Home › Forum › Ask A Member › 2nd opinions on prop selection › Re: 2nd opinions on prop selection
So I used the boat again yesterday for several hours and paid closer attention to some of the points brought up here. I found that at near WOT, the boat is acting like a traditional V-hull but the 50hp just doesn’t have quite enough power to get the center tube much out of the water. The bow lifts, the outer tubes get about 1/3rd of the way out of the water, and the center tube might be 1/4 out. So yes, drag is an issue as the boat is basically plowing like a typical V-hull that can’t climb out of the water.
I also did some WOT corning and noticed the things you guys mentioned about stability. The boat does lean into corners like a V-hull (not away), and is very stable on turns. You almost notice no difference on a sharp corner at 16-18MPH. Of course, when not fully on plane, there wouldn’t be much leaning anyway.
I’ll probably bump up to a 70hp motor for next season just to experiment with things to see how it does. The center tube came off a 20′ grumman (trimmed down to 17′ now) that was rated for 70hp, so structurally I think the boat will be OK so long as I don’t beat the hell out of it in a bad chop (say 2-3′ waves).
The weight difference between the 70 and 50 with power trim is only 50lbs so we should be good.