While sailing, tranny in Fwd, Neutral or Rev?

[CalebD]

I read about this topic on another forum and it seems that the choice of locking the tranny in fwd, neutral or rev while sailing is based on the mfr.s recommendations. I have what I believe is a standard 2:1 reduction gear tranny and a 2 blade prop on my Tartan 27'.
I have left the tranny in neutral many times when sailing and when the packing in our stuffing box was quite worn down the shaft would spin when doing good speeds. The packing has since been replaced and I have not noticed that the shaft spins while sailing even in neutral.
Is there a recommendation from Universal regarding my question?

[sastanley]

fwd?

Caleb,
i don't know...My father always shoved the shifter into reverse and yanked the lever (tiller boat, controls on the side of the cockpit) for sailing, since the boat was new in 1977. After my discussions with folks since I took ownership, I am thinking it is better to put it in forward for sailing since things lock and the reverse is only putting load on the brake band, thus you are relying on the brake band to hold it from spinning.

However, I have a direct drive, so YMMV.

[wlevin]

When we had a T27 we put it in forward gear when sailing and lined up our two bladed prop behind the deadwood by looking at a stripe we painted on the prop shaft. We actually measured increased speed sailing this way compared with dragging the prop crossways through the water. A friend of ours has a home made clamp he uses to keep the prop shaft still.
Bill and Jeanne
T34C #453
Otter

[sastanley]

Bill & Jeanne,

Same here..I have a white spot for vertical.

[agraziano23]

so... forward, neutral or reverse? when does the prop NOT spin?

[wlevin]

When our A4 is fully in forward the prop does not spin.
Bill and Jeanne
T34C #453
Otter

[sastanley]

Tony, Both seem to work. When in reverse, you are relying on the brake band to hold the prop. When in forward, the clutches are all fully engaged, so the load is on the crankshaft/engine instead of the brake band.

I think my plan is to shift into forward from now on to take the load off the reversing gear & gearsets within, even though it seemed to work fine that way on this boat for 32 years. There are a lot of things I am doing differently.

edit - I will comment that I am no expert on the reversing gear. I've never even taken off the cover..however, I read Chapter 6 of the Moyer Bible this weekend, and it convinced me to try FWD this year.

[CalebD]

So it would seem that forward is the gear to use to lock the tranny while sailing given the discussion above.
I did mark my shaft for vertical orientation with some paint a few years ago. Now if I could only remember to take the time to line it up before each race. It does make a slight difference when lined up properly.