transmission on neutral under sail?

[antoineH336]

This topic must have been already discussed, but I was'nt able to find any issues on this with the search engine... Mabye due to the Website upgrade or some error on my side!

Anyways, I would like to know if some of you knows what Hunter/Yanmar recommand regarding the transmission setup we should use when we are under sails.

Some sailing school says that it's preferable to put the tranny on reverse to avoid vibration and extra worn on the mecanics.

Does anyone have a clue on this ?

Thanks

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

link attached

Has been beaten to death many times, this being the most recent discussion:


http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=592542

 

[Maine Sail]

With the

With the Yanmar / Kanzaki transmissions they should be left in neutral. Sometimes when left in reverse the Kanzaki's will not come back into neutral easily when you need to start the engine. If this happens simply start the engine in reverse and quickly shift back to neutral. This is why Yanmar only recommends neutral.

 

[Benny]

You either get wear on the shafts and bearings or subject the gears to stress forces. In any instance the wear will be negligible. A freewheeling propeller causes less drag than a fixed one. If you set the transmission in reverse to lock the prop you will need to slow the boat down to under 1 knot to be able to shift back to neutral without forcing the lever and gear selectors. It's your preference; I let mine freewheel.

 

[Guest]

Prop

I've always sailed our boat in neutral so as to reduce drag from it's fixed three blade prop. Yanmar technical support told me this does no harm. If I were planning a circumnavigation where the prop would be spinning weeks on end I would probably go with a variable pitch prop to reduce the drag forces that spin the prop.

Terry