Wakeboarding
 

I have a 1998 Shabah 202 w/5.7 alpha 1 and all I do is wakeboard with it. I installed a wakeboard tower last summer and love it. But it is a little slow out of the hole. I believe it has a 3 blade 21p on it right now. I have researched an I'm still kinda lost on what pitch I should go with. I also plan on going with 4 blade.

Re: Wakeboarding
 

hi there. First off you need to educate yourself a little bit about props. Take the time to read my "Basic Propellor Rules" sticky which will give you an idea of what to do.

Just as a quick bit of direction, if you have a 21" - 3 blade on that boat, it wont perform well for wakeboarding or waterskiing. That prop is a cruising prop. I would suggest either a 19" 3 blade or a 20" 4 blade. If rocks aren't an issue where you boat and your pockets are deep enough, i would also suggest going with a S.S. prop rather than aluminum.

Re: Wakeboarding
 

I was in a similar situation as you. My primary boat usage was for wakeboarding and I was operating a 21P 3-blade (see boat/engine in signature). It is important to note that I was getting a pretty solid hole shot with this set up even though the pitch was a bit large. I believe it was related to the fact that the prop was ventilated, cupped and stainless steel. However, I was looking to go away from an SS prop and to not have to hammer the throttle so much pulling up a wakeboarder.

So, I researched and went with a 20P 4-blade Aluminum Vortex with hub kit from Michigan Wheel. Upon testing it out the main differences were that:

- we could drive much faster off-plane (which was great for picking up a boarder in the water and for no wake zones)
- it was easier to keep the speed constant while pulling a boarder

As for the hole shot, it improved slightly, but I still have to hammer the throttle. And the top end speed dropped about 2 mph from 48ish to 46ish (speedo not gps speeds) but this does not bother me because I rarely get water smooth enough to go that fast. There was not a noticeable difference in RPMs at WOT (~4900).

Therefore, I was happy with the switch. It got me into an aluminum prop for a little piece of mind and the performance was better. I do question whether a 19P 4-blade would have been better, but I would have been really pushing the WOT RPMs then and I would have had to worry every time I let family or friends drive the boat.