Catalina 34

General Activities => Main Message Board => Topic started by: wingman on March 12, 2021, 04:23:09 AM

Title: small ding on prop blade
Post by: wingman on March 12, 2021, 04:23:09 AM
Discovered a ding towards the end of the prop blade. Looks like maybe the PO had smoothed it out.

Do I need to take any additional action, ie, will it affect the balance?

Title: Re: small ding on prop blade
Post by: ewengstrom on March 12, 2021, 04:59:42 AM
I ding that small probably won't affect performance or balance too much but if you have a prop shop near you and the boat is already out of the water then it won't hurt to have it re-balanced. We took our 15x9 three blade prop off this past spring and I had it re-pitched to 15x10 and balanced, the cost wasn't all that bad and I now have piece of mind that the prop is good to go....unless I wind up a crab pot or something equally as fun.
A balanced prop will also help your cutlass bearing last a bit longer. The cost in our area was less than $200 for this work so it was worth it to me. Just balancing the prop should be a good bit cheaper. (re-pitching was the expensive part)
Title: Re: small ding on prop blade
Post by: KWKloeber on March 12, 2021, 06:56:52 AM
Zooming in, it appears to be ding not a chip.
Therefore the same amount of bronze mass is still there, just moved around a titch.  Not enough to pre-worry about - go sailing.

Title: Re: small ding on prop blade
Post by: wingman on March 12, 2021, 08:04:11 AM
thanks guys, getting the boat in the water and going sailing is definitely the plan! :D