I had an Opti 150, so it would be different than Mark's or Bob's Opti results. With this set up I took it out one Sunday to my old ski team's ski site. Their boat broke, needed one for the show, as well as I just wanted to see what it could pull. Between shows we pulled a 2/1 barefoot pyramid, 4 guys footing in a line, a 3/2/1 pre-fab pyramid, and a conventional line of like 5 or 6 couples. All this was off of the pylon. During the show the show director had a "bright idea" of having my boat pull the ballet line. I was told beforehand he was going to downsize it, but little to my dismay when we came to the dock to see a line of like 14 girls doing their routine. I said to the guy that was with me, "Is he nuts? This thing is not a twin rig." I'm thinking to myself ok there is 14 girls and I am going to pull this with a single 150 off the pylon (release), yeah right! We got a running start, and when the lines tightened it reared up in the air just like I thought it would. Ended up with like 8 or 9 survivors. Truthfully if it were off the transom it probably would have pulled it, put pylon- forget about it.
High 5's are good props for personal boats. They do not hold up under heavy load conditions for ski team use. In addition I hate them around the dock because of the lack of reverse. They seem to be pretty inefficient due to the little steak knife like blades but they do have a great hole shot and straight line performance which is why the barefooters really like them for training on single engine boats.
I could see that a Bravo one might have too much diameter, but the question becomes what would have the right amount and what is the right amount?
I think if you look back to the beginning of this thread there are some suggestions from the team drivers. They have tried a lot of props. jim
I'll shortly have a couple of props kicking around 1. 21" Large (not small) hub trophy plus 2. 22" Bravo One I should have an Evinrude Flo Torq hub kit here by Friday and have the trophy already. Bravo is about 10 days away. I've done a bit more searching and re-read this thread. I have access to a new Evinrude prop at a good price. I think I might be best to get a 21" prop. Still not sure what though. Cyclone is out as it is heavy, big diameter four blade; probably just like the bravo I've already bought but not yet received. I'd like a nice gear shift and I hear the heavy props clunk a fair bit. How bad is the Rebel with this? I think I might also need to get a 17" prop for big multiples. Surely though a 21" prop on a 250hp big block motor will pull 6 men out on fibreglass doubles? Does this mean I want a middle of the road, not to heavy, not too much diameter 21" prop? Then accept I need to put on different props for different extreme tasks. Show prop would be polished Bravo One. Multiple prop might be a 17" Rebel? What would be my 21" prop remembering it must be made by BRP, pull 5 men on fibreglass doubles and produce a nice wake? Any further examples or reasoning would be appreciated. Also can anybody compare how heavy a person is on show ski skis to how heavy they are on normal fibreglass doubles? Pulling 12+ girls is impressive but I don't know how to compare the weight of this to what we do given they use special skis. This forum is great. I couldn't believe my luck when I came across a site full of people that are interested in this side of waterskiing.
I don't think a 17" Rebel would be a bad low pitch prop for you, but there are others that would work better. I have a 19" Rebel on my 200 HO right now, and I believe it has a bit too much blade area, and it's definitely heavier and clunks hard when you put it in gear. Most of the show teams that use BRP use the older OMC/BRP SST props in a 15 or 17" pitch on their multiple rigs for pulling larger numbers of people. This prop also works really well on singles when you are looking to keep the bow down and pull a lot of people. Again, it's painted black, and not pretty, but it works. If you can find something similar to that, that is shiny, I think you would have yourself a winner.
Whether you can spin the 21 and pull 6 deep on two skis remains to be seen. Those motors have tremendous torque, but I have no experience with a 21 pitch. I am sure your hull is much more efficient and has more lift than a dyne, so top speed and rpms should be interesting. Just for reference - the standard, non HO 225 we had this year we pulled 6 people deep on a combination of single and 2 skis and it held about 39 while all 6 barefooted. This was with a 16 pitch standard old SST which is my favorite prop. These were smallish skiers with the biggest one being about 160 lbs. I think the Rebel may clunk more than the Cyclone based on my experience. I don't think the Cyclone is as big in diameter as the Bravo I you will be using. We like it because it provides stern lift on our twins and triples. It also performs very well on my 225HO on the 20' Open Bow Dyna-Ski. Attached pics are of the 85 20' dyne pulling 4 footers with ease, two doing one foots and it pulling 5 doubles couples.
I did not get the Cyclone until mid Sept, and all I did was pull footers. Fully trimmed down it will pull a footer at 46 with 5 people in the boat (17 pitch) and trimmed up it will pull a footer at 49.
Must Ski Edit to previous message. I assume you are talking about several different boats in your last post as the Dyna Ski didn't exist back in 85 did it? So it can't be the 85 20 foot dyne mentioned in the photos. I think I might just order a cyclone. Motor is being programmed tomorrow and I want to be on the water next week. Greg
