In your very valuable Encyclopedia (looking forward to read the heavy weather issue) you briefly mentioned a way to generate DC power with a MAXPROP or AUTOPROP. Is there any description available on this setup? My boat is a Gerard Dijkstra designed 77 ft centerboard shooner (steel, 60 tons) and a MAXPROP is fitted but I am thinking of changing to AUTOPROP (only for performance when maneuvering). Is it possible to do the same trick with this prop? I hope you find the time for an answer. Best regards, Paul
Hi Paul: With a Maxi Prop you shut the engine down while it is running in reverse. The blades usually stay reversed and do not feather, so the shaft turns and you can generate power. When you want to feather the blades start the engine, put it into forward gear, and then stop and the prop will feather normally.
One comment about using the main prop in general for power–it tends to be noisy, although if you only need it for a couple of hours a day it is probably less of a bother than streaming something over the stern which is going 24 hours a day!
If you make the switch to the Autoprop let us know how it turns out. I’d love to know the difference in speed, fuel consumption, reversing, and how the stern reacts when you back down. Regards –Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
