Better reverse
Dear Mr. Wilson: Thank you for your letter. Because the surface of a fixed blade retains a convex dish across its pressure surface, this presents the propellers trailing edge as a dished surface when it’s rotated in reverse. This inefficient surface or trailing edge has difficulty in cutting the water. In stead of cutting, the trailing edge will push the water away forcing the stern to “walk”. A feathering propeller utilizes it’s leading edge in both forward and reverse. When you reverse the propeller shafts rotation, the propeller rotates its blades on its root axsis to present the same leading edge in both forward and reverse. This action increases the propellers efficiency to 100% of its forward efficiency instead of losing apx 60+%, like a fixed blade. This increase will allow the vessel to increase in speed, which also helps in the reverse steering stability. Of coarse there are other factors which could also create the “walking” problems such as shaft location, propeller location to keels, rudders and other things. But you would most likely see the propeller creating most of the problems. Hope this helps. Sincerely, Kevin L. Woody
