Today I have been mainly.....cleaning a prop. Now what?

[cliveshelton]

What a satisfying job. Disc sander gently applied to 7 years antifoul paint of various types. Some hard as epoxy!

View attachment 49873

So now what? Polish? Prime and paint?

East Coastal Sailing this year mainly.

 

[sailorman]

Prop O Drev primer & a/f

 

[jac]

Prop O Drev primer & a/f

+1

They are all apparently as bad as each other but good to show willing.

 

[dunedin]

Interestingly the marine engineer who we spoke to recommended not painting the prop at all. His view was that any chips in the paint would have increased risk of corrosion compared to leaving the prop in its natural state and simply polishing it.
Not sure if true but we have continued with 10th season with polished prop

 

[Tranona]

Your man clearly does not understand the process of electrolysis. Painting the prop reduces the exposed area and will reduce electrolysis if it is happening. However if he is right about small areas being exposed increasing corrosion your fully exposed prop will have corroded away by now. If the prop is protected by an anode it is irrelevant whether it is painted or not.

 

[Daydream believer]

Interestingly the marine engineer who we spoke to recommended not painting the prop at all. His view was that any chips in the paint would have increased risk of corrosion compared to leaving the prop in its natural state and simply polishing it.

That is what I was advised by Bruntons & i suspect that they do know just a little bit about props. certainly more than most on this forum
I clean the prop & coat with ordinary grease. the boat gets launched - left for 3-4 weeks then used a lot so the grease stops the weed for the 1 st 3 weeks then i do not have a problem with fouling on the prop as the prop gets run regularly. takes 15-20 mins to clean the prop each year with brick cleaner