Propeller Guard Information Center

The boating industry continues to reject the use of propeller guards and vehemently testifies against them in propeller injury trials. One of their tools is to illustrate ANY changes in the performance of the boat with the guard vs. without the guard and claim those changes are unacceptable.

We propose a Senior Design Project, Capstone Project, or Senior Thesis in which students develop a propeller guard that provides at least some level of protection while absolutely not changing the performance of the boat and not causing any other unintended consequences. This Senior Design Project might particularly appeal to student in mechanical engineering students, marine engineering, ocean engineering, design, CAD / computer aided design, safety, or law.

In real life, propeller guard designers design guards to maximize protection while minimizing the guard’s impact on the performance of the boat. They typically end up with a prop guard that provides good protection, but one or more element of boat performance is at least measurably impacted (top speed, time to plane, handling, steering, performance in reverse, durability, increased potential area for blunt trauma, entrapment in the guard, fuel consumption, emissions, porpoising, draft, weeds/sea grass, ability to speed to shore after an accident, cavitation, etc.)

Guard designers think it is a very good tradeoff (get great protection but boat goes a couple miles and hour slower, etc.), however the boating industry uses that delta (change in one or more boat performance variable) as a reason to reject the propeller guard. Read More→