Well I finally got in touch with Konrad at West Mekan in Norway and got a little more information on the controllable pitch propeller, mostly in Norwegian.  The Adobe PDF text recognition didn’t work, so I need to manually type all of the text in the first document into google translate, which I haven’t had time to do yet.  The schematics are useful conceptually, but Konrad made sure to point out that they may not apply to my particular situation.  He did confirm that the blades are rotation-specific, so if the ones I have are RH blades (which I am now confident they are) they will need to be replaced with LH blades.  It sounds like they need to custom manufacture them and that they will cost between $1,000 and $1,500.  I have no idea what the time frame is on getting them though…

Apparently “Monterings – Og Smorings Veiledning For HV Anlegg Og HVS-Anlegg” translates roughly into “Assembly – and Lubrication Guide For HV-Set and HVS-Set”

Exploded diagram of the HV reversing mechanism, which is what actually rotates the blades.  There is a manual hydraulic pump that moves a push-rod inside of the propeller shaft.

I also found the following diagram for the current version of the HV system on the West Mekan website.  It is useful in the sense that it looks similar to the setup I have, but that’s about it.

Searching google images for “west mekan,” I stumbled across this Norwegian forum with some very useful pictures (see below): http://baatplassen.no/i/topic/59867-utskifting-av-propellblader-west-mekan-fr/
It looks like a slightly different setup than mine, but the mechanism of action looks the same.

If you look closely you can see that each blade has a slot in it.  The triangular piece in the last picture is connected to the push-rod that is hydraulically controlled from the cabin.  It has 3 “keys” that slide along the slots to control the pitch of the blades.
In my boat I measured the distance that the push-rod assembly moved on the prop shaft and it was about 1 inch (~2.5 cm).  I did this with and without the engine running and it seemed to be enough travel to rotate the blades to the point that the engine almost stalled out when in gear.  I assume the blades were fully feathered at this point, but I wasn’t able to visually confirm.  According to Konrad that seemed to be too short a distance for a sailing propeller, but that they may have been different 30 years ago.  He said that a sailing prop should be able to rotate up to 100-110 degrees and that a power boat prop would max out at 40-50 degrees.

Below are actual pictures of the assembly I have.  In the first picture you can see the triangular sliding “key” for the blade pitch.  You can also see that there is no adjustment nut on the end of the push-rod like there is in the other pictures above.

Picture of the prop shaft prior to installing the blades found on the previous owner’s Flickr account

Picture of the installed prop found on the previous owner’s Flickr account

Picture of the installed prop found on the previous owner’s Flickr account

Picture of the installed prop found on the previous owner’s Flickr account

Prop shaft and reversing assembly.  The part that moves is the large brass cylinder to the right of the hydraulic piston with the lines going to it.

Prop shaft and reversing assembly

Manual hydraulic pump

So in summary, it looks like replacing the prop blades (at ~$1,500 + haul out fee) may be slightly more cost effective than replacing the V-Drive (at ~$3,200), but I am concerned about how long it will take to get the blades.  My other concern is that I really only want to haul the boat out of the water once because I don’t think it’s going to be cheap.  Konrad’s responses so far have been somewhat less than inspiring.  I hoped that asking for information about a 30 year old system that has never been used might stir up some interest in doing some archival digging, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  My biggest concern is that I’ll get the new blades, pull the boat out of the water, get everything taken apart, and they will be the wrong fit.  I guess I’ll find out soon enough…

In the meantime I think I’ll focus on getting the steering set up finally and making the boat more livable.  There is still a holding tank that is filled to the brim with someone else’s shit in it and no way to pump it out since the boat isn’t exactly mobile.  I think I’ll start there.