“Dear Nick, I said I’d comment after a full season’s use on our Vancouver...
A. Cooper
FeatherStream B-Hub 3B
Vancouver
“Dear Nick, I said I’d comment after a full season’s use on our Vancouver 34. The results of fitting a Featherstream prop are quite stunning. We find that:”
Reversing is far easier to control, with better traction and much less prop walk
Sailing is clearly a lot faster, especially making the best of lighter winds by being able to nudge apparent wind speeds upwards
Helming is much smoother under sail without that prop turbulence
Hull speed under engine is around a knot higher at normal rev ranges
“I guess you’d expect the first three, but I’m particularly surprised at the pickup in hull speed, and we had just the same conditions for the tests on the old and new propellers. “
“The maximum revs cap put at 3,200, which suggests that the over propping is about right and a lower pitch would not achieve a higher maximum hull speed.”
“In addition, fuel consumption has dropped materially. Starting with a clean Copper coated hull in both years:”
– In 2017 we did 45 hours on 66 litres, which is 1.47 l/h and a range of 122 hours
– In 2018 we did 53 hours on 70 litres, which is 1.32 l/h and a range of 136 hours
“Our motoring patterns were the same in both years, and the only change was fitting the new Featherstream propeller. That caused an 11% drop in consumption and thus an 11% increase in range. My hunch is that those figures probably also understate the fuel savings: because we were able to go faster, we did, so at the same speed I expect the fuel saving would be a little higher.”
