A neutral box moves the prop to the rear. The water shears off the hull and rises up at about 4° at 60mph. The prop is in deeper water than without the neutral extension box.

Adding what Griff mentioned about transom angle, you would be even deeper.

26 outlaw, sorry for not getting back sooner. Does your 26 have a notch? My 25 had a small notch, but then every boat is different even if they’re the exact same model. Baja’s need trim reaction to go faster and ride right. Plane and simple.

Ok here we go. My bravo x was originally 6.875” below the bottom with no box. Great trim reaction with 3 blade mirage plus. Ran 72-73 with 496ho.

Next season added a imco +3” extension box with same bravo x. Rule of thumb is water rises 1” of every 12” of set back. Box actually raised propshaft 2.5625” must of been due to transom angle. So propshaft was at 4.3125” below. Mirage pluses, bravo, even rev-4 just didn’t seem to bite well. But I was told I got one from a bad batch of rev-4.

Next season dropped in a whippled 525, conservatively built at 775hp, and replaced bravo x with imco scx (2” shorter than bravo x). I don’t have measurements written down but that should’ve made the propshaft 2.3125” below the bottom, but also a little further back as the scx are longer by a little. Bravo slipped a lot so got a fulled diameter full tube maximus. Trim reaction was good but still not great. May have been lifting the stern some with that bigger diameter and longer tube.

Next season sold the scx and I tried a bravo XR with sportmaster with some 4 blades with and without 1” spacer and all I recall that doing was blowing out when trying to plane. Had to BABY it up fountain style. Said f it and bought a scx-4 with #6 shaft. It measured .25” below the bottom with the leading edge of the cleaver prop 41.75” from edge of notch. Tried lots of different props, 3 blade cleaver, 4 blade cleaver, round ear 5 blade cleaver, even some bravo style with an adapter. Adapter pushed props back about another 3”. Think Maximus and bblades similar 5 blade. Round ear 5 blade ran best but was probably a little too much pitch at 30 and diameter at 17”. Found a hearing 5 blade 16.8dia 21 degree rake, 27 or 28 pitch I think, at the end of the season but never got to try it before selling the boat, but the hering is what the current owner is still running on it. He says has good trim response and from running next to him that does seem to be the case. Think it runs 85 any day, maybe a little more. Could probably use a little less diameter. Sure it’d go 5-10mph was with a bravo XR but there’s no worry with the scx-4 and can take off like a jet ski.

So long ass story short, if you want to get into f’n with prop heights, I’d find a -2 lower and be ready to rent spacers and props. What kind of trim reaction should tell you a lot. Very fine like between too much slip and then too many blades or diameter causing stern lift. The 25 and 26 outlaw hulls were a bit different, and most of my time was with a ext box.

No notch. I’ll read it over a couple time but part of my issue is I don’t have anyone to ride with me and tell me the fine details of what’s happening. You spoke about trim response I think, but I’m no expert there. I know the basics but haven’t driven another perforate to have any real idea about the details of what the boat is doing.i had hoped it was as easy as someone with a 26 Outlaw could simply say, “I did this and it as fast as it can go for the available HP. Of course, now I’m learning that each boat is a little different. It just seems odd that those differences, which must be small, would make two boats rigged out the same run that much slower. I was hoping it might be as easy as someone telling me to stay with my setup, but simply move the prop to a -2” lower. That play with several props. I’m assuming that big changes have a potential of big speed gains, and little tweaks mean little. The iss is, I just don’t know whether a shorter lower or extension bout would give real speed gains. Then I’d be left to make the small tweaks. I love the boat, and simply want to get the best speed for reasonable modification

Must of the fun is in the journey not the result. Keep working at it. From my experience if you raise the prop shaft height from where Baja originally put it it wont be much to get optimal results.

Ok, went back and read some. How does it run with the bravo 4 blade now? If you want to get real into this stuff you’re going to have someone ride with you and take speed and rpm recordings to measure slip.

Sure more blades look cool but the most efficient prop is a 2 blade set up right.

i’m gonna get some better numbers and post them here. We’ve been watching the fireworks over Saint Andrews Bay in Panama City for the last two days so we’ve had a really great time. I love to go fast but that’s really what it’s all about.

And what does the manufacturer Baja propose?

I’m assuming what they propose is a standard depth for the bravo one X but when you start throwing additional horsepower at it, I’m sure the standard is out the window.

I’m running that Baja original prop shaft depth. I’m just wondering if it needs to change considering the added HP.

Guess it depends how fast you currently are. Not same hull BUT my 272 Baja had a 7 1/4" prop centerline, at time I only had 950 hp (later it was higher), boat ran fairly fast and somewhat stable running at 92.5 to 92.8 gps running ;light with 30 labbed 4 blade. I went the extension box route as MANY people claimed I would gain speed. I lost speed and boat porpoised to point I had to arrest the porpoise with more trrim tab, Never got boat out of the 89 mph range with box regardless of prop, driveheight etc. Tore box BACK off, speed came back. My theory is even though prop centerline seemed deep, at speed the boat ran fairly high out pf the water and it just hated the box. Fast forward, I upgraded engine to 1050 hp with more mods and 1115 with my smallest pulley. Boat ran 99.5 with the 1115 pulley and a solid 96 with the 1050 pulley. So in my quest to break 100 mph I put a 2" imco shorrty on, boat hated it, was hard to get on plane, wouldnt carry bow at speed. That 7 1/4 prop cl was more like 5.5 or 5" IF you made a imaginary line where the pad was to a intersecting vee. spaced it back down a inch, still sucked. At one point I spun boat out trimming it at about 96 mph with the shorty and saw death/god which put the fear in me as my feet touched water half ejected from boat over side, luckily fell back in then tether shut it off. So you can only try stuff but theres no guaranteed results, be careful, Smitty