Autoprop to Spitsbergen

The Autoprop provides very significant improvements whether sailing, motor sailing or just motoring.

A typical example is this Seastream 43, a well found and highly regarded cruising yacht whose owner, Alistair Stenhouse, found the performance of his boat was considerably improved with an Autoprop.

He tells us, “My original prop was a 3 blade fixed and I changed it to permit more efficient sailing on the trip I planned from Scotland to Spitsbergen and back via Norway; a trip which included successfully reaching 80 degrees north.

With an estimated trip distance approximating 4000Nm and anticipated light winds at high latitude and increasing fuel costs, the purchase was made to make “Tournesol” more efficient and cost effective for the trip and for the future.

In reality we made 4500Nm of which about 50% was under sail and the rest under power. With the engine developing cruising speed at about 200revs less than before, I estimate that we saved about 50 gallons of diesel over the trip and saved about 2 days sailing due to increased speed under sail. I think that the lack of drag when sailing maybe makes “Tournesol” point a little bit higher also.”