Ordered a 30"p from Greg a couple months back. Took a couple months to receive due to the larger casting that was required and was held up because of that. Now that it is here the first impression is that this bad boy looks great!

The 32" labbed bravo that I had on my boat worked fine, but I felt that it was holding me back a little in both acceleration and in top end. I could pull enough RPM (5800) with it at WOT when light but with 4+ people on board plus gear and full of fuel it was a pig (relatively speaking of course). It had too much bow lift labbed into it, and as a result didnt seem to let the boat free up until running in the mid 80's. The slip at cruise was so high that it was actually slower than what I was running previously. I was running a 30" bravo labbed by Mercury racing that I really liked overall, but cracked a blade on it, plus, i felt it could have used another inch of pitch.

I spoke with Greg, told him what my boat was doing and what speed and rpm i was turning with both the Bravo 30 and the 32. We decided to go with a bit less cup and a bit more blade area to see if i could get some more stern lift. Settled on a true 30" pitch and went larger in the diameter to 15 3/8". In comparison the 32" that I have measures at 14 3/4".

I will be testing the boat today, two people, full fuel. The engine could use some dialing in of the carb, as it is running a little fat, but I will focus on that after i see the results based solely on a prop change. I will post my results here, good or bad.

Phil,
Awesome looking prop! Greg does great work, I'm real happy with all the prop work CEP has done for me. Good luck testing, can't wait to hear your results.
Dean

Well based on initial tests I am not very impressed. Seems this prop needs a bit more work to get it dialed in for this hull.

Planing time was drastically reduced, and the boat climbed up with no blowout at all.
Cruise was acceptable, and midrange punch was very nice. Blasted right to 5900rpm and slowly increased to 6000rpm. Took a long time to get to top speed. The added diameter did help to loosen the boat up, but it really surprised (and disappointed) me that the slip was so high.

RPM Speed Slip
3500 rpm = 52mph - 21% slip
4000 rpm = 60mph - 21% slip
4500 rpm = 68mph - 21% slip
5000 rpm = 76mph - 20% slip
5500 rpm = 83mph - 20% slip
5900 rpm = 88mph - 21% slip
6000 rpm = 90mph - 21% slip

I will run my 32 bravo tomorrow to get a better comparison, but I was getting slip numbers around 14% at 5800rpm with that when light. Cruise speed slip was up a bit compared to this prop.

This prop is by far the most consistent prop I have ever run. The slip jsut didnt change, no matter where I trimmed it. Ran about 1.5mph faster at the end of the day after burning 40+ gal of fuel, which is less of an increase than I had expected. The loss of top end is a big negative towards this prop.

Overall I am not displeased with the prop, but the results that I had expected were not there. I had assumed that the added blade area would decrease the slip across the board but that certainly was not the case. I am certain that with some more work we can get it dialed in a little better.

I'd be curious to see the side by side comparison.

Ran my old 32p Bravo 1 on Sunday. It has a lab job done to it and is fairly ugly looking, but it has served me well over the past couple seasons.

Conditions were very similar at the start of the day. Two people on board, completely full of fuel, 50# of cooler in the cabin.

Planing time was as expected, pretty quick but with a lot of blowout at 3000rpm. Hold the rpm up around 3750 and it climbs right on plane.

RPM SPEED SLIP
3500 = 53mph 22%
4000 = 60mph 23%
4500 = 71mph 19%
5000 = 79mph 20%
5500 = 88mph 19%
5700 = 93mph 17%

Now this was completely full of fuel. With a light fuel load I have pulled to 5850rpm with this prop at neutral trim, for an increase of another few mph. But this is as fair of a comparison as it gets. The slip numbers are still up there, but decrease to about 14% when light at WOT.

I still believe that a little rework of the CEP prop will yield much better slip numbers and result in a higher top speed, better plane time, and more efficient cruise speed.

thanks

can you post or pm me CE phone# thanks

Greg Hittner
(949) 701-0900

Just got off the phone with Greg, talk about some customer service, calling me back on a Sunday morning! Understandably so he wishes that I would have called him before writing this thread, but it was a weekend and I was leaving the country for a bit and I just ran out of time. It wouldnt have changed the results of the testing that I did anyway. After speaking with him he has me pretty convinced that we will get it right, and will certainly do whatever it takes to dial this in perfectly.

As with any custom job, some tuning is necessary to fully dial in a propeller. We discussed the changes that we are going to make to the prop.

Couple changes:
Add some more cup to the trailing edge to take some of the slip out.
increase the pitch about an inch to bring the loaded RPM's down to 5800

There are a few things that the prop does really well IMO, like a fantastic planing time. It will climb on plane at 3000rpm now with zero blowout, versus every bravo prop i have run requiring 3500-3800rpm with a ton of blowout to get on plane. The cruise speed is great and the running attitude of the boat is exactly what I wanted. The response to drive trim is great and the boat does loosen up at a considerably lower speed.

I dont want anyone to think that I was completely unhappy with the prop, just wasnt perfect out of the box. We will get it right and I will continue to update this thread with the results of my testing. It is going in the mail tomorrow for a quick turnaround.