Kiwi Prop - initial test

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Jim Seamans

Jim Seamans

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Mar 21, 2004
2,175
Hunter 356 Cobb Island, MD
Well, finally got the boat into the water Saturday Apr5. Sure feels nice to be wet again. Joan and I took the boat out for a little while to test the prop. Initial findings are great. We were bucking a 10kt head wind with a light chop, at 2800rpm we were doing 6.3kts. Which I feel was pretty good. Next we tried a stopping test. Got the boat up to 6kts and after a slight hesitation in neutral went to reverse and applied the throttle. We estimate the boat stopped in maybe its length or just over. Kind of hard to tell without any reference point. Boat backs up very well. Lots of power being generated by the prop. We did no sailing since we were not ready for it, still testing all the systems on the boat. This coming weekend we will try to test it further and report back on this thread.
 
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Steve Dion

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Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
Interesting to hear about the overall performance.

Jim: I will be interested in hearing about the overall performance. Did you try running your engine at wide open throttle? I really want to know about the sailing performance. My HV'36 moves along very nice with a 39HP engine, but I have always assumed that it would sail much better with a feathering prop verses the 3 bladed fixed unit.
 
Jim Seamans

Jim Seamans

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Mar 21, 2004
2,175
Hunter 356 Cobb Island, MD
Hi Steve

Yup, we ran it up to 35-3600 rpm for about 3 mins which is max for this engine. Got a little smoke but to be expected.. Hopefully we will be able to do more testing this weekend.
 
shorty

shorty

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Apr 14, 2005
298
Pearson P34 Mt Desert, ME
Happy with mine

Installed a 16" on my Pearson 34 last year. 21 hp Yanmar. Love it
 
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Thane22692

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May 28, 2004
7
Catalina 387 Lewis
about a 1 kt gain

We put a KIWI on our Catalina 387 last spring, and are also pleased. In reverse we still have significant prop walk to port (which I had hoped to solve to make docking on an end cap easier) but the real advantage is in sailing performance; about 1 kt gain in light winds of say 8 to 12 kts. I was in doubt before buying it, but noticed that a swmmer standing on my swim ladder (in the down position) slowed my boat by about a kt. I guess a big three blade 17" prop adds about as much drag....
 
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