Grady 360 Express Sharrow props anyone tried/happy?

[pugetsound]

Hello Foirum,
I have recently aquired a 2006 360 express, the boat is in excellent condition with well maintained triple F250's. I would like to do better than .7MPG. Repowering not necessary and EXTERMELY expensive. Anyone tried the Sharrrow Propellers.
I have seen some great reviews but curious if anyone here has tried them on a BIG Grady prior to my $15,000 investment?

Greatful for your experience,
Brian in Seattle

 

[Mustang65fbk]

First of all a couple things here.... I'm definitely not an expert here, nor do I have any experience with the boat/outboards in question. That being said and from a basic numbers standpoint, your boat is rated for a maximum of 750 hp, so you're already at that. You could always in theory go with more than the maximum on your boat or a different one, but you said you don't want to do a repower. You could always sell your boat and buy another one with newer/more horsepower on it or get one with maybe twin 350's, 425's, 450's, etc. But, that seems like a lot of work and I honestly don't think it's going to do all that much better for you in terms of fuel economy. It's not exactly an apples to apples comparison or anything, but GW has a brand new 370 Express on their website with triple 450's and it is only getting a best of .9 mpg at optimum cruise. Obviously they are two different boats with different power options, that being said I don't know if spending $15k on props is necessarily going to get your boat considerably better fuel economy numbers. There's also an article that I'll link below which I'm not sure why, but it talks about their fuel economy numbers though it doesn't state what the horsepower level is. I'm going to assume that they're the maximum power at 750 hp, and are triple 250's, but am not positive on that. Either way, their claim is that the best they can get fuel wise is .93 mpg at optimum cruise with what appears to be a very similar, or even exact same setup as your boat. I think the first thing that I would do is contact GW, ask for a performance data sheet for your boat with triple F250's on it and see what it has to say. Then ask yourself the question of, is it worth the $15k to go from your current .7 mpg at optimum cruise to possibly .9 mpg or something similar? I personally wouldn't think so, unless you plan on keeping the boat for at least 5-10+ years and use it considerably. If not, it seems like money not very well spent, as that $15k will buy a considerable amount of fuel and can be put elsewhere instead. Just my thoughts on the matter, of course. Good luck and always good to see another Puget Sound guy here on the forum as well as maybe out on the water.

Grady-White 360 Express Review | Sport Fishing Mag

Grady introduced an even more luxurious, bigger boat with triple outboards. And it sells faster than a wahoo strike.

www.sportfishingmag.com

 

[DennisG01]

This has actually been talkled about a number of times here on the forum if you wanted to search to read more info.

In every post I have personally read, I haven't yet come across someone who is using them. However, don't limit yourself to just Grady's - for the sake of what we're talking about, it's just a 30-some foot deep-V hull.

Go to Sharrow's site - read through their testomonials to see if someone actually has some hard data, not just opinions. Search the net for the same thing.

Give it your best educated guess at how much improvement you'll see in fuel economy. Then do your math and see how many hours it's going to take you to recoup that $15K investment. This is really the only way you're going to make sense of it for yourself.

And... if you hit something... how much does THAT refurbish set you back? Which of course adds time to the return on your investment.

 

[Ajon]

I tried a set on a 330 a couple years ago, they had better bite in lower setting, but did not live up to hype for gas mileage of top end gains. Repower gave me better results

 

[Flot]

There is almost no way the math works out in your favor on this. Even if the Sharrow props worked INCREDIBLY well (a big if) - and gave you a 25-30% improvement in fuel burn... you'd have to spend $50,000 on fuel to get your money back. That's filling up your boat once a month for 3 years, before you see a dime of savings.

There are scenarios where it makes sense if the numbers actually happen - like if you are a charter captain who is filling up daily. Or if you need 10% more range to make it to your fishing grounds safely. But as a recreational boater with a set of older engines, it doesn't add up.

 

[seasick]

I think the design is better suited for low speed heavier load hulls, like diesel commercial boats.
In the case of the OPs boat, proper trimming and a clean hull would probably have a similar impact on fuel burn. The math is simple, the rate of return on your investment would be quite small and possible negative based on the future value of the costs otherwise invested.. I would guess that if fuel efficiency is your primary goal, investing a lot less in three new props would be a much better bet.

Didn't I read that Yamaha took a major investment in Sharow and announced a less expensive version of the prop? If so I am not sure it was offered as after market, i don't think so.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

My thought process would be that like with most things on paper, they generally look and sound much better than they actually are in the real world. I imagine the tests that the company runs are in perfect conditions to be able to get the absolute best results possible. Another thought that I have on the matter would be, if the Sharrow Props are so great and do everything that they claim to, why doesn't everyone have them? Why don't boat manufacturers include them with every boat that they sell? Why aren't there a bunch of other companies out there making knock-off's, or their versions of the Sharrow Prop's to try and compete or take money/customers away from them? Per their website, Sharrow Props have been around since 2012, of which again in that time if they really were as great as they claim to be, you'd think everyone would have one by now, or at least they'd be much more popular than they are. Also, on the website they have a claim that their props are 9%-15% more fuel efficient than the rest of the competition, which would make the OP's fuel economy of .7 mpg at optimum cruise up to maybe .805 mpg at the best? As I stated before, the very small possible increase in fuel economy wouldn't make me want to shell out $15k for them. I also just watched a video on YouTube of a family adding Sharrow Props to their 37' boat with twin Mercury outboards on it. Their best fuel economy figure was at 4k rpm going 25.3 mph and getting 1.05 mpg with the Sharrow Props. Conversely, with what they call the "Factory" props, they were able to achieve similar results while doing 4,500 rpm traveling at 29.3 mph and still getting the above 1.05 mpg. The time that the Sharrow Props seem to "shine" would be between 3,500-4,500 rpm or I'm guessing when the "Factory" props are struggling to get up on a plane. Other than that though, the "Factory" props are able to get the same fuel economy at a slightly higher rpm and speed than the Sharrow Props.