[yblockmike]

Hi everyone! It's been a great summer, sold the 95 barchetta 182 and picked up a 2000 shabah 202 limited edition with the merc 5.0 alpha one. Took some time to work out some bugs, new carb, spent two weeks strip'n off the dreaded vertglas coating the previous owner slapped on it and buffing her back out. For heavens sake don't use that stuff...well, maybe as a last resort. So getting to the prop.... boat came with a black max 21p prop, which I managed to hit a log with last week. Wanting to go with new SS prop. The 3 blade black max does OK, however takes a while to get up on plane pulling a tube/skier. I'm really not worried about top speed, anything over 40 MPH I get the "look" from the Mrs.... I'm looking at the vensura 4 blade or the highfive hoping for a better hole shot/shorter plane when pulling and low speed handling. I'm curious what others may be running and pitch with the 5.0 alpha drives....

[darkcalling]

I ran on my old 20' boat three different ones depending on what we were up to that day. But found the 19 was great for playing with tubes and skiers and so forth. The 21 did both reasonably well and the 23 was abit slow out of the hole but flew for long runs to other towns on the lake. Oh I was running a done up 5.7 though so I doubt the 23 would be of alot of use to you.

[mikeyt]

A 20" or 21" 4 blade SS will improve your holeshot. The 20" will lose 2-4mph off top end, the 21" may lose 1-2mph. The 21" 4 blade might add 100-150 rpms to WOT, the 20" may add 200-300rpms.

There are a few here that are using the High 5 prop with, for the most part, positive results so maybe you could wait to see if any of them chime in.

[yblockmike]

Thanks for the info. Darkcalling were you using a 3 blades or 4 blade props? Seems like somewhere I read in the posts here most boats like mine came from the factory with a 19' pitch prop where mine had the 21' on it???... Going to try to get the boat out one more time this weekend and check the WOT with whats on it now.... My speedo is way off, and usually works when it "feels" like it. I tried to use the mercury prop selector, but have no idea what my speed is...just for fun I plugged 46 MPH in it, and it was recommending 16 - 18 pitch props....I'm sure would be way too low...

[mikeyt]

That Merc prop selector isn't very accurate simply because of the different hull designs / weights etc. It's good for a starting point though if you can find a shop that will let you try out a few props before you buy one.

Yes, you're right. Your boat likely came standard with a 19" 3 blade aluminum prop when new but its hard to tell cuz when someone buys a new boat, they can specify what prop they want on it. Maybe the original or prior owner had a 21" installed cuz they didn't do any wakeboarding/tubing/skiing etc & just wanted it for cruising. As i said earlier, the 19" is a good compromise prop for all conditions.