New Prop, New Paint….

As we get near the departure date for Desolation Sound we’ve been spending many hours up at the boat finishing up all the prep work. This weekend we hauled the boat out for new paint and to install the new propeller. Friday we hauled out and had the bottom pressure washed then sent it to the yard for the night. Saturday, we got the bottom painted with new anti-fouling. The bottom paint was about 3 years old now and it was clearly inert.

We also had the Gori folding prop installed. It’s a 2 blade 13″ x 9 pitch replacing a fixed blade 12″ x 12 pitch.

We then launched the boat and took the new prop for a spin around Port Gardner… If you want to know what $900 gets you in a new propeller, here you go..

Old propeller:
Peak RPM: 2300 (with engine heavily loaded)
Peak Speed under power: 5.5 Knots (through water)
Slowest Speed under power: 3.5 knots (at lowest throttle setting)

Also, in Reverse, the fixed blade prop pulls hard to port.

New Gori Folding:
Peak RPM: 2500 (at cruising throttle, no soot in the in the exhaust)
Peak Speed under power: 6.5 knots (through water)
Also averaged 6 knots at 2200 rpm
Slowest Speed under power: 4 knots (at lowest throttle setting)

The best thing too, reverse is nearly perfectly straight.. I was able to maneuver any direction in reverse both during the launch and at the fuel dock.

We won’t know how it helps sailing till later but I’ll definitely update with impressions of that. The reduced drag should hopefully get us an extra 1/2 to 1 knot under sail.

Not sure if you can tell how good of condition the hull gel coat is, but it’s in “really” good shape and it’s original 31 year old paint. This shot shows how shiny it is…