Re: Solas Prop opinions please
I'm a newbie myself, but did a ton of research and reading here before I bought my prop.
First, is your motor in good tune?
Second, have you tried raising the motor on the transom an inch at a time until ventilation becomes an issue?
Basically, once you've got the boat running as well as you can with the current prop, that's when you should pull all the relevant facts together and start a new thread. People here will want to know:
1. Mercury's recommended wot rpm range for your motor
2. Your current wot rpm and speed with normal load (according to what you wrote, you should probably get another person or 2 on the boat before you measure this- and use a gps to get accurate speed).
3. What are you trying to achieve? Top speed? Cruising efficiency? Pulling skiers and wakeboarders?
4. Appears that you've narrowed the brand to Solas, and nobody's giving you any argument there, so that'll help narrow your model choices. That's good- there're so many props out there it makes your head spin
Generally, every 1" decrease in pitch will raise your rpm by 150-200. In addition, if you go from aluminum to stainless, you'll want to drop one more inch because stainless doesn't flex as much.
I was trying to go from 5250 rpm with a 3-blade aluminum, to 5500 rpm with a 4-blade stainless (I already knew I wanted the stern lift and cruising efficiency of a 4-blade for my big, heavy boat). I dropped from 17p on the original prop to 15p on a Titan and freakin' nailed it - 5475 rpm and a 1.5 mph increase at the top end. The answer is out there- take it step by step and you'll find what you need.
