When he took my current slip #'s, speed and drive height, he said the five blade will not be worth the extra expense. The five was designed for a semi surfacing situation. I don't think that's the case on our boats.
Get this. You can't compare same pitch with 4 to 5 blade. So If you best cruise at 3500 with a 28 five blade is say 55mph then you would buy a 29 or 30 four blade and have same cruise numbers. And for top speed the four blade should be 1 to 2 mph faster than a five. It made sense to me after I thought about it.
If you ran a extreemly high X dimmension, the five blade would begin to narrow the numbers slightly.

Here is a sample. Too much mass/drag for the engine to overcome with a deep drive. Maybe it wasn't the perfect prop for his boat?

Pat, I think a nosecone is worthless untill you are in the 80's. Some people are experiencing well over 5 mph in high speed applications. I just wonder how a Y2K will like it.

Strange result; both Jcap and Krackmeup had good results.
Oh-Zone is also dialing in with a 5 blade Hydro...

I guess if your slip numbers are good with the 4 blade and the boat runs nice and stable, no need to go to a 5 blade.

Every boat is different, so testing is the only way to know for sure.

I have heard the same. The newer Bravo drives are vary hydrodynamic. Many say that the sportmaster lower is slower than a stock lower until your get to speeds above 80.
My Donzi Minx had an Alpha drive, and I tested with and without the nose cone. Is was about 2mph faster with the nose cone but only when it was faired in perfectly.
That boat only had about 300HP from a 350 and ran 65-67 tops.
What does a nose cone do?
Keep the prop from cavitating? Get "cleaner" water to the prop? Just reduce drag?
If you can test it without welding it on permanently it is definitely worth the $100. If you have to weld, ???

I would not weld it on without testing. I had one epoxied on my American Offshore but not sure of the brand since I did'nt install it. It was a pointed style, not the Hydromotive.

FASTER are you going to give the nose cone a test run any time soon ???

I'm wishing, but I don't have the boat yet. We tried Teague's oil cooler and it was almost good enough. We are having one made by Orca who is the company I used for the closed cooling system. I guess for the HP I got and what I paid I have to be paitent. Not too many 800hp 598ci engines non-blown, running closed cooling out there.

You have a nice long boating season, so you have time to still enjoy your SUPER Y !!!! Good Luck !!!!

Damn, I wish you were local. There's a local guy that makes them for every motor. Two day turnaround.
I won't be happy till I hear a HUNDRED !!!!