New boat question?

[oldsquaw76]

I have a 96 celebrity 19'br with a 5.7, just bought it havent had it out on the water yet, a friend of mine just bought a five blade ss prop 19 pitch and put on his 18' searay br it has a 4.3, my boat will be used primarily for water skiing, and i have a 3 blade aluminum prop 19 pitch, would it be in my best interest to step up to a four blade prop? is there much difference between four and five blades, other than price?

 

[scoutabout]

Re: New boat question?

I'm certainly no expert but I believe the more blades, the better initial bite on the water. That will improve hole shot from idle (good for skiers) but will ultimately become a liability at the top end due to increased drag. So I'd expect a lower top end possibly coupled with increased fuel burn.

As I said tho -- no expert. You might get more and better responses posting in the prop forum.

 

[5150abf]

Re: New boat question?

Well, you can't just put a prop on a boat, not just any prop will work and you could actually do major damage to your engine, like blowing it up.

the prop on a boat is like a single gear in a car so you have to find one gear that will cover all situations, one that is good for top speed won't be good out of the hole and the other way around.

Your freind has a much smaller engine on the same size boat so I would geuss the prop he put on his boat would be way too small for your boat with much more power.

Not to mention a SS prop can be $300-$600.

Run the boat first , you don't even know how it runs yet so you don't know if you need to change props or not, the one that is on it may work fine and you can spend that money on a new set of skis.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: New boat question?

See if you can borrow his prop and try it. The gear ratio in your sterndrive may be different (likely higher) than the 4.3 motor, depending on the years of the Alphas and unless you know that , you need to experiment. What max RPMs do you get with the current prop