Forums, Engine, Gearbox, Stern Gear, etc, Locking the Propshaft for racing.

Lee Co888 at 06/05/2011 08:57:54

Hello,

I wonder if anyone could tell me the best way of locking the propshaft behind the deadwood while racing. Do you use grips on the shaft? I find that locking it in gear always allows the prop to move away from the deadwood a bit.

Regards

Lee

George Isted at 06/05/2011 09:22:16
Putting the gearbox in reverse should lock it in position, assuming you have marked the shaft so that you know the orientation of the prop then it should be relativly easy.

Alastair Pugh at 06/05/2011 14:17:22
You need to have the boat moving fast enough to spin the prop then it’s just a simple matter of someone watching the marked shaft from the lifted engine cover while someone else selects reverse/neutral/reverse until the shaft stops in the right place. Unfortunately, my arm isn’t long enough to do it single handed so I have found that from the shaft spinning fast, 3 rapid neutral/reverses seems to do the job about 90% of the time – no idea why.