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Well gents, I managed to get my hands on a Mercury Enertia prop for my new H180 at a relatively decent price. The prop I chose was the 13-3/4" X 20 pitch, based on utilizing the mercury prop selector, selecting the "good overal performance" selection from the menu system of the software.
The only prop I have to compare it to is the 14-1/4" X 19 Mercury Black Max that came with my boat when first delivered. That is now my backup/unfamiliar waters prop. I did have to change to the flat anode as well to provide the clearance for the longer ears and hub of the Enertia.
Today was my first run with this new prop, and I had a decent load on the boat. Myself, the admiral, my two sons, and my son's friend (so 2 teens and a 12 year old" as well as just over 1/2 a tank of fuel. We drove out to our local island hangout, were a large sand bar makes for a perfect in-water prop changing location as well as allowing for us to benchmark the aluminium prop on the way out and the Enertia on the way back.
So how did the Enertia perform on the first run? Decent is what I would say. Hole shot between the two was about comparable. I currently have the PVS holes plugged in the Enertia, so I will try playing with the vents to see what happens there. It was certainly no worse than the aluminium, and did not struggle with 5 people in the boat.
Top speed was about 1 mph faster, but rpms are down from about 5000 rpm (overspeed ) to 4800 rpm (top of therom range for the 3.0.
What I was most happy about was cruise speed. I have gained about 3mph at 3400 rpm (from about 26mph to 29mph). The prop also seems to be smoother running and more resistant to blowout in the turns as well.
All in all, I am pretty pleased. Although the results are not earth shattering the results were a step in the right direction. I hope to get out tomorrow by myself to see how the boat performs with a light load.
_________________ 2009 H180 w/3.0 Merc Homebuilt Minimax Hydro 2011 Zodiac Cadet 310  
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