In my experience lab finished wheels don't always work better some are maybe a little fmore efficient on the top end but slip horribly getting up and in the midrange, depends what they are and i am only talking about merc lab finishing, other companys i am sure do different things. Often times going from a three blade mirage to a four blade bravo, will provide more speed due to it's lower slip and the fact that on most boats (straight vee ) it tends to lift the hull better which reduces wetted surface and ups the speed even though in theory the fourth blade should take away a lil top end due to the drag. The fives blades i have used were borrowed from a customer who bought them for a cigarette twin step, the boat I had them on was a scarab step bottom with shortie drives and more and more people are finding that when you raise the x dimension, especially on step bottom boats more blades work better. sure did for me. but in my personal oppinion you need to have a fast boat already with lots of power to turn em. the fifth blade provides that much more "traction " to the water so if you have crummy engines you just won't be able to turn them.

Can't say that I agree with this one either. There are way too many variables that we should take into consideration, many of which Jason has already pointed out. More blades usually mean more efficiency, but things like X dem. height, boat weight, CG, even prop rotation could be a factor.
from my experience, the Herring will outperform the Merc Racing lab props MOST of the time, but not always. And as already pointed out, handling can be increased even if speed stays the same.
Remember, Lots of races have been won by a boat that may not have had the fastest top speed.
It's not always how fast you go, but how well you go fast.

When I had Bravos the boat ran beautiful with 34P labbed Merc Bravo 1's. I tried Hering 5 blades 31P. There was way too much stern lift. The boat handled like crap. I also lost about 4 miles an hour.

Its a fact the less blades the faster the boat, it has something todo with just the bottom half of the prop producing thrust.

When we set the kilo in our 36 cat we tested more props than you can imagine, the 3 blades were 4mph faster than the 4blades. At that time there were no herrings for the bravos.

But on our 40 ft in super cat the 5 blades made the boat handle better, but you lost a little 4mph to the 4blades on top end.

The herrings were always smoother, less vibration.

Curtis

Rick OSG.......Which prop has worked best for you so far overall?? Best for top end??

or by who slows down the least in the corners.....

who wants to call reggie and tell him to run 3 blades and it will be faster?

Mike Fiore

split the diff and get hydromotive 5 blades....workrd real nice for me

Did too much stern lift effect handling,ride,or both?