Maybe I've been lucky, but in the eleven years that I have owned boats with saildrives, I have never used locktite or "small pellets of epoxy putty."
Essentially whatever I have done to undo and remove he propeller has been done in the reverse order when it comes to putting the prop back on again, with the only addition being some fresh grease on the threads, and some fresh paint on the non folding propellers. Last year I tried a folding bronze prop for a change, and again I did not use any locktite or paint. This prop was secured only with a special nut in the middle of the boss which itself was further secured with a grub screw provided within the Volvo design of the prop (very old style folding bronze prop picked up off eBay for a £100). It worked very well, and I did worry about it for the whole season when I later (after launching) saw others adding locktite. By the end of the season however it was still securely in place, but now I'm worried whether I should use locktite, and despite having never used it before, and never having had any problems before, I'm gong to use it this year for the first time, but not for securing the anode. As for the folding prop, well the jury is still out as to whether it was any better than the old fixed prop.
