Anyone tried, or heard of, a sharrow prop on a 228?

luckydude

luckydude

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I know they are expensive but I was watching a review and the boat got on plane at substantially lower RPM. I need to go look again, but if it could get, and keep, my boat on plane at 18mph instead of 21mph, I'd love that.
 
Hookup1 said:
Have you tried 4-blade props? Worked for mine.
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Yeah, I have whatever Ken from prop gods sold me, I didn't really notice much of a difference. The sharrow reviews show a pretty big difference, let me go look. OK, it's better MPG but not slower planing speed:


Bummer, I'd love a slower speed on plane. Lots of times in the California Pacific it's choppy, the ride at 21mph is shit. So I have to drop off of plane and get crap MPG coming home. I'd love an on plane at 18mph answer.

And, as I tell my fishing buddies, I'd love brunette twins as deck hands. You don't always get what you want.
 
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Did you drop any pitch when you changed? Some guys won't do it because they think they will loose top end. If props loaded wrong it can be significant improvement.

Ken ran my numbers and recommended 4-blade props, 2" less pitch and slightly smaller diameter. Complete game changer. Boat as a 10 knot or 20 knot boat and could not hold plan at slower speed in rough conditions. 4-blade props changed all that. I can plane at lower speed and run in less than perfect sea conditions. Following sea too.

Either way I'm not going to buy a pair of props that are worth more than my boat!
 
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Lucky,
Even with your oversized tabs, all that weight up front, and your engine tucked in, you can't plane below 21?
I wonder if it is due to the setback/bracket? Our 248 had the short hull, but if I dropped the tabs and tucked the engine in, even it would plane and smash thru waves below 20 and fall off around 16.
Under the right conditions, the 270 can 2.8 mpg at 12 mph!
 
Does your boat still run bow high at 20 mph? At what rpm?
She may do better if you can bring the bow down but tabs excessive down create a lot of drag what is counterproductive.
Have you experimented with adding more weight on the bow, but not so much that she becomes bow heavy.
However, 18 mph is 15 knots and thats probably simply too low to plane for a heavy boat, i could do that only with my 30ft rib and a F250, but added a 50 gallon water tank on bow to keep her running flat and make the sharp bow working as supposed.
As far i remember lowest planing speed on my BW 23 Outrage was about same 21 mph.

Honestly i don't think that the Sharrows will solve your problem but the correct 4 blades should do, as above mentioned smaller pitch and diameter to keep rpm's in a better torque band. But then you have higher rpm's thru all speeds what will lead to higher fuel flow so benefit may be inexistent or so small that it's not worth the investment.

Chris
 
I went out and measured, tip of blade to tip of blade looks like 15.5 inches. I can't find the pitch. I'll see if Ken kept a record.

On the other questions, I have to go check. My issue is coming home in chop. My choices are smoother ride with crap MPG because I'm a displacement hull or beat the crap out of me at 20-21mph (17-18 knots) because for sure at 19 I'm falling off plane, might be at 20. So shit MPG or shit ride. Maybe I deserve a shit sandwich too :cool:
 
luckydude said:
I went out and measured, tip of blade to tip of blade looks like 15.5 inches. I can't find the pitch. I'll see if Ken kept a record.
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Pitch and diameter should be laser printed on PowerTech props, but it's not very visible than on other brands.

I went fishing yesterday, dead calm for about two hours then southerly winds picked up, so we stopped deep deep dropping and started trolling.
We trolled for many hours gong with the wind and waves became a shitty steep short period 4-5ft chop and we had to run against it for 12 nm back to the marina.
Sure, my 306 Canyon is a different beast, but i could keep her at 23 knots without slamming going straight in the waves and went about 3 miles south of Marina and took a sharp turn to speed back with waves from stern. I use this zig-zag or overshooting routes often to avoid that spray will soak us really badly.
Consider to change course and zig-zag back home to have a better angle against the waves to reduce slamming and spray if windy, in sailing world this is called tacking and needed on a sailboat.
Yes you use more fuel as you do more distance, but keeping boat at lower planing speed may actually save fuel, slam less and keep you dry, mine does save fuel this way.
Chris
 
Lucky
You added an enclosure awhile back i would think that is your issue, its a give and take save your money.
 
I think you might benefit from reconnecting with Ken. Seems like others have gone back to him after the initial prop attempt to get the desired result.
 
I stumbled over a article about Sharrows new line of small boat propellers and price start at about 2000$ each.
Have a look here: https://www.sharrowmarine.com/news/sharrow-marine-unveils-highly-anticipated-sharrow-mx-a

You may find a dealer what let you try one, if not Sharrow offers a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.

Do your math using your fuel burn numbers and engine hours if roughly 5000$ is worth the investment and after how many hours / years you will have saved this amount due saved fuel. 5000$ is a lot of fuel to burn in USA.

Chris
 
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Lucky, do you have tabs and use them?

Consider adding larger tabs - that will absolutely make a difference and it's also low on the $$ scale. When increasing tab size, span is more important than chord.

Point of clarification... you do not have a displacement hull. You have a planing hull. However, and maybe this was what you meant... when trying to push a planing hull through the water AT displacement hull speeds (off plane, but higher than idle speed) the MPG just about goes into the negative range :) Planing hulls are trying to push a ton of water out of the way at those speeds.
 
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luckydude said:
I know they are expensive but I was watching a review and the boat got on plane at substantially lower RPM. I need to go look again, but if it could get, and keep, my boat on plane at 18mph instead of 21mph, I'd love that.
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If you have a displacement hull, what difference does it make if the article refers to getting on plane at lower revs?
 
What you could try is to install a F300 ECM (or a NizPro tuned one) to get 50 HP more and then see what happens maybe changing to 1 or 2 inch higher pitch.
However i am rather sure that your 228 simply will not plane under 19 mph and if, with every wave she fall from plane and you need to throttle up to bring her back to plane and this is poison for mpg.

What are your WOT rpm's now?
You may do a test for a short period to install a Suzuki 16" wide prop, maybe also 1 inch more pitch, Suzuki props are installable without any modification other than using the included rear pressure plate and as far i remember i did noch changed the conic one in front of the prop, however check that first.
What will happen is that you most likely can't reach more than 4500 rpm but see if you can plane at lower speed then (that happened to me)
However don't use your boat for a long time over propped like that but it will not do any harm if you use it for a test.
If she planes at the speed you desire then you know that it theoretically works and may find a way to realize it, if it don't work even overpropped then it will most likely never work.

Chris
 
As I understand, it the planing speed is a function of the hull shape not the motor. Sharrow props can plane at lower rpm due to less prop slip but the planing speed remains the same. As others have said a prop with more “grip” (eg. 4 blade) might reduce the amount that the boat falls off the plane but it won’t reduce the planing speed.
 
id be more interested in getting on plane at a lower mph rather than rpm. im not sure sharrow has shown that.

a 4 blade designed to lift the stern should help. call ken bak and let him know the changes you want to make. keep us updated, i am also interested in a lower plane speed and a more level attitude when on plane.
 
SeanC said:
As I understand, it the planing speed is a function of the hull shape not the motor. Sharrow props can plane at lower rpm due to less prop slip but the planing speed remains the same. As others have said a prop with more “grip” (eg. 4 blade) might reduce the amount that the boat falls off the plane but it won’t reduce the planing speed.
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I would disagree with the prop part of your statement. Props can have a significant impact on an outboard powered boat's attitude and planing speeds. I won't claim to know all the details, but many prop geometry details will impact this. Barrel length alone can have a significant impact.
 
The tests I have read concentrated on lower speed applications and displacement hulls. For recreational planing hulls, I haven't seem a lot of documented tests. When I see pictures of outboards raised up and propped with sharrows what comes to mind in the back of my head is 'steal me!'
 
seasick said:
For recreational planing hulls, I haven't seem a lot of documented tests.
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Have look here, sure Sharrow claims that, but even if half of changes are true still rather impressive.
https://www.sharrowmarine.com/performance-reports

Again, the only way to find out is to buy them, mount, test and keep or send them back withhin 30 days and get the money back, or find a motivated installer who supervise the installation and tests for free or a small contribute.
If i could test them just to know how they work on my boat, in my marina is no risk that they get stolen, CG boats are on my dock 3 slips away and videocameras everywhere.
Chris
 
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