High Five Mercury Propeller

[dimitris]

Has anyone got any experience of Mercury's High Five Propeller ?

Having an already stern heavy boat (too much weight on stern) the dealer suggested that it will give me more stern lift.

Is this accurate ?

[Dirk Diggler]

Unlikely

[stuart hedges]

I aggree....unlikely.

It may give you more acceleration getting the boat on the plane quicker, I susspect the dealer is just trying to sell you a prop as they are not far off £500.

[Jono Garton]

Ditto

I would suggest buying 10 - 20m of anchor chain and putting it in a bow locker, also can you put your fuel up front?

I had the same problem with our Avon Adventure 560 and merc 90 4 stroke + big ss frame.

I now carry 10m of anchor chain and have put all my fuel up front. Ill try and take a photo.

[Andy Cox]

Have you considered fitting a pair of fins to the anti-cavitation plate ?

I have done this before on different boats. On the whole there is an improvement in getting over the hump but results varied. It's a cheap option and if it does'nt work you can just take them off.

Andy

[Rene]

the high five propeller will not give you the lift.

I'm using one now and this didn't change.

I have got a faster acceleration. But my streering at low speed sucks. It's very difficult to get any steering whem reversing at low speed compared to my old 3 blade propeller.

But it's nice anyway. (Read not worth the money if you are not racing)

[dimitris]

Thank all for your replies.

Rene,

Do you have a lower planning speed with the high five propeller ?


Regards

Dimitris

[Andre]

I agree with Rene. For racing it is just a great prop. A few years ago I took part in the I Polish Offshore Rib Race. I had an Avon 5.4 Searider rib fitted with a 75 ELPTO Mercury. Our "secret weapon" was the the High Five prop. My driver was "Dog" Phillips a great ribster with a lot of experience. Paul Lemmer and HMS also took part. On the start the rib had one hell of an acceleration. A photo shot of the start just shows how it jumped into the air leaving the other ribs just standing. If I can get it scanned I will post it

must add we came second overall against larger ribs with engines of a greater HP.

can't comment on the lower planning speed

Andre

[Rene]

I'm not really sure, if I have a lower planning speed unloaded. If I do it's not something that i have been thinking about. So it's not much.

maybe 1-5 knots I'm not sure.

But I have noticed a big difference when powering up the boat with 6 divers in it. It's a lot faster to go into planning speed. Normaly I would have to move the divers up front. I don't have to do this anymore.

Rene

[dimitris]

Thank's again.

I will try the propeller the next two weeks.

The dealer also suggested to raise my engine one position up with this propeller. Currently my engine position is quite low.

Since he offered to do all these for free and to put the negine back to it's original position if I am not Happy, I'll give it a try.

So, I will try the propeller with the current engine position and with one position higher. Then I will decide if I want to buy the propeller.

I will post the results of my test as soon as posible.

Dimitris