Posts: 3504
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
In doing a bit of research on the 97 tournament pro, it comes in at a weight of 990 pounds....just a tad above of my alumacraft Navigator 165 which is 960. Given there is a solid chance you have an on-board gas tank of roughly 20 gallons or so (I could not find this info..., but threw out a number just to have something to work with) and 3 people in the boat and 200 pounds of gear (like a bow mount motor and batteries), I figured the motor to be pushing pretty hard. so...I threw out the recommendation of 17 pitch to maybe a 15 pitch depending on load.
Now...one thing I didn't do was look at the gear ratio of your motor....which is 2.33:1. So...you can get away with a little more pitch since most midrange 4 stroke engines have a 2.0:1 gear ratio. With that in mind, I would say the 17 is pretty close for your rig. I think if you went 19, it would really be pushing hard to get out of the water if you have any kind of load in it.
When choosing your prop, there will always be a compromise of some sort. Go for speed, and you lose hole shot. Go for holeshot and more than likely you lose a little top-end speed. The biggest thing to consider is how you will load the boat and how many people you will have with you at any given time. The best thing you can do is load the boat as you normally would, and go test it and see how it performs... If it is a dog...go lower in pitch. If it pops up really quick and over-revs at full throttle, go up in pitch. This is a bit of tongue-in-cheek here, assuming you are looking to stay with a stock aluminum prop. If you start looking at aftermarket products, a huge array of options are there due to prop design, blade thickness, vent holes, cupping, etc... many more variables to play around with, but a bunch of fun if you enjoy tinkering and have the extra cash to spend on different brands and styles of props. Some people will find a demo program through a dealer to test various styles of props, then purchase from there.
Without actually running the boat, though, it will be hard to dial in a good prop, but I would say 17 pitch is a good starting point. I also like the fact you are going to take the prop to a shop to figure it out. They will be able to lay it on a template and get the pitch for you... My gut says 17...
I did not take into account the boat being that much lighter when I considered my first statement, so you were right on. For that I thank you for responding...
Good luck and enjoy!!
Edited by VMS 4/21/2011 1:53 PM
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