After a little better than a year of having my rig, I just purchased a new prop because the original two blade "tulip" has just about worn down to nothing! It currently measures just under 11.75" in diameter and is knife edged all around with no cup left whatsoever.

When the motor/prop were new, motor would turn in the 3950'ish RPM area and I had decent speeds for a stock motor and large (heavy) boat. I could maintain 25 mph in deep water with no issues. But, the boat was very sluggish getting on a step in the deep water. As this past year has passed and the prop has worn, I have seen my RPM's increase and speed maintain the same. But, the hole shot in deep water was getting worse and worse. I finally started bumping the 4350 rev limiter and started seeing 24 mph as my max speed. Time for a new prop!

I spoke with G1en Hopkins at Hopkins Propeller and described pretty much what I just typed above. I described my boat and let him know it was a totally stock motor. He suggested over the phone his 12 x 12 Cleaver. I talked to Peck at Prodrive about the Cleaver and he gave me a bit of fair warning about making sure the prop hub had a good, smooth finish and that the prop bushing fit good. When I received the prop, I "thought" the machining job was okay. That was until I pulled the old Tulip off the motor and saw what the hub was supposed to look like! I stared at both props for about two weeks debating on what to do. I finally just let Prodrive drop it in their lathe and turn it down and true it up. They re-balanced it and gave me a new bushing which fit like a glove!

I finally got to put it in the water today and ran it. The riding conditions were nowhere near ideal. The wind was blowing 15 to 17 mph according to the closest weather station to me. Really good chop on the water. I was riding the long canal off Bayou Bienvenue which parallels the MRGO, east of Chalmette. If you know the area, you know there is not much to break the wind. The boat actually felt like it rode better/faster against the wind than with the wind. But, the speeds told roughly a 1 mph difference in favor of with the wind. I made several long runs with the wind and against the wind just watching my GPS. I was pleased with what I saw and I feel that what I saw just riding around was better than what the GPS screen shots below represent. I was running steady upper 25's/lower 26's against the wind and upper 26 mph/lower 27 pretty consistently with the wind. I even saw a 27.9 bounce across the screen once. This was turning 4250'ish RPM's.

I then set up an "against the wind" track for six minutes. Paused it, captured the screen shot and reset it. Then, started another "with the wind" track back in the same water/same path for six minutes. As I was riding with the wind and getting near the end of the six minutes, I did notice my RPM's were in the 4130'ish range. So, I don't know where the RPM's dropped from the previous riding around....I guess the trim may have bled down a little and I just didn't realize it?

But, here are screen shots from the tracks.
Against the wind:
Against the Wind.jpg

With the Wind:
With the Wind.jpg

I could definitely tell a marked improvement in the hole shot compared to the tulip when it was new. The tulip took forever to get the heavy rig on a step. The Cleaver definitely has improved that situation. I probably gained about 1 to 1.5 mph with the Cleaver and no load (other than two batteries, trolling motor, usual boat gear and about 10 to 12 gallons of fuel).

Tide was WAY too high to find any mud worth mentioning. I did stroll down one little dead end cut that was "shallow." But, it wasn't very long and had a couple sharp turns so I really couldn't judge good shallow speeds. But, at the end of the cut where it was shallowest...and just a little mud, the boat did jump up pretty quick and hit 26 before I had to shut down for the first turn out.

I will try to take it out this weekend and load it a little bit to see what, if any, improvements I get. I am just guessing that the hole shot improvement I saw will equate to better load carrying ability.

I did have my GoPro....but the battery was dead. What I ended up with was two, six second videos bouncing all over the place as I was trying to hold the camera in same hand as steering wheel! It was just a little choppy!

Nice review. Post a pic of it.

Hopkins is good but he can never seem to make the same prop twice. Tip curl on the cleaver gives you hole shot but too much kills your top end and vise/versa

Sent using Morse Code from my not so smart phone.