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Hi everyone,
I was hoping that you could provide me with some suggestions on a prop for my boat. I have an Alumacraft 165 Competitor fishing boat. The boat is 16'7 long with an 87 inch beam. The dry weight of the hull is around 920 pounds and I also have 3 batteries in the boat and it also has an internal gas tank. I should note that my boat is also a tiller.
Right now on my F70 I'm running a Michigan Wheel Vortex 14 inch diameter 3 blade aluminum with a 13 pitch. When I'm by myself I can easily hit the rev limiter with this prop and I get 32 MPH on my GPS. Loaded with 2 adults, my young son and gear, I get 30-31 on the GPS at 6,200-6,300 RPM, so again I'm really close to the rev limiter. Hole shot is very good, cruising performance is fine and handling is decent.
I recently tried a Michigan Wheel Vortex 13 3/4 3 blade aluminum with a 15 pitch and it was too much prop. While it ran 32 MPH on the GPS with the full load, it could only turn about 5,800 and the hole shot was quite sluggish. Handling was also very poor and the boat felt as though it was drifting allot. It didn't feel hooked up at all and high speed handling was bad. There was lots of torque on the tiller, whereas with the 13 it's hardly noticeable when trimmed properly.
I'd like to find a prop that would give me a little extra top end, but still have the hole shot and handling that I'm getting with the aluminum 13. I could afford to drop a little bit on the RPM's compared to the aluminum 13, but I don't want them to drop as much as they did with the 15, I think the performance suffered too much.
So what do you suggest? I would consider a stainless prop and I was thinking of a Yamaha pontoon series prop in a 13 pitch or perhaps a painted stainless series in a 13 or 14 pitch. Obviously these are expensive props to try out if they don't work, so does anyone have any experience with these props on the F70 for an application similar to mine?
Thanks so much for any thoughts or suggestions you can throw my way.
I was hoping that you could provide me with some suggestions on a prop for my boat. I have an Alumacraft 165 Competitor fishing boat. The boat is 16'7 long with an 87 inch beam. The dry weight of the hull is around 920 pounds and I also have 3 batteries in the boat and it also has an internal gas tank. I should note that my boat is also a tiller.
Right now on my F70 I'm running a Michigan Wheel Vortex 14 inch diameter 3 blade aluminum with a 13 pitch. When I'm by myself I can easily hit the rev limiter with this prop and I get 32 MPH on my GPS. Loaded with 2 adults, my young son and gear, I get 30-31 on the GPS at 6,200-6,300 RPM, so again I'm really close to the rev limiter. Hole shot is very good, cruising performance is fine and handling is decent.
I recently tried a Michigan Wheel Vortex 13 3/4 3 blade aluminum with a 15 pitch and it was too much prop. While it ran 32 MPH on the GPS with the full load, it could only turn about 5,800 and the hole shot was quite sluggish. Handling was also very poor and the boat felt as though it was drifting allot. It didn't feel hooked up at all and high speed handling was bad. There was lots of torque on the tiller, whereas with the 13 it's hardly noticeable when trimmed properly.
I'd like to find a prop that would give me a little extra top end, but still have the hole shot and handling that I'm getting with the aluminum 13. I could afford to drop a little bit on the RPM's compared to the aluminum 13, but I don't want them to drop as much as they did with the 15, I think the performance suffered too much.
So what do you suggest? I would consider a stainless prop and I was thinking of a Yamaha pontoon series prop in a 13 pitch or perhaps a painted stainless series in a 13 or 14 pitch. Obviously these are expensive props to try out if they don't work, so does anyone have any experience with these props on the F70 for an application similar to mine?
Thanks so much for any thoughts or suggestions you can throw my way.
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