Wednesday 18 February 2009

Propeller Decisions

One of the points raised in the survey was the need for a new propeller - the existing one is badly pitted and I'm told causes some nasty vibrations. As with anything in the marine industry - the choices are endless. However they can be grouped into the following three categories: Fixed, Folding & Feathering.

TypeProsCons
FixedCheap, SimpleHighest relative drag
FoldingLowest dragTraditionally poor in reverse & less power than feathering
FeatheringBest motoring performance both ahead and astern. Reduced "prop walk".Higher drag than a feathering prop.
The original specification had a Volvo Penta folding prop. It's safe to say that there have been quite a few advances in this field in the 22 years since the boat was built. The blades of the prop are flat like the tip of a screwdriver, which has an impact on the motoring performance. Premium feathering props solve this problem by offering variable pitch based on RPM and some can even reverse the blades when going astern. The only downside of feathering propellers is that they produce significantly more drag than a folding prop. I've known of a racing skipper fit a feathering prop to replace his folding prop and get a better handicap, so it clearly makes a difference.
In terms of vendors there are a lot of choices:

This is a feathering prop made in New Zealand (as if the name wasn't enough of a clue). What makes it a little different from the rest is that the blades are plastic. They supply a spare blade as a part of the package, the intention being that these are sacrificial in the event of an underwater impact. It is pitch adjustable by the user with an Allen key. Whilst it doesn't offer variable pitch in the strictest sense, there is some clever trickery when reversing that makes the blades snap into "optimum" angle of attack.

Bruntons is a UK company and is definitely one of the leaders in the field. The offer the Varifold - a range of 2, 3 & 4 blade folding props and the Autoprop which is a premium feathering prop with variable pitch and a number of other special features. They also offer fixed props and at the boat show were exhibiting standard feathering propellers, but these are not mentioned on the website.

At the London Boat show, Bruntons had a tank with an Autoprop running in it. Every five seconds it would switch between ahead and astern propulsion. Seeing the blades feathering and unfurling for the new direction was really fluid, almost organic in motion. The Autoprop is a truly impressive machine, with only one significant disadvantage - Cost. We were quoted a boat show price of about £1700 for the saildrive model, which is about 70% more than a branded feathering propeller. That being said - I'm absolutely convinced that if I had a motor sailor or planned on lots of motoring I think the cost would be more than justified.

Gori is a Danish company who specialise in low drag folding propellers. Like Bruntons, they have their own magic that sets them apart from the rest. Their folding props are able to unfold differently for ahead and astern as well as providing an "Overdrive" feature which is a different blade profile for fair weather motor-sailing.


They also sell ultra low drag racing propellers, which would be tempting, except I suspect that these are built with sailing performance as being the primary factor, and motoring distant second. If I had a race boat they would definitely be on the list. Speaking of which, Swan mainly use Gori propellers. I feel that they let themselves down in terms of customer interaction. I mailed them for a quote and absolutely zero response two months later. Additionally there was no sign of them at the London boat show (although they do plan to be at Southampton). For the above reasons I can't tell you what these beauties cost.

Volvo Penta These guys represent the safe choice if you're already equipped with a Volvo engine and saildrive. They are obviously a Swedish company. They offer standard 3 & 4 blade folding propellers and represent the vanilla end of the market. I'd suggest that these are probably more appropriate for cruising boats in that they don't offer a 2 blade option for reduced drag that would appeal to the cruiser/racer market. Expect to pay around £700-£800 for a 3 blade folder.

Max-Prop

Offering a range of feathering props, which seem to be the Oyster Yachts weapon of choice. Some positive user reports of these across the Internet.

Flexofold

Apparently the Managing Director of Gori left and created this range of propellers, which is claimed to be superior. They also appear to have good links with various boat builders. Interestingly there are relatively few user anecdotes across the net good or bad. After meeting Bruntons at the boat show we decided that we liked them as a brand: Friendly guys on the stand, British company, great products. Our main fear of going for a folding prop was the much fabled poor performance when going astern, but the Bruntons guys explained that with modern folders such as their Varifold, this issue is greatly reduced. This is due to a twisted blade profile - making it more similar to a fixed prop in terms of motoring characteristics. We decided that we valued the low drag of a folder more than the better motoring of a feathering or Autoprop. The same logic applied to 2 blade vs.. 3 blade, so we settled on a 2 blade Varifold. At £740 it was also nearly £1000 cheaper than the Autoprop.

It arrived in the post yesterday. My first comment is that I'd have liked to see a little better packaging. The bottom of the box was sagging from the immense weight of its cargo. When I opened the box it's clearly an exceptionally well engineered product and effortlessly glides between motoring and sailing configuration.

I’ll post more when we fit and use it.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Christmas in the Caribbean Part I - Picking up the boat

I'm nearly 2 months late in starting this write up, but better late than never...

In October last year, we decided to return at Christmas to the Grenadines for the 3rd time in just over a year. Why do we love it so much? It's a lot less developed than places like Barbados, totally chilled out, and has a real yachtie atmosphere as it's where many ARC participants choose to spend their Christmas and New Year.

Barbados
Silverpoint

We flew into Barbados for a 2 night stop over at Silver Point boutique hotel. We'd stayed there about 6 months ago on our second trip out here. It's situated on a quiet part of the island well away from the main tourist area (St Lawrence Gap & Rockley Beach). It's a great hotel for a couple looking for a quiet & high quality get away, less recommended for families or people looking for a lot of nightlife. We met a couple on the first night and ended up having supper and a few drinks with them. (Click on above image for album)

We took a trip into the capitol, Bridgetown, which I didn't think offered much other than to see local people going about their business. I don't think I'd bother going back. The best bit was the always-a-cultural-treat Route Taxis / Rasta Bus. These are privately owned buses that drive along set government routes and tend to be a bit spartan inside. The first few time you use them, it can be a bit intimidating, but it's a fascinating cultural window into the life of the island.
Barbados



St Vincent



St Vincent is only a short hop away on the local airline, LIAT. You'll typically pay about $200(US) return. As the flight comes into land, you pass very close to the main charter fleet anchorage - Blue Lagoon. Both Barefoot and Sunsail have bases here. It's worth noting that St Vincent Airport has one cash machine that, in 4 visits, not yet seen working: Get at least enough cash to last you until you get to Bequia.


We'd chartered Pelican Pete - a 1999 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 34 from Barefoot Yacht Charters. We got a pretty good deal - $2,450 for 10 days. This is pretty good considering you'd normally pay a minimum of $3,000 for 7 days over the Christmas period. We both instantly liked the boat, smaller than we'd previously chartered, but still more than spacious enough for us both. Actually I think the cockpit locker would have been spacious enough for us both.


The check in process consists of a skipper's technical briefing on the boat's systems, checking inventory and a chart briefing to a acquaint you with the cruising ground. We'd been only 6 months before, so Becks went off to find a cash point and I sat through the briefing. Either way Barefoot strike a great balance between enough information and not wasting a whole day of your trip.


When we were ready to depart, the Barefoot dockside team take you out of the bay, hoist the sails, leap into a dinghy and wave goodbye. The island of Bequia is only a short 3 hour sail from Blue Lagoon. Conditions were blissful as we were on a broad reach all the way down into Port Elizabeth. I suspect that the wind was a force 2, but this is based on instinct rather than data as this is out 3rd consecutive charter without wind instrumentation.


Bequia
We arrived in time to pick up a mooring buoy and enjoy the incredible Caribbean sunset.

To be continued...

Sunday 8 February 2009

Bargain Number 2



These are award winning LED navigation lights. They have the distinction of being the only MCA approved LED lights on the market today. The advantage of LED lights is massively reduced power consumption versus a conventional light.
A typical nav light (above) will consume about 25 watts of power. The Lopolights for up to 12M boats consume 0.7 watts and are visible 1 nautical mile away.

The ones we bought are suitable for a larger vessel (12-50M), so consume more power (4.6W) but are visible 2 nautical miles away...

Anyhow... Online chandleries, such as Mailspeed and TCS sell these for more than £125 each.
Online Chandlery Price £250
Ebay Price £87
Savings £163

That works out at us paying 31% of the discounted online chandlery price making it a massive 69% saving!

My bargain purchase for the boat!


Geoff is concentrating on technical gear for the boat, whilst I have been buying soft furnishings!

Bought two Heals duvet sets on eBay for less than £50 - bargain!  What's more, the colour scheme will go perfectly with the boat's blue interior.  Very pleased with my purchase :-).

Becks