Sailing in "gear" or "Neutral"

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Paul B.

My Catalina owner's manual says that my boat (82 C-30) "may" be sailed with the transmission in Neutral. I noticed that the shaft really spins quick when making about 6 knots. When I sail in "forward gear" it spins much slower. Common sense would dictate that seals and bearings in the transmission would last longer if they made less rotations. The down side to sailing in gear is the extra drag induced by the prop. Any ideas on this subject. Thanks ..Paul
 
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Melody Miller

Sail in Reverse

Hi Paul: The engine should be in reverse gear when your sailing even though the owner's manual allows for sailing in neutral. Its true you can sail in neutral, but put the engine in reverse so that things don't needlessly spin around. This subject gets revisited from time to time. Thanks Melody
 
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Jeff Walker

My problem: Getting out of gear

If I'm doing 5 to 6 knots and try to put the transmission back into neutral to start the engine, it takes a tremendous amount of force. The only way seems to be to head into the wind until my speed is below 2 knots. Normally this isn't a problem until I was in a fog one day with a supertanker bearing down on me. I needed to motorsail out of its way and snapped the shifter while trying to get out of reverse to start the engine. I now just stay in neutral when I know I'll be crossing shipping lanes. Happy sailing, Jeff s/v Suzanne
 
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Ernie April

Starting in reverse is OK

Jeff and others-- Yamaha agrees that REVERSE is the way to lock the shaft. If you have a fixed blade prop, it may not want to return to neutral for starting while having way on. However, Yamaha insists it is OK to start in reverse - then shift. I know - it sounds unseamenlike, but it works. They state that starting in reverse takes less wear and tear on the tranny than letting it spin for hours or days without lubrication. Since installing a feathering prop (Autoprop) on my C42, the unlocking problem became a non-problem. Ernie April
 
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