captainlarry84
Admiral
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2011
- Posts
- 1,295
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- 241
- Location
- Freeport NY
- Boat Make
- KristenFormer Charter Captain
Propellers are the most important part of your vessels arsenal. It is pretty much a known fact that three bladed propellers are faster that four bladed propellers.
It is also true that New England boats run better & faster with four bladed propellers because of keel inference. The reason they work better is that no matter where the propeller is during any time of rotation there is always the same amount of blade area on both sides of the keel, which gives the smoothness and efficiency needed to defeat keel inference.
I think this photo of the titanic’s propellers stated it all in nut shell. She was designed well before her time and was doing 20 knots on her maiden voyage. To get the speed & efficiency the wing motors had three bladed propellers and the main had a four bladed propeller. Image the casting of these wheels back in the day. In addition they had to get the four bladed & three bladed wheels to work in sync…. And that they did @ 20 knots.
Just though I would share a little history & propeller reasoning
![1285284602-titanicpropellers[1].jpg 1285284602-titanicpropellers[1].jpg](https://downeastboatforum.com/data/attachments/1/1125-7f8a80eb8be14901dcb0c8e30866512e.jpg)
It is also true that New England boats run better & faster with four bladed propellers because of keel inference. The reason they work better is that no matter where the propeller is during any time of rotation there is always the same amount of blade area on both sides of the keel, which gives the smoothness and efficiency needed to defeat keel inference.
I think this photo of the titanic’s propellers stated it all in nut shell. She was designed well before her time and was doing 20 knots on her maiden voyage. To get the speed & efficiency the wing motors had three bladed propellers and the main had a four bladed propeller. Image the casting of these wheels back in the day. In addition they had to get the four bladed & three bladed wheels to work in sync…. And that they did @ 20 knots.
Just though I would share a little history & propeller reasoning
![1285284602-titanicpropellers[1].jpg 1285284602-titanicpropellers[1].jpg](https://downeastboatforum.com/data/attachments/1/1125-7f8a80eb8be14901dcb0c8e30866512e.jpg)
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