Antifoul surface drive propellers

This has been discussed but not for the same reason. Im not discussing wether it should be anti fouled or not but on high speed props do you think performance is affected?

Some time ago on this forum I was interested to read some one say that his Arneson props would loose speed if the props were painted.

I have not Arnesons but Surface drives on another flavour and have always painted.

This helps a little bit but usually by the time im back in the marina I have ripped it all off.

I too have now come to the conclusion that for some reason painting --no matter how smooth reduces performance of surface drives.

 

Observation at a recent powerboat race meeting may suggest or imply the same, as the surface drive propellers were all superbly polished (stainless steel) and razor sharp (literally) and treated very carefully when fixing to the shaft only minutes before the boat was launched... (several images in my gallery) - these boats were 40 something feet LOA and weighed about 4.5 tonnes (they were all weighed carefully as minimum and maximum weights applied... - the top of the line, Maratimo, could achieve some 150 mph and cornered exerting up to 4 to 5 G in lateral forces on the crew...

 

Oh Im quite sure that racing boats such as that uses clean/polished surfaces. But for the more agricultural types that sit in a marina most of the time keeping a shiny surface is impossible.

My props are clean from barnacles because of a sock, yet strangely a dark hard calcium surface coverage seems to appear. It is smooth yet yet matt and it can be scraped off but is very hard and is more like craping off epoxy paint.

I would like to know what this is and from where it came and why.

 

?Zinc oxides from electrolysis with the neighbours boat, (or worse, the sacrificial anode on your boat?), as you are both on shore power and there is leakage somewhere?

Get the scrapings analysed?

 

No leakage on my boat,---I dont have an earth (or ground).

All my electrical appliances are Thai and have 2 pin plugs. Nothing to ground!!!.

Anodes seem to be eroding at a reasonable rate, including the ones attached to the engines that I throw over the side when in the marina.

 

My my, a mellowing Frosty that presents as a humourless serious contributor? where is the old drivel?

Possibly, like me, things, (the brain and capability to do extended physical "work"), are slowing down...

Have you thought of analysing the scrapings from your propellers? - Acid reduction and other means of materials analysis using chemicals, or, hi-tech, like using a gas chromatograph?

 

Well,-- funny enough I scrape off under water and when on land I use a grinder.

Bit difficult to get scrapings really.

On the other hand the boat is on a small island in the Malacca straits who would not even know what a chrom thingy is.

 

SS steel props clean great by having them overnight in vinigar
wonder if without taking them of a bag with viniger would do

 

In Vietnam and the gold buying "shops" they would know where to access a - gas chromatograph - as they are used for medical stuff as well as identifying contaminants of the mix of chemicals in a very minute sample...

 

If you don't have any vinegar handy, cut a grapefruit and use its juice.

 

To eat/drink, I presume? add a little sugar and lots of gin and a dash of coconut water (water not milk you will note...) and a couple of blocks of ice if it is a hot day, - but then why spoil the gin, just so long as you can enjoy the drink....

 

I use vinigar for cleaning and wiping surfaces and for dipping my de boweled mussels in,--with a dash of pepper of course.

lemon and garlic I eat when my taste for beer is diminished and I need a stomach pick me up.

Neither of them have I applied to my propellers.

 

Try Lanoline.
Cheers
Daniel

 

What with mussels and bread and butter? oh thats disgusting.

 

Lanoline works very fine. Try it you will be amaze.