Surface Drive
When you hear the phrase “surface drive”, what comes to mind? High performance? Maybe speed? At Gale Marine, that is exactly what we offer! These comprehensive propulsion units are all about efficiency. With propeller blades that pierce the surface, the engines power them under less of a load than completely submerged propellers. While half of the propeller turns in the water, the other half spins above the water’s surface. Ideally, this allows the boat to make the most of the power that the engine provides. Due to this, your boat can be moving along faster than one with submerged propellers.
Gale Marine is the home of the region’s top custom airboats, manufacturing surface drive that will impress any boater.
When it comes to a surface drive, one of the most common disadvantages is docking. Lacking the blade surface of a submerged propeller, they extend well off of the hull and jut out like appendages. Regardless, when you want efficiency and speed, looks are not always the most important thing!
There are many excellent advantages to having a surface drive boat! One of the main advantages is not having appendages like a propeller or shaft beneath the hull of the boat. Not having these appendages will reduce the drag on the boat, up to 15% co-efficiency. This makes for greater speeds achievable, requiring less horsepower. In other words, the less horsepower in use, the less fuel your vessel will consume. Surface drive turns out to be much more economical as opposed to a conventional drive! With surface propellers eliminating drag from these sources, the only surfaces to touch the water are the rudder or skeg and the propeller blades.
When it comes to surface drive propellers, they are bigger than conventional propellers for a similar size of boat. This is beneficial! When tackling close-quarter handling, you’ll find a fully submerged propeller. Because of this, the driver has the advantage of a better lunge forward and aft. There is practically no limit to what size of the propeller will work! The user is able to use a considerably deeper ratio of reduction, and a greater, more efficient, and lightly-loaded propeller.
At Gale Marine, we’ve been manufacturing custom boats since 2005 – taking pride in building the finest boats around. We pay attention to detail so that we can create the perfect surface drive machine for you. Contact us today to learn more!