just sail drives that rotate!

Be that as it may, the scale of engineering is vastly different. The principle of having propellor axis inline with the direction of travel is the only similarity.

I would hazard a bet that the majority of asipods are hydraulic drive.

If I was looking for a late model or new production yacht, I would be looking for one with a "Torqueedo" drive.

cisco said..

Ramona said..
Cruise ships use asipods which are just sail drives that rotate!

Be that as it may, the scale of engineering is vastly different. The principle of having propellor axis inline with the direction of travel is the only similarity.

I would hazard a bet that the majority of asipods are hydraulic drive.

If I was looking for a late model or new production yacht, I would be looking for one with a "Torqueedo" drive.

Azipods are electric. The ships are diesel electric. They are also usually puller props.

Also another problem is if you mount the drive on the rudder and you loose the rudder for any reason you also loose the drive

Regards Don

Bananabender said..
What is it with folding props falling off. My theory is the jolt when they fold out . I gave boat to crew to race when overseas and it happened to them when motoring to the start line inside the port Phillip heads at 2200 hrs for King Island race . They tell me not a nice feeling in rough seas and no sails up.
That was 1980's so perhaps the design has improved .

Yeah a bit of a worry, its my first experience with this. As far as I can tell in my case it must have something to do with the fact that you need to put the gearbox in reverse in order to close the blades while sailing. I was told this by the boat builder.
So I have forgotten to do that a couple of times but also on two other occasions forgotten to put it back in neutral before starting the engine. In my opinion that is pretty bad, there should be a safeguard against doing that, the engine shouldn't start while in gear(like most outboards)

Engines, saildrives, propellers are all the biggest PITA on a sailboat. Rarely does anything go wrong with our sails / standing and running rigging.

2bish said..
Bugger Vernon, last thing you needed when heading overseas. Hopefully all will be well. My vote is for sideways propulsion under the anode

B.t.w. I have a fixed 3 blade prop on our boat (cruiser/racer) with a sail drive. It came with it and I intend to swap it out for a folding prop sometime down the track, but to be honest I don't think it's a big performance loss, I think they say maybe half to one knot difference.

Yeah I read some comparison studies yesterday and a knot of speed is about the max you loose under sail. Still 1 knot is between 10% - 20% of your boat speed so not peanuts.
If you upgrade to a folder I would keep the fixed prop as a backup.

Dexport said..
So I went to my family's for Xmas lunch yesterday and left all the hatches open, came back a few hours later to a massive storm and a flooded boat. I'm the idiot here and learnt a lesson.
Today went for a sail over to Bribie Island, got into the channel and turned into the wind to drop the sails. Started the engine to keep her into the current and realized there was no thrust happening. Dropped the pick, got the sails sorted then jumped overboard. No prop!! That was a surprise for sure. It was a 2blade folding prop. 24 tacks into the wind later and I was back outside the channel off Newport Marina where the coastguard met me and towed me to my berth. I'm flying to Switzerland early tomorrow so it all pretty hectic. I got an anode and just wired it onto the saildrive shaft, hopefully that will be enough. What do you wise folks think?
Vernon.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Broken plates on your PNG trip, lost prop on your new boat. Might have all been avoided if you kept Neptune happy and performed that renaming ceremony for Nautilus .

I would have thought that a boat named after a Scottish mountain would have appealed to the other aspects of your lifestyle. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do the ceremony before the 3rd thing happens.

Wander66 said..
I would have thought that a boat named after a Scottish mountain would have appealed to the other aspects of your lifestyle. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do the ceremony before the 3rd thing happens.

You need to be careful that you do not take anything Wander66 says too seriously.

He is as supersticious as they come and says he regularly hosts aliens that land on his rural block for BBQs on his back balcony.

His warped mind my be a result of him drinking too much of his home distilled Rum. Come to think of it, I think he owes me half a pint of his poison.