Saildrive with a brake.

[Sneaky Pete]

Thanks for all the information. Had boat out today motored at 8Kts for 40mins or so occasionally stopped and reversed power, everything worked fine then just before I reached the outward journey stopped boat and engaged reverse applied a burst of throttle..No revs....engaged forward short burst of revs then reverse and engine revved so may be a prop problem now. Opened up Morse control unit all seems perfect working as it should so eliminated that one.
May be time to say cheerio to the prop during winter lay-up.

 

[Neeves]

Sounds a pretty terrible endorsement for the Kiwi Prop - it seems to be a known issue.

 

[scottie]

Sounds a pretty terrible endorsement for the Kiwi Prop - it seems to be a known issue.

There is a technical expression RTFM!

 

[Neeves]

I always thought that was the last thing you did, just prior to discarding.

 

[scottie]

I always thought that was the last thing you did, just prior to discarding.

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[Neeves]

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Maybe is a developing cultural difference, the last thing you do, RTFM (Read The .... Manual) - when everything else fails.

 

[Slipperman]

RTFM - True enough! Tranona is right- the problem of fouled rollers is a (slight) disadvantage of the Kiwi prop, but like lots of things on boats if you know about a potential issue and manage it, the problem goes away. I have lived with my Kiwi prop for 11 years now and it has only occasionally been a problem, and a minor one at that. I have often wondered about swapping it for something else, but if you do a search on here for folding and feathering props, you will find people have reported problems with pretty much all the common makes, including the v expensive Bruntons auto prop. In fact, if someone can recommend one which seems faultless and easy to maintain I would be interested to know! My boat is 29ft, with Yanmar 3YM30 and SD20 saildrive.

 

[Tranona]

RTFM - True enough! Tranona is right- the problem of fouled rollers is a (slight) disadvantage of the Kiwi prop, but like lots of things on boats if you know about a potential issue and manage it, the problem goes away. I have lived with my Kiwi prop for 11 years now and it has only occasionally been a problem, and a minor one at that. I have often wondered about swapping it for something else, but if you do a search on here for folding and feathering props, you will find people have reported problems with pretty much all the common makes, including the v expensive Bruntons auto prop. In fact, if someone can recommend one which seems faultless and easy to maintain I would be interested to know! My boat is 29ft, with Yanmar 3YM30 and SD20 saildrive.

Either a FlexoFold if you want a folder or a Featherstream if you want a 3 blade feathering prop. Former needs nothing but cleaning and latter just grease once a year and it has the advantage of being able to reset the pitch and have different pitches in forward and reverse. Both have significant advantages over the Kiwi, although that does have the virtue of simplicity and low cost which is offset by the problem discussed here and the steep reverse pitch which is an issue, particularly for smaller boats.