Topic: Sailing on N or Forward?

Do you have your transmission in neutral or forward while sailing...or does it matter???

...)))) May the wind fill your sails and the sun shine in your face cool

Re: Sailing on N or Forward?

Re: Sailing on N or Forward?

Interesting.  That goes against my intuition and gut feelings.

I sail with it locked in reverse (or neutral if I forget).  Definitely not in forward.

My intuition comes from this simple experiment;  As a fisherman, I toss out spinner lures and real them in.  There is significant drag while pulling in a free-wheeling 'propeller' as it drags through the water.  If the lure locks up and stops spinning, the pull suddenly goes light and I know it is no longer pulling.  That translates to my gut feeling that a spinning object has more drag than not.

Also, I have a 2-blade prop.  If it lines up with the keel (big 'if' I suppose) presenting no surface area then it obviously doesn't cause any additional drag what so ever.  Now, if it were spinning, then obviously it would present surface area and cause drag.

Now I'm interested to find out why their results differ from my intuition.

Re: Sailing on N or Forward?

I just started this lively discussion over at Sailnet too.

So far, the general consensus is that a 3-blade prop has less drag while spinning.

Two other points...
1)  A folding prop won't work correctly if it is spinning as the blades will open up and cause drag.
2)  The jury is still out on my question regarding the 2-blade prop behind my full keel.  How do you ensure it's locked vertically?