Centaur prop ensnagulation

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I am currently on the mud on Lindisfarne

my neighbour is a Centaur

the prop looks really exposed to ensnagulation

or do the bilge keels offer more than enough protection

D

S1340011-1024x682.jpg


it has been raining quite a lot today

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/blogs/the-ouse-lindisfarne/
 
I don't think Centaur's are any worse than many boats - but then, I've never sailed one. The bilge keels may deflect lines to some extent depending on your angle of approach.
I'm pretty good at snagging pot lines - ask the RNLI.
 
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I don't think Centaur's are any worse than many boats - but then, I've never sailed one. The bilge keels may deflect lines to some extent depending on your angle of approach.
I'm pretty good at snagging pot lines - ask the RNLI.

I wonder if the RNLI would release stats about the number of call outs for pot lines they get in a year

hmmmm

D
 
I am currently on the mud on Lindisfarne

my neighbour is a Centaur

the prop looks really exposed to ensnagulation

or do the bilge keels offer more than enough protection


it has been raining quite a lot today

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/blogs/the-ouse-lindisfarne/
I have sailed a Berwick quite a bit.
Same keel and prop arrangement but a partial skeg for the rudder.

We may have picked up the odd bit of junk on the prop but nothing that a couple of bursts of astern and ahead have not dislodged.
The rudder of the Centaur in your picture looks a bit vulnerable though. Are they all like that?

It been pretty wet here all day too. Got steadily worse as the day has progressed and still raining.
Solent looked grim until early evening on the webcams too. Weymouth bright and sunny when I looked at the webcams there
 
No, only the earlier boats had unsupported rudders; most had a much stronger looking half-skeg arrangement.

Like the Berwick's I expect. Trouble with the Berwick rudder is that its the same depth as the keels. Run aground and yo end up with a bent shaft.
 
Yes twin keeler prop's are vulnerable to nasties funneled between the keels, and a shaft mounted cutter doesn't always help; I once spent an entertaining afternoon under my Dads' Centaur when he had picked up a lot of kelp around the prop', I had to squeeze myself between the boat and seabed as the tide ebbed while trying not to think about sea toilets in marinas !
 
Like the Berwick's I expect. Trouble with the Berwick rudder is that its the same depth as the keels. Run aground and yo end up with a bent shaft.

Bollix, my Pentland has taken the ground twice a day for the 25 years I have had it (inc maybe 5 years total shore sat on her keels) the rudder is about 2-3" off the ground on a hard standing. We bounced for 30 mins on hard sand drying out at Port Dinllaen last week without damage to rudder or keels.

Yes twin keeler prop's are vulnerable to nasties funneled between the keels, and a shaft mounted cutter doesn't always help; I once spent an entertaining afternoon under my Dads' Centaur when he had picked up a lot of kelp around the prop', I had to squeeze myself between the boat and seabed as the tide ebbed while trying not to think about sea toilets in marinas !

Stuff never gets "funnelled between the keels" in my experience. Even when crew have chucked a pick up buoy away on the opposite side of the hull to a mooring buoy & the tide has carried me over the strop, all I needed to do was put engine in neutral for the prop to be safe. Mind you the bloody ropes still jam in the horizontal gap between the skeg & the balanced section of the rudder & that can be a pain to release.

Dylan, don't stress, old Laurent Giles Westerlies are no more prone to prop wrap than any other design & a lot less than some.
 
Bollix, my Pentland has taken the ground twice a day for the 25 years I have had it (inc maybe 5 years total shore sat on her keels) the rudder is about 2-3" off the ground on a hard standing. We bounced for 30 mins on hard sand drying out at Port Dinllaen last week without damage to rudder or keels.

Not bolix I can assure you

Not my boat but I know the rudder shaft was bent through running ground sometime in the past. They had to allow the rudder to drop slightly and suspended it from the backstay in order to steer other wise the top of the rudder fouled the hull.

They managed to beach the boat and used a Spanish windlass round the rudder and the keels to straighten it again.

More recently I was on board and we managed to run aground on the East Winner outside Langstone harbour. ( pretty close to where it dries 2.1 on the chart at http://www.visitmyharbour.com/harbo...rt/2EECC0E606A11/langstone-harbour-chart-2012 )

Again the rudder was bent although not so severely that we could not steer at all but it was hitting the hull in the straight ahead position. This time we were able to straighten it by driving some wedges in between the back of the rudder blade and the hull. ( That was the day before the last total eclipse of the sun and was why we were out. )

The boat was moored ( and still is AFAIK ) on a drying mooring In Chichester We were always very careful whenever we moored or dried out to lash the tiller with the rudder dead central so that the rudder was immediately under the little "fin" on the bottom of the hull. Once aground the gap betwen the rudder and the "fin" closed so the boat rested on the rudder. It appeared that the little "fin" had been designed for this to happen.

Maybe yours is different, maybe a shallower rudder . I'd have said this one had the rudder exactly the same depth as the keels. If shallower not by a significant amount. You certainly could not normally turn it when dried out on a firm bottom.
 
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