What is prop walk?

You often hear about it and you often wonder what it is but no one has ever explained what it actually it is and why it happens.  Prop walk is simply the act of the boat wanting to "wander" around while moving at slow speeds.  Prop walk is caused by the torque of the engine and the propeller spinning.  Usually, prop walk is not as prevalent when moving forward as it is moving backwards.  When moving backwards, you will notice that on most boats they try to move or creep to the right ever so slightly.  This is due to the spinning of the propeller pulling the stern of the boat.

This phenomenon has the biggest effects on v-drive or direct drive boats.  Have you ever tried to back up in a wake board boat? Its nearly impossible to back one into a space because the prop walk can be so bad.  On cruisers with dual engines, you can counteract this with the opposite engine but it will take some thinking.
Boat manufactures have tried many things to try to reduce the effect that prop walk will have on a boat but lets face it, its difficult, its physics.

Up next, I'll explain how to how to ease the effects if you only have a single engine boat.