Kiwiprop and Antifouling:

To keep your Kiwiprop performance at its best it is essential to keep the Kiwiprop clean.

To maintain the performance of any propeller it is essential to keep both faces, the leading edges of the foils and in particular the tips clean. Barnacles and weed growth will have a serious impact on motoring performance.

Barnacles will attach themselves to the Zytel blades with the same alacrity as to any other surface subject to fouling.

We do not make recommendations as to any particular antifouling product as we find that particular locations seem to require particular products that are more suited to that particular environment. Water temperature, light, current, salinity, dissolved solids and vessel usage all seem to have a significant impact on antifouling performance.

We recommend painting the whole propeller with a modern ablative antifouling which can be applied directly to the unit. The Zytel™ and Delrin™ require no special undercoats.

While the paint will slowly erode from the tips of the blades over time this approach will still provide the best overall solution to fouling of the propeller.

If not using a soft ablative paint that will wear away quickly with any contact from a moving blade, then care must be taken to ensure that the bottom root surface of the blade does not start to bind on the boss from a buildup of antifouling over time.

All Saildrives require non copper based antifouling.
Always use the same antifouling on the propeller as the Saildrive.

NB: Ensure there are no paint runs on the blade – in particular near the sharp leading edge that can cause serious vibration problems.

 

Propspeed

We have found from observations over the years of quite a number of units in service that this type of antifoul is very effective when applied to the composite sections of the Kiwiprop™.

It shows no tendency to lose it’s adhesion to the Zytel™ and has proved effective over time.