21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

[TheBlizzard]

Boat has a 5.0L Merc with a Alpha One Drive, the dry weight is 3050lbs.

What pitch and type of prop would work best on this boat, to be honest I just bought the boat, I don't even know what size is on it, I would assume it is a 17 or 18 pitch, and its a three blade. The prop is sort of shot, I am going to have it rebuit, but I also want to buy a decent aluminum one that is new.

The boat is a 1989 Celebrity 199 SE Cuddy that is 21' long.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bondo]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

Ayuh,.... Read This First....

 

[steelespike]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

Get your prop fixed do some test runs,get back to us with your prop size (usually under the prop nut)your max rpm and speed.Any performance issues you would like to correct.

 

[Robbabob]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

Boat has a 5.0L Merc with a Alpha One Drive, the dry weight is 3050lbs.

What pitch and type of prop would work best on this boat, to be honest I just bought the boat, I don't even know what size is on it, I would assume it is a 17 or 18 pitch, and its a three blade. The prop is sort of shot, I am going to have it rebuit, but I also want to buy a decent aluminum one that is new.

The boat is a 1989 Celebrity 199 SE Cuddy that is 21' long.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome aboard, Blizzard!

Since it is probably well past boating season up der in da nort, you probably won't be able to perform any testing until Spring. I hope you had a test ride before your purchase, though. Or at least, you know the seller well enough to trust a purchase right now.

Steel probably has the best advise right now. Have your current prop serviced over the winter and be ready for testing when the hard stuff leaves the top of the water. You don't want to guess at a new prop size and have it be wrong!

By the way, your current prop (after servicing) may be exactly what you need... and you'll only spend a fraction of the price.

Good luck!

 

[TheBlizzard]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

I just put the boat in our shop to thaw out a bit so I can store it, I looked at the prop and it is a 18 pitch. Reading through this Quicksilver book that I have it said the max RPM on the 5.0 Merc is 4200-4600. We don't pull skiers or wakeboards that often or have boats loaded down a lot so I would be more looking for a good top end prop. The boat is powerful and small enough it will get out of the hole fine I think and I would like it to hit at least 45mph on average.

But I did read through the faqs here, and I agree that testing will need to take place in the spring to figure out the sweet spot. I have other props that I can try to find the best one, our other boat uses a 17 pitch, and I have a 19 pitch as well.

Is 4600 the peak RPM on the 5.0 Alpha Mercs?

 

[TheBlizzard]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

Just for my own notes: The actual prop on the boat (since I looked closer) is a 19 pitch, the peak RPM for this motor is 4600. Will update in the Spring when I can test different props. I can't really do stainless because I run on the Mississippi a lot and don't want to trash the drive if I hit something.

 

[TheBlizzard]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

Took the boat out yesterday for its first run, the boat came right up on plane no problem and at WOT the RPMS were at around 4500-4600. I trimmed the drive just until it sucked some air and put it down a bit, that is where it was at peak RPM. This was with just below a 1/2 tank of gas and with just me and my bro-in-law with me. The speedo said around 45+mph (which I know probably wasn't accurate) which seems about right for the boat with a 240hp Merc stern drive.

I still have to send out the prop and get it fixed, it has a noticeable chip out of it which wasn't helping anything I bet. I am hoping to get close to 50mph around 4500 RPMS with perfect conditions.

For reference the prop is 19 pitch, not sure of the diameter since I could not find it on the prop anywhere.

 

[TheBlizzard]

Re: 21' Cuddy 3050lbs - What Prop?

For my own notes:

Prop repair complete + GPS for accurate top speed.

With me and a half tank of gas the boat turned 4600-4800 rpms and went 53mph; I trimmed the drive just until it sucked some air and trimmed it down a bit. I am pretty pleased with this performance consider its a 3050lb+ 21' cudddy.

Loaded down with people it stuggled a bit to get out of the whole though, it has no trim tabs, it came up on plane but it took about 10 seconds. I would if I go to a 4 blade if that would help a bit, I don't need a 50mph cuddy and could sacrifice some top end.

Any suggestions?