Jeff,

At surfing speeds or for that matter, any high Hull speeds you shouldn't
be using your engine. If you wanted as a back up, you should have had
the engine running at Idle an in "NEUTRAL" That would have kept the
Prop Blades Folded, eliminating Prop resistance. If you were motoring
without sails and surfing, You could adjusted course to prevent surfing.
I can believe the situation you describe and I bet it was a "Kick-In-the
Ass"! The folding Prop was doing just what it was supposed to do
(Eliminate drag) If you were traveling without a Mast you should have
been "Throttle Jockeying" and when you were going fast enough to effect
the prop blades, you should have been cutting back on the throttle. I'm
sure you were doing just that but even if you weren't the Prop would
have taken care of it self. May be causing a PITA engine cycling but
wouldn't be any worst than a fixed Prop cycle with the change of prop
resistance.

You do bring up a good point though, would you consider it anymore
"Useless" than a fixed Prop under these same condition?




http://community.webtv.net/tassail/ThomPage