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I'm very pleased to recommend Mike McMillin & Smidge Reid of Ocean Props
for all things related to propellers and shafts. They offer reconditioning,
repairs, sales, good advice and great service. The photo below shows Smidge
& Mike at their shop located at 307 Oliphant Lane, unit 17 (behind Freedom
Yachts) in Middletown, RI. Ocean Props has provided me with outstanding
service, advice and customer relations for several years. Mike and Smidge
went out of their way to help me resolve prop and shaft issues at a very
reasonable price. When I was having trouble pulling a stuck prop off my 1975 Trojan F-26
Express Cruiser which I bought a few years ago, They loaned me a prop puller and
offered advice to do the job right without damaging the prop. I wasn't used to
this kind of courtesy in the boating business where normally everything comes
with a fee attached. The policy at Ocean Props is to write a charge slip
for the price of the prop puller (about $118 for the model that fits a one inch
shaft). As long as it's returned promptly, and in good condition the charge sip
is voided. Mike told me, if I didn't return it, he would process the
charge slip and I would own a prop puller which seems more than fair for this
service. Below is a picture of what my prop looked like when I
pulled it from the boat using the borrowed prop puller. (That
is snow in the background!) Mike took in my 30 year old Michigan wheel, measured it, fixed numerous dings
and tweaked the pitch to put it dead on the specifications. He polished away
decades of paint so it looked like a piece of fine jewelry. The only
problem was, it looked so nice when I got it back that I didn't want to put it
back on the boat. Before the adjustment, you can see the variation in the
pitch across each blade. The bar charts show the pitch for each blade
represented by the green, blue and red bars measured in 10% radial increments
from 50% up to 90% of the radius.
Mike also ordered a replacement prop shaft for me as my original shaft was pitted beyond use as you can see from the photos below.
Below is a photo of the restored prop mounted on the new shaft ready for
launching last season. You can reach Mike and Smidge at 401 848-7877 or toll free at 888 430-7767 or email oprops@rcn.com. Please tell them you read about them here at www.CoastalCafe.com |
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