Lipari 41: Sail Drives and Props

[Cotemar]

Lipari 41 come with the 130s Sail drive and optional VP folding props

[Oliver66]

Hi Lipari's...
here are my Volvo flex prop brand neww at the FP factory last year:



and this spring after cleaning...

[mbuckely]

What did this extra cost you and how do you like them

[Oliver66]

this option cost us 2500€ ( new fitted at the factory ).
They are really nice, easy job for docking perhaps less speed when motoring ( 6.2 nts with the 2 engines at 2000rpm ) than the normal ones.
never compared with normal, but my harbour neighbour has an Orana with normal props and I do better sailing speed

[Andrew Troup]

Don't let your anodes get too depleted - I have a friend with this prop, and he let it get away on him and the pins went sloppy. I had to ream the bores for the stainless axle pins, and make him three oversize new axles out of 2205 duplex stainless.

It's a great prop, though... within days of launching the boat (a 40' mono -- after wisely turning back from a maiden coastal passage where conditions started to get a bit willing, to the point where the owner-builder was in the nav station and a wee lurch launched him backwards over the aisle and into the galley sink ...)

... we thought we'd chance our hand at a nice easy harbour race instead. Half way to the top mark another front came through, and the boat we were involved in a tussle with broke their mast during the overture. Half the field retired, mostly after blowing out sails.

We made it to the finish under storm canvas, we definitely weren't short of crew (you know how popular new boats are) but then we had to get back into a marina .... which, to give you an idea of how sheltered it wasn't: it used to get regularly trashed by storms, breaking pontoons and sinking a bunch of boats each time, and has since been abandoned.

It was still blowing pretty hard, 40 knots in the lulls, and it was blowing almost straight out of his slot. There was no way on earth, unfamiliar with the boat and the way it handled, and without having had the chance to fit lines with loops at the correct lengths, that we were going to be able to go in to his slot, head to wind, and stay there long enough to get safely secured. And if we misjudged, we knew the bow would fall off sideways to the wind and scrape the pontoons as we were blown back out (pontoons which still had broken bolts protruding, from the last 'proper' storm)

I persuaded the skipper to turn and go in backwards, tail to wind. I was pretty surprised when he agreed to give it a go ... not because I thought it wouldn't work, but because I didn't imagine he would think so. And I wasn't sure the prop would be man enough.

And just at the worst possible moment, as a couple of us were ready to jump ashore with lines, the wind squirted up to 50 or more and blew us straight back out.

However the method had definite merit, as we could hold position relatively indefinitely except in the worst gusts, and when we were blown out it was straightforward; there was no risk of going side on .... so after a couple more tries we were able to get into a stable position deep in the slot where a couple of us could safely get ashore with lines.

Which is a phenomenal amount of stern thrust from a folding propellor, especially considering the engine is sized as an auxiliary -- it's a racer-cruiser, with a tall rig -- and I've certainly not been on another vessel with a folder which could have done it. I'd say the reverse thrust would be just about comparable with a Hundestedt variable pitch prop, which is saying something.

The motor is a turbo Volvo, and boy the turbo was spinning that day, earning its keep! And the motor was at the smoke limit for the duration.