Jim - I put a Kiwi on my C34 last month. They definitely have reverse! I did lose about 1/3 kt motoring compared to my 3-blade sailor with my M25-XPA. It was delivered in three days from NZ. $1300. [url]http://www.kiwiprops.com/[/url]

I too have a Kiwi Feathering Prop on my C320 Yanmar 29hp.
(I am a financial member of the C36 & C320 Associations).

Judging from all the reports and owners reviews, the Auto Prop seems to be superior ... but it is a lot more expensive!

I bought the Kiwi Feather Prop.
It is vastly superior in reverse to the standard 3 bladed fix prop and easily feathers when sailing. The blades are made from a Kevlar type composite (non corrosive, no zinc depletion problems). Each blade can be replaced with out the whole prop needing to be replaced. You must make sure these stay in the exact same alignment, or you will incur vibration problems.

Therefore on a cost/performance basis, I own and would recommend the Kiwi Feathering Prop.

Bruce Stanley
[email]brucestanley36(at)gmail(dot)com[/email]

I keep a Kiwi down under. You will not believe the reverse thrust.

Cruising World did a test of feathering props about ten years ago. They rated many props, the Kiwi was not out then but they did test a CDI two bladed feathering prop that is very similar in disign to the Kiwi. Their test indicated that the CDI prop had reverse thrust equal to if not a bit greater than forward thrust. No other prop in the the test exceeded this disign in reverse thrust.

I had one of the CDI props on my old boat and had great luck with it. CDI no longer makes this prop, so I went to the Kiwi. I believe it is better built and the company has been extremly responsive. My only complaint was that the pitch in reverse is not adjustable and it loads the engine at idle, Kiwi sent a shorter set of blades to try no charge imediatly.

Unlike most feathering props there are virtualy no moving parts other than the blades that simply pivot on a shaft and adjustable pitch screws on each blade.

I am in the process of replacing my auto prop, with the original 2 blade my 2002 36' Cataline Mk II came with or purchase a max prop.

I sail out of Waukegan IL, my auto prop is approx 5 years old, it vibrates so bad in the 1700 to 2000 rpm range it has caused proplems with heat exchanger brackets braking off of the heat exchanger and several wires breaking from the vibration, especially the lead to the fuel pump when it was most needed. My auto prop does have prop walk to the port, and at times failing to consistently deploy from reverse to forward.

Speed control in the harbor is uncomfortable for me, I have to keep shifting to neutral to slow the boat down, my auto prop is deeply pitched at slow speeds, the slowest my boat will travel is approx 3 knots much to fast to turn into a slip or travel in fair ways, I continue to use neutral to slow the boat down to keep it at a reasonable speed in the harbor.

I am looking for a prop with little or no prop walk and that does not vibrate, and feathers reliably. I say my prop (not an inditment on the auto prop) I have not found anybody else with an auto prop in my harbor. all of my sailing mates have Max prop and seem pleased with the performance.

Tom
tomlorenzen1(at)comcast(dot)net

Tom,
My experience with my autoprop has been just wonderful over the past 8 years. Yes, I agree that the idle speed is about 3 knots, but shifting into neutral has always been easy to do. I have no vibration at any speed, and the prop has always responed instantly going from forward to reverse or reverse to forward. By far the best feature of the autoprop is the increased pitch it takes when motor-sailing. At only 1200 RPM it will boost my speed by well over a knot. Politics, Religion, Anchors, and Props. Everyone has their favorite, and it's hard to convince them otherwise!!! Sorry your experience has been so bad.

I have a 1999 c-36 also with wing keel and the same engine. It has a VariProp. I like the VariProp since it can be adjusted while in the water and seems a newer updated design of the Maxi-prop. That said I know many with Maxi's that love them! My only issue is that the prop on the boat, which is a DF-107 16" is the pitch was set a little heavy at the factory was 11" for forward and 10" for reverse. That seemed to be too much - great low rpm speed but the engine did not reach full rpm and left a got the stern dirty with smoke residue. I took off about an inch of pitch and now need 2750 rpm to reach 6.5 knots smooth water clean bottom. On the other hand sailing performance is markedly improved, especially in light and moderate airs. I know that a flat-bladed feathering prop will never be as efficient as a sold three-blade but I'm still looking to optimize the pitch for powering along - which on the Chesapeake seems to be 60% of the time. Overall the VariProp seems impressive, beautifully made and can be mounted by yourself without disassembly.

Here are some discussions from our "archived" Bulletin Board discussions

[url]http://catalina36.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6186056212/m/679106909?r=946108...

[QUOTE=TomSoko;91]Tom,
My experience with my autoprop has been just wonderful over the past 8 years. Yes, I agree that the idle speed is about 3 knots, but shifting into neutral has always been easy to do. I have no vibration at any speed, and the prop has always responed instantly going from forward to reverse or reverse to forward. By far the best feature of the autoprop is the increased pitch it takes when motor-sailing. At only 1200 RPM it will boost my speed by well over a knot. Politics, Religion, Anchors, and Props. Everyone has their favorite, and it's hard to convince them otherwise!!! Sorry your experience has been so bad.[/QUOTE]
Tom,
thanks for sharing your experience with the auto prop, I think my prop is just plain worn out, I can turn the shaft when the boat is in the slip and get many strange sounds eminating from the prop, blades have to much play in then. Do you have a contact for me at autoprop ?

Tom,
The number for AB Marine (the US importer for Autoprop) is 800-801-8922. They're located in Middletown, RI (near Newport). In the past I've dealt with Steve Armitage (I think he is the owner of AB Marine), and talked with Meg, Dom, Chris, and Heidi. I recently saw Steve at a boatshow, but I don't know if any of the others are still at AB. They have always been very helpful to me.
From your last comments, it sounds like your prop needs to be adjusted, and possibly a new set of bearings and races. I take mine apart every winter, clean everything, and put it back together. The only tricky part is to tighten the nuts just tight enough to eliminate any play, but loose enough to allow the blades to turn freely. Hope this helps.

The contact, as you might expect, is [url]http://www.autoprop.com/[/url]

I have the Autoprop and had it installed new with the boat in 1999, so I don't know anything else. I do have some vibration at certain speeds, but I just change the speed and it goes away. I recallthat some people have installed a stainless shaft to get rid of vibration.

Gene Foraker

I am curious if anyone here has went from a 3 blade Max prop to a Auto prop? If they have how much difference did they see? I have a 3 blade prop on ours and am very happy with it. Randy

Thank you all for your input.

I had a max prop on my 35 Cheoy Lee and could not have been more pleased.

The only problems were the cost and that you had to pull the boat to adjust the pitch.

Is anyone aware of a used kiwi or vari prop for sale?

Thanks again.

Hi, I am new to the association, so this is my first message.

I bought my 1994 Catalina 36 two years ago and I am very please with it. I am in the process of buying a Variprop DF-80 16 inches, but I am wondering if 16'' is too much. I presently have a fixed 3 blade 15'' X 9'' with a lot of prop walk which I want to get rid of. Does anyone know if I should go for 15 inches instead. I heard that for every inch of diameter added it adds 2 inches of pitch. Which means that for a 16'' prop I would need to put a pitch of 7'' to be equal to my old prop. Does anyone have comments or can confirm what I have been told.
Thanks,
Rusty

Rusty

Sounds like you purchased your boat near the same time I did. I installed a Kiwi prop and love it. They too suggested a bit larger prop diameter than I would have expected. It has not been an issue when motoring as there have been no cavitation problems from the limited clearance between the blade tips and the hull on my installation.
This is usualy the limiter for prop diameter. On the Kiwi the forward pitch of the prop is fully adjustable so the extra diameter can be compensated for by adjusting the pitch. Unfortunatly the reverse pitch is not adjustable on this prop. I may install shorter blades that Kiwi provided at no cost, as my prop is most defintely over pitched in reverse, max static RPM is about 1500 before I start seeing black smoke inicating the engine is overloaded.
This has not been a problem as this prop has a huge amount of thrust in reverse. Once the boat is underway in reverse it gets whistling along at great speed and you can then bring the RPM up if you wish to waterski off the bow pulpit.

If your problem is prop walk I suggest you speak to other owners with the prop you are considering. Often feathering props are selected for their reduced drag and in some cases efficiancy in cruise peformance. To reduce prop walk it is very important to find a prop with the greatest reverse thrust as all props will generate prop walk at low speeds. What becomes more important is the the prop develops the thrust early so to gain steerage quickly as opposed to chuning the water longer waiting for the prop to bite. Some props create more walk than thrust due to the design. The prop is an airfoil round on the face to create lift and flat on the back. If you just turn a normal prop backwards it is very inefficient as it has pitch but you loose the foil. The Kiwi prop allows the blade to pivot around and this gives it a foil shape in both directions.

Rusty I also will salute you on your first post being related to PROP's. If you look through the archives you may note that posts regarding props get more hits than free beer or easy women. I find it ironic that there is so much interest and passion about these motoring devices in a sailboat blog. Our new site has been up and going for a month or so now, there are still no post regarding sailing, but you mentioned the SECRET WORD and I bet you will get a hundred hits on this post by next week.

In ideal conditions we sail. The rest of the time and in emergency situations we motor. In our 1.5 years of coastal cruising, including the Bahamas, we spent most of the time at anchor waiting for weather windows and probably more time motoring or motor sailing, than sailing.. Also the prop you have(feathering or not) also affects the time you sail.

All this makes the prop pretty important.

As to Sailing, how many of you have raced and have a sense of how hard the C-36 is to sail to it's PHRF handicap?

Thanks for all the comments - I am learning a lot here

Jim Rester

I've been looking at the Volvo-Penta 15 X 9 X1 RH prop. The local dealer quoted a price of around $1400. Compared to maxprop the price looks good. Some of the folks on the C36 listserver recommended the Flexofold prop. I was told they advertise in the MainSheet and have a discount for Catalina 36 owners but I didn't see their ad in the lastest issue.

Does anyone have any experience with the Volvo-penta prop?

Dave
Fair Winds Mk II #1674

I hate to sound like a saleman for Kiwiprops but, I am very pleased with mine. I belive I paid just over a thousand dollars for mine.

If you go to their web site it will explain a lot about their product and answer many questions.

[url]WWW.kiwiprops.co.nz/

Well I bought the Variprop propeller I was telling you about above, so I'll come back to you guys to tell you my impressions.

I will be bringning the boat back from Quebec city to Valleyfield around end of may, which is a 4 days trip, probably only motoring.

By the way,
Do you know the difference between men and boys ?
Well it's in the price of their toys.

Rusty

If you are looking for a Variprop, have a look to the new Variprofile from the same German manufacturer SPW.

I installed a new Variprop on my C36, replacing the previous folding Varifold and what a change under engine! remaning with almost no drag under sail.

Variprofile is even cheaper than Variprop and you very easily change your self forward and reverse pitch. This is great because you can set diferent pitch forward and reverse!

Regards from the Med.
Eureka

our boat vibrated so badly on her test sail it scared us. found out the two blade was drilled off center! We put a 3 blade Max-prop on in less than 15 minutes when they put Spanki on a trailer to move her from N.Tex to NE Okla.. This prop is great, reverse is very powerful and prop walk is hard if you accelerate hard in reverse but non-existant if you accelerate gradually in reverse. 2K is expensive but I would'nt trade if for anything! another plus is a much quietr wake when sailing, faster too! Russ

[QUOTE=Fair Winds;310]I've been looking at the Volvo-Penta 15 X 9 X1 RH prop. The local dealer quoted a price of around $1400. Compared to maxprop the price looks good. Some of the folks on the C36 listserver recommended the Flexofold prop. I was told they advertise in the MainSheet and have a discount for Catalina 36 owners but I didn't see their ad in the lastest issue.

Does anyone have any experience with the Volvo-penta prop?

Dave
Fair Winds Mk II #1674[/QUOTE]

Hey Dave, did you ever get the Flexofold prop?

I too am looking at one due to its low drag while sailing!

Bob

Jim - did you end up buying a feathering prop? If so, which one and do your like it?
Thanks, Steve