Recently in the swirl of press releases coming into my in box, there was an email on a product called Propspeed. This is a product from the OceanMax company that acts as an antifoulant for props and prop shafts. A clean prop is certainly a valuable thing for a powering voyaging trawler, but how important is it for a voyaging sailboat, which tend to have much smaller props in relation to overall underwater surface area than a powerboat does, and also doesn't rely on it for propulsion (at least when the wind is blowing).
Yet the Propspeed people have a page on their web site that highlights a singlehanded circumnavigating sailor, Jeanne Socrates, who used the Propspeed product on her boat Nereida during her 2013 circumnavigation.
From the webs its: "Jeanne became the first and only woman to sail solo, nonstop around the world from North America as well as the oldest woman to solo-circumnavigate the world, just 33 days shy of her 71st birthday. Prior to embarking on her eight-and-a-half-month global journey, Jeanne applied PropSpeed foul-release coating to the propeller and shaft of her Najad 380’s Autoprop as well as a fresh coat of antifoul to the hull."
Socrates was pleased with the results, "So many people have been impressed with my PropSpeed coating and its usefulness in keeping the prop clean while on my travels.”
The accompanying picture shows Nereida's prop and hull after her return and the prop and shaft are remarkably clean of growth.
