On a mooring at Shelter Island over Labor Day weekend this guy in fins and goggles swims over to us and asks for some help. He stated he has to ferry this guy's (stunning 70's, fresh Imron) Hinckley from there to Nantucket at first light and so he is removing some barnacles from the prop and checking out everything else under there. Came over to us since a tender dropped him off and now he can't climb back aboard (!!!). Long story short, of course I ferried him over in my dink and he went aboard. Next day I'm wondering how my prop looks, so I went for a dive. I had noted my speed had been off, but we had been towing a dink and had some bad waves and all I have is 10 HP for the 7800 lbs. Turns out I had 15-20 small (1/4" maybe) barnacles on that two bladed prop and clearing them did seem to make a clear difference. I would say 1/2-1 knot in fact. So for best late summer and fall sailing.....take a dive!
15-20 barnacles = 1 knot
- Thread starter odaydokay
- Start date
Hey,
Shelter Island is a great place to be over Labor Day. And the weather was perfect.
Having a clean prop and bottom makes a huge difference in performance!
I was sailing in the Vineyard race over the weekend so I sailed past Shelter Island Saturday afternoon / evening.
Barry
Shelter Island is a great place to be over Labor Day. And the weather was perfect.
Having a clean prop and bottom makes a huge difference in performance!
I was sailing in the Vineyard race over the weekend so I sailed past Shelter Island Saturday afternoon / evening.
Barry
Smooth flow over a prop is essential for it to function correctly. Amazing how little it takes to disturb that; thanks to you we now have a unit of measure, ten barnacles = 0.5 knots?
Hinckley's are pretty sweet, lots of them up here in Maine, one of the nicest production boats, Sabres are pretty too. But you want to get really special check out Rockport Marine and Brooklin Boatyard. Come to think of it for having so few people, Maine makes a lot of nice boats.
Hinckley's are pretty sweet, lots of them up here in Maine, one of the nicest production boats, Sabres are pretty too. But you want to get really special check out Rockport Marine and Brooklin Boatyard. Come to think of it for having so few people, Maine makes a lot of nice boats.
Yes, you can now hang your hat on my barnacle to speed reduction standard (ha ha).
No question about Maine and boats..... A very rich and proud history, spoken by me, a native Vermonter.
No question about Maine and boats..... A very rich and proud history, spoken by me, a native Vermonter.
Morris Yachts is another fine Main builder, producing some of the nicest boats anywhere. Hinckley recently purchased them.
