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

[luckydude]

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]

Have you tried 4-blade props? Worked for mine.

 

[luckydude]

Have you tried 4-blade props? Worked for mine.

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.

 

[Hookup1]

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!

 

[family affair]

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!

 

[Sardinia306Canyon]

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