Bravo 1FS
 

Has anyone used the new Bravo 1FS, on a cat yet?

http://www.mercuryracing.com/wp-cont...rop_SS_NC2.pdf

Thanks,
Dean

so I guess I'll be the 1st to try 1....

I'm interested in hearing from anyone that's tries this on an I/O. The std B1 is the perfect prop for my boat- does everything well except that the bow rise when rolling over on plane seems to be excessive. I remember reading a post from a Merc tech rep saying that less bow rise on take off might be a characteristic of the new FS. BTW- what's the downside of prop vents? You almost never see a vented prop on an I/O. Look forward to you trying this.

If you pull the vent plugs, it will aerate the prop and (Supposedly) allow it to spin up faster out of the hole...

I'd be interested to know how it went. I threw a blade this past weekend on the dcb running Bravo I XS single hole vents and wondered if either get same prop or try something new. They are about 4 yr old.

I was staying away from this one for a few reasons but I'll jump in for a minute.

The XS, FS, OC propellers from Merc Racing are standard Bravo 1 castings that are "tweaked" with lab modifications we have been doing for over a decade.
The adjustments are nothing new. The adjustments have been used by us as well as by Merc Racing when I was there over a decade ago. These propellers simply offer better performance on many applications compared to stock Bravo 1's. These propellers may offer advantages to the stock propeller but will not perform as well as a propeller Labbed specific to your boat.

The FS propeller will work on a stern drive because the blade area and pitch progression are the same as a stock propeller. The differences are the exhaust tube is cut down slightly and the cups are modified slightly and the blades are wedged slightly.
Boats requiring extreme efficiency may not like these props as well as Stock Bravo 1's. The vent hole was not initially in the FS propeller. Due to some XS 1" vent hole problems, the FS received a PVS hole. Since then the XS was revamped to dual PVS holes like HYdromtive Q4X O/T . Vent holes on stern drive applications are not often required. Especially with through hull exhaust. The hole can be slightly effective depending on the boat (call for specifics).

At BBLADES we offer and build a OB/F made from a Bravo 1 casting. Our design offers all the attributes of the FS, XS, and OC in one propeller offering. We have this propeller in our test program for anyone wishing to try before they buy. Here is a link to the BBLADES OB/F

http://bblades.com/shop/bblades/bravo-obf/

Brett