DRAG QUEENS
The challenge of establishing healthy performance under power without compromising a boat’s sailing ability seemed unsolvable until the first folding and feathering propellers for leisure sailors appeared on the market. Now, the quest for the ideal low-drag propeller constitutes a highly competitive niche industry. Indeed, if there’s any single area in the marine world as competitive as that of sailmaking, it’s the folding and feathering propeller business.
With respect to any of today’s low-drag propellers, however, the benefits in terms of any boat’s sailing characteristics are going to be immediate and readily noticeable. As David Sheppard of the UK’s Bruntons has observed, the “real” competitors out there are fixed propellers. Granted, fixed wheels may be a good deal cheaper, but they seriously compromise the performance of any sailboat on which they are installed—to the point where Sheppard says that if more sailors knew just how much, there would be a lot fewer fixed wheels out there.
In terms of those gains, Lars Østergaard of folding-propeller maker Gori says that depending on wind strength, the average boat equipped with a folding propeller will gain between 0.5 to 1.5 knots of boatspeed under sail, compared to a boat with a fixed-blade wheel. “Typically, the boat with the folding propeller will also be able to aim higher due to the water flow to the rudder,” Østergaard adds. “Many sailors oft en say, ‘We do not race, we do not need a folding or feathering propeller.’ But once they have seen several equal boats passing them, they will consider optimizing.”
Similarly, Sheppard, whose company manufacturers both the feathering Autoprop and folding Varifold lines, notes thatresistance under sail by up to 90 percent compared to a fixed wheel; while Fred Hutchison of PYI Inc., makers of the feathering Max-Prop, adds, “When it really makes a difference is in light or medium air. Suddenly you can carry speed through a tack. I tell customers it makes it fun to sail in light air again, because you can.”
