33 Powerplay / -2 lowers
 

Contemplating some -2" imco/sportmasters on my boat, currently has standard length and the prop shafts are 5" below the hull when parallel to it. No stand off boxes at this time, does anyone have any experience with this setup or similar? I'm hearing 3" below hull is the sweet spot for these hulls.

JROMY had the last PP built, it had 525s with stock 32s and ITS/sport master drives on it. It ran solid 89 with no mods. I'm sure with some tweaking that boat would have been a 90+ mph boat. I was in it many times.

He was on salt though wasn't he? ITS also adds 7" stand-off. I'm running 85 right now fresh water spinning 30's.

Take away 2" from your lower unit and we will call you Caitlyn.

Starting at a similar X as you, each 1" higher we raised the X was worth about 2 MPH.

Your boat runs good! You ran next to you a few times at the spring run. Hoping someone has some knowledge or a pair for sale, haven't had much luck in the wanted section.

Running in the bumps your boat has a really good attitude. You will/may have deal with a few things with the prop shafts being higher. The boat will be some slower getting on plane and you will likely need to get your props tweaked to add some additional cup.

I was thinking about going to a five blade setup with shorties, but then again I may just get a new pair of 30's and have Bblades tune them in, I had good luck with them before. I think if I go to five blades I'm going to have to take my drives back to All-American and go one stage higher.

Short tube maximus might work. The first thing I would do is try it with what you have or can borrow from a jacka$$ like me

I doubt you will need 30P. It will cost you in acceration vs. the 28P. The RPM should be still be similar as you have now but you will pick up speed by having less slip with your reworked 28P. IMO, the 5-blades are harder on the drives especially as you come in and out of the water. Good conversation to have with Brett.

I'm running 30s right now, just thought a new pair reworked from scratch for that setup would be better than what I have

To start, my suggestion is to install your -2 lowers and test with your existing B1 30P. Brett very likely can tune your existing props to put you spot on your targeted RPM. Originally we were running about 90 MPH with 25P Mirage @ 5" below the bottom and ended at 103 MPH with Bravo 1 28P @ 2" BTB. In our boat, both the Mercury and Herring 5-Blade props had too much transom lift and the boat was very light/loose with only +1 MPH with the Herrings and no additional speed with the Merc 5-blades. If you had all the test props, the Livingston channel would be a great place to test.:flag:

Do you notice your props coming out of the water a lot more with the shorter units? I don't really want to have to put on drive guardians this year although I probably will next year.

Absolutely, it is a all a trade off. This is a big project and the final cost can easily exceed whatever you budget. Also, more speed won't likely add much resale value to your boat.