43 Sportfish prop advice....

[Captned]

Hello everyone.... Looking for some prop advice for a 1998 43 Hatteras sport fish. The boat currently has 5 bladed props onboard and will only turn up to 2050. (6v92TI's- 535 hp - high hours, about 25 knots top right now) If the owner replaces them with standard 4 bladed props, does anyone have an idea what size came with them originally? Why the heck would someone put five bladed props on her to begain with? Just questions for a friends boat, thanks in advance...

Captned
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[REBrueckner]

I'd not jump to any quick conclusions about the RPM just because there are five bladed props instead of four. Of course the boat may be overpropped, but modern computer designs, cupping, and other features for maximum performance deserve professional evaluation.

You might check with Hatteras as they are likely to know if whatever props were utilized might have been improved upon in subsequent years...and they hopefuly have trial run statistics as well..speed,RPM,etc.

standard fuel and water capacity? Tower?

 

[nor'easter]

I would bet they are OEM props.
My 1995 39 Sx with 692s runs 5B 32x47.5 wheels. I think Hatteras had gone to 5 blade wheels for most applications during this time frame. The high hours or overloading is more likely to be the culprit IMO.

 

[Captned]

Hmmm, she's not overloaded, stripped for sale actually, low fuel, low water, no tower...The motors SEEM to be running strong, some smoke at start, we know the port engine is getting close to its end,but she clears up in about 2-3minutes. Starboard passes the cold start test properly...No load test shoots straight up to 2600+.... At haul out, the damn props looked big to me! No size sighted. but were measured aprox. 34" in dia. Any more ideas?

Captned
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[REBrueckner]

Overloaded simply means the props are too big for the boat...as in too much pitch for example which prevents engines from turning rated RPM.

 

[Captned]

Well, yea.. But I damn near figure taking the pitch out of those things is gonna cost some serious coin, he might as well sell em as is, and buy another set of smaller props, 4 blade... Maybe keep the five blade wheels as spare. Just looking if anyone has this boat and what kinda wheels your running..

Thanks guys....

Captned
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[motoryacht lover]

I once was a serious buyer of the mid to late 90's 52 MY and all of those had 5 bladed props with deep reduction gears. I believe Hatteras was trying to increase the blade surface area without making the diameter that much bigger so as to not create clearance problems with the hull.