Stainless Steel propellers - Polish or Antifoul

ChromeDome said:
Anything submerged, especially near the surface where the sun will bring light and higher temperature, will foul.

If the goal is to prevent growth on propellers I can see two ways:

1: Use the boat more frequently
2: Apply antifouling

#2 brings a challenge: Get it to stay on for a full season.

Of the many products I have used (even unorthodox) over 5 decades and 7 boats, the best result has been Hammerite Special Metals primer with Velox on top.
Held up pretty well on current boat, pushing 7½ tons at 24 knots (now and then,- not all the time) ?
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I have done this season and the Hammerite held up quite well, less so the velox. Thinking of returning the props back to stainless steel.. Recommendations for best way to remove the Hammerite and restore to polished stainless steel.
 
So, update on this. This winter I put Propspeed on my prop, shaft, rudders - my Aquador has twin rudders - and the underside of the trim tabs.
Brilliant stuff. The prop and shaft are as clean as a new pin. The trim tabs and the tops of the rudders had no weed but patches of barnacles. These came off just by rubbing with my hand or thumbnail.
I suspect that the water flow and speed of flow over the rudders and tabs were not sufficient to keep them properly clean but it has done a great ob on the shaft and prop. I had a mate help me to apply it. It was a bit fiddly but straight forward.
A local guy is an engineer on a superyacht and he said that they all use it routinely.
 
Having not had stainless prop's previously I thought I'd try polishing mine ready for when the boat is complete next season. Took about half an hour to do one side of one blade but it looks OK. How far do you need to go to stop things sticking?

Prop 1.jpg
 
PCUK said:
Having not had stainless prop's previously I thought I'd try polishing mine ready for when the boat is complete next season. Took about half an hour to do one side of one blade but it looks OK. How far do you need to go to stop things sticking?

View attachment 163103
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Is that one of two, from a B3 ? Love a merc stainless prop me. Have far too many currently! Enertia, tempest plus and a couple of laser 2
 
QBhoy said:
Keep them nice…have you seen the price of them, should you ever have to replace them 😳
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Well there's a story to go with this set. I bought them secondhand off Ebay from a Thames boatyard for £85 described as aluminium with one damaged blade. When they arrived I thought they were heavy for ali' but never mind, sent the damaged one off to Steel Developments and they came back and said it was stainless and would cost more to repair. Rather than being annoyed at the extra cost I was pleased to find they were stainless at a real bargain price. Cost about a hundred and something for the repair so I was still well in pocket. So I will keep them nice!
 
PCUK said:
Well there's a story to go with this set. I bought them secondhand off Ebay from a Thames boatyard for £85 described as aluminium with one damaged blade. When they arrived I thought they were heavy for ali' but never mind, sent the damaged one off to Steel Developments and they came back and said it was stainless and would cost more to repair. Rather than being annoyed at the extra cost I was pleased to find they were stainless at a real bargain price. Cost about a hundred and something for the repair so I was still well in pocket. So I will keep them nice!
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Haha. Excellent result there. Love hearing things like this. Yeah…you did very very well there ! Recently a friend of mine managed to get a hold of a set of 26” B3 stainless props off eBay. Without doubt the cheapest I’ve ever seen a set. Needed a wee tidy up…bought for £395 at that. Just to emphasise what a bargain you managed with yours ! They are usually considerably more expensive, in any sort of useable condition and will surpass 4 figures in mint and of course new condition
 
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