Prop help on Lund Baron with BF 225 Honda in Alaska

[futurerancher]

I am up in Alaska with a 2003 Lund Baron. I am pretty much the scurge of the sporting fleet in harbor as my boat is riveted and not welded. I grew up with Lunds and have been on enough big welded boats up here
to know that they are all ball busters. To me it was a trade off; I'll deal with rivets and get a better ride. Anyways...I thought I would post this here for the Erie guys as it about the closest thing back in the lower 48 that is similar to my situation up here. I mostly fish in the salt in PWS where we constantly deal with 2 footers. The problem I am having is that because of wave frequency, my bow continually falls into the trough creating a rough ride. I am not sure which prop is on the boat but it is a 3 blade aluminum. I have read quite a bit about guys using high five props on erie to help get the bow up and provide faster response times. So for guys running the Big Lunds and other similar boats on Erie, what style of prop has provided you with the best ride? I am not worried about losing top end as it is seldom calm enough to run WOT. I am leery to trust any prop shops in AK as they are completely unfamiliar with my hull. If anyone has a prop guy in the Lakes area they could recommend that would be awesome.

Quick observation...I have done quite a bit of research on this site and I see a lot of guys talking about fishing and going out in 6 footers on the great lakes. I have only been in true 6 footers twice up here, but it was absolutely terrifying and not something I would want to deal with by choice. Do fresh water wave lengths get measured differently or something or am I just a wimp?

[jeff miller]

Need to know what size prop you currently have. Should be stamped on the prop. Also need to know what your current top RPM is when boat has normal load.

[futurerancher]

It is a Honda prop that reads like this...

E3x14.8x19R

I believe that WOT is 5400 RPMS. I will need to confirm though.

Thanks for the help...

[Odd]

I know what you mean! I think a lot of people speculate on wave size, vs citing #s from bouys. A lot of guys here don't realize that a 2 footer is actually 4 feet tall. Which is taller than my windshield. They looks a lot bigger when you are looking at them from a trench. If I am in shallow water with steep waves, I'm crapping myself.

Anyway, good luck with the Lund. They do rider better, but they still have a few flat spots on the hull that will bang.

[CLDFRNT]

My last boat had a BF225 on it, the only prop it liked was a Power Tech OFS 3 blade. I tried several props before I was finaly satisfied with the Power Tech.
Good luck Mark N

[staylor]

Your question about waves on the Great Lakes vs. ocean induced waves is a good one. In general, the waves on the Great Lakes occur at a shorter period than those coming in from the ocean in coastal area or out in open ocean waters. This has a great influence on how a boat performs in the rough. I recall an offshore race about 20 years back out of Rocherster, NY on Lake Ontario. A lot of offshore boats showed up from the New York City/ New Jersey area. These were very good boats with highly skilled drivers used to running in the ocean. All were in the 40-50 ft length range which works well in the Atlantic. The local boats were mostly in the 21-30 ft range, a size which is popular for offshore race boats on the Great Lakes. The waves- measured from peak to trough- were 6-8 foot- actually plus or minus 3-4 ft amplitude. As the boats went up to racing speeds the longer boats of the ocean racers had great difficulty with the short period lake waves- several of the big boats stuffed their bows and swamped, one stuffed so bad that they had a fatality. The local boats simply went out and raced- their shorter hulls having no difficulty at all with the lake waves. The big water boats have never raced in our region since that race. I also had an opportunity a year or two ago to talk to some Navy Seal personnel who were testing some fairly large ocean going patrol boats at high speeds on Lake Erie. They experienced the same difficulty that the ocean racers had with the short period Lake Erie waves. I sorry that I can't give you a good prop suggestion, but I'd speculate that to get your bow up at lower speeds in the rough you need something with large diameter or large area blades with moderate rake angle. A High Five meets this criteria- as does a Bravo and possibly a Mirage.
Doug

[StHubert]

Contact DAH Propellers in Wisconsin. I have used them before and they are great. Tell them your situation and they will tell you what prop is best for you.

http://www.dahpropellers.com/

[jeff miller]

You are about 500rpm shy of what you should be if 5400 is correct. I would suggest you try a Solas Lexor Honda Part Number 58133-ZY3-A17LX.

I had a Honda 225 on a tin boat and the Lexor was the only Honda prop that would get the bow to come up like it should. You should also get another 200-250 rpm on paper. If the bow comes up boat the rpms don't reach 57-5900 rpm you should be able to get a prop repair shop to lower the pitch to a 16 or just try a 15 Lexor.

My guess is the 17 will come pretty close as once you get the bow up you will gain more RPM than just the usuall 2-250 rpm.

Good luck