'92 Bluewater 22 Marque, oem prop or advice

JenBoating

Recruit
Joined
May 3, 2016
Messages
2
1992 Bluewater 22 Marque. This is the Springfield Oregon Bluewater company that was absorbed into Reinell (Kal Kustom) and then some outfit in Canada. I cannot find oem data for the prop that this boat was delivered with. Im buying one this week from second owner. Its only 225 hours. Seller said first owner changed the prop. My finding on the checkout ride is that its way overpitched. The 350 Mercruizer V8 with Alpha One has plenty of power, but still struggled with acceleraton and trim, reaching only 3500 rpm. Seller said on acassion with perfect water he has managed 4000 rpm, still a bit low. I will have the boat soon and can get the specs and outdrive ratio then.. In the meantime, if anyone owns one of these, or has some knowledge of what they came with, i would sure appreciate hearing from you. I fear the existing prop is so far overpitched that I cant get meaningful data from it. I am installing gps so will be able to get accurate speeds, but with such a wrong prop, i dont think i get good data for calculations...
 

steelespike

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Messages
19,069
No problem numbers should appear under the prop nut. Get us the size and do a lightly loaded wot run, rpm and gps speed.
 

JenBoating

Recruit
Joined
May 3, 2016
Messages
2
Got the boat out of the water and home.. The stickers are faded out, so no easy way to know the gear ratio. Prop is an aluminum 3 blade with little rake or cupping, 14" diameter, 19" pitch. There is a bent chunk on the skeg where somebody picked up a rock and spun it with a prop. The chunk is about an ich tall and offset about 3/4", just enough to totally destroy clean water flow around the skeg and into the prop. Besides removing a few years of river crud from the hull and outdrive, ill have to fix that skeg before doing any testing. Looking around i found a number of other boats in this weight and engine class fitted with 17" pitch. The 19" is obviously over pitched, suffering cavitated water from damaged skeg, and the hull is suffering lots of drag from marine growth. Also found the engine to be a 5.0XL, 305 cu in, electronic ignition, and being a '92, its carburated.
 
Last edited:

Jennifer "water-wolf"

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
41
Long belated update....AND I restored my old name on the forum after finding my lost password...So, I am again Waterwolf. Sorry to report not much going on in the way of work on the boat, due to re-injury of my lower spine NOT from working on the boat. The outdrive was exteriour corroded enough to warrent a good sanding and refinish, which has just started. The Transom mount has been refinished and the bell housing almost done. New senders are ready to pull through.... Tested is 1600 grit wet sanding paper and a polish compound, resulting a gel-coat gleam like new, with 85% of the boat yet to do. I have dome a lot of chatting with folks about this motor and the 1.5:1 outdrive ratio on this weight boat and find the experts suggest a 17 inch prop pitch. I will simply get one and mount 'er up before we launch. 19 is on the edge to too much for the available power. Were this a 350 and not the 305, the 19 would likely take it to the right RPM at WOT, Fortunately, we are not looking for top speed as much, and though not a speedster, the 305s are noted as very long lasting. One fellow mentioned 3000 plus hours on his, and it still runs fine. At 230 hours I'm sure it will be fine until we re-boat, or re-power this one with a new 383 and Bravo 3........Just dreaming a few years out.....
 
Last edited:
Top