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Old 04-27-2012, 10:25 PM   #31
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilgewater View Post
In your cruising, do you ever run on just one engine? And if so, do you keep the idle tranny engaged so as not to freewheel? Best of luck on your cruise, I'm envious!!!!!
Some if not most marine gears do not lock when you put them in gear. The ubiquitous BW Velvet Drive, for example, does not lock when you move the shifter to forward or reverse and then move the boat forward with that engine unpowered. The transmission will still freewheel with the prop and shaft despite the shifter being in forward,. This is why we have to tie off a shaft if we have a precautionary engine shut down.

And if you have to tie off or lock a shaft the turbulence from the stationary propeller will cause a lot more drag than a freewheeling prop so you will probably be less efficient than if you went ahead and ran both engines.
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