Best Prop

[Wiley]

Looking for suggestions on best stainless prop for '98 Crestliner 1750 Fish Hawk W/'98 115 Johnson. Running aluminum 17pitch prop now but can't break 40mph(gps)@ 5500rpm. Seems I should get more speed with 1/2 tank and 2 passengers. Don't want to invest $300 on the wrong prop. Any advice?

[miksup]

You MAY be able to pick up 2-3 MPH by going to a 17 stainless of some kind. Just stay away from the OMC SST props. They are just stainless copies of the stock aluminum prop you're running now. You're right at the top limit of you WOT operating range and at 40 MPH you're right at 90 percent of your theoretical max speed which ain't bad. Consider that I'm running a virtually identical hull, the 1750 sportfish with a Merc Optimax 150 spinning a 21 pitch 4 blade and getting to maybe 51 MPH. You can play with stainless and increase handling ability and such but don't expect to get to 50 MPH. Tight lines, Mike.

[saugeye]

Wiley,I have the same setup as you and tried several different props.The best one I found for my boat was the 18 pitch raker.It wont blow out on turns,handles well and puts me at 5200-5500 rpms.Max speed on GPS varies from42-45 depending on the load.Best to try it out though before you buy.

[REW]

If you are in the twin cities -- talk to Hannay's and see if you can try out a 19 and a 21 pitch ballistic. They might suprise you.

If you can also try the 18 pitch and the 20 pitch raker.

Although expensive -- the raker hooks up incrediablly well.

You don't mention it -- but what hole are you running in on your boat. Many many many boats perform much better if the motor is lifted a hole or two or three.

If the motor is in the bottom hole -- lift it to the third hole and see how the boat performs.

Normally, you should be able to pick up 100-200 rpm by lifting the motor. Less motor in the water and less drag.

If you are looking for speed -- try to get the most boat out of the water that you can. Try running the motor as high as you can, and as far trimmed out as you can -- without getting bow bounce. If the motor is really on -- and if you have the right prop -- you will have only 3-4 feet of boat in the water -- when you are really going.

If the boat begains to feel "loose" that is probably a good sign. That means that there is not much boat in the water to give you directional stability and you are beginning to aproach the speed limit of the hull.

I am suprised at how many people run their rigs with the motors too low or with thier motors trimmed too far down. This weekend -- I saw many boats going across the water -- running wide open and plowing water. I couldn't see any of the boat out of the water. Even the bow was in the water -- plowing through the waves. If you let this happen, you are just waiting for an accident -- when the bow catches a cross wave, and causes the boat to hook, and jump.

How do you load your boat. Remember -- in a typical v-planing hull -- 2/3 of the weight -- should be in the aft 1/3 of the boat. The reason for this is that basically the aft 1/3 of the boat is generally in the water most of the time. This portion of the hull has the sides, and width, necessary to displace the water to carry the load. If you happen to be unfortunate and have a larger portion of the boat load in the bow or mid section of the boat -- there is less boat width to displace water, and in fact support this heavier load.

That is why, it never seems to me to be a good idea to have anyone riding in the bow seat -- when you are running across the water. In a v-hull there is almost no hull support for this person -- and that much weight that far forward, simply keeps a whole lot of boat in the water. Is what is even more scary, is that some folks don't use common sense, and have a person ride in the bow seat- thatis mounted high. Talk about an accident just waiting to happen.

Good luck and I hope that you find the best prop for your rig.

REW