18' Sea Craft Prop
 

My friend has a 18' Sea Craft which he has just redone. He is an avid tube and worm striper fisherman. He is thinking of putting on a 90 or 115hp Yammie or Suzuki on the boat. He wants to know if there is a prop that will produce 1-1.5kts at slowest idle speed. He knows that the 90 has 13" props and isnt worried about the boat being underpowered, he is more concerned with getting that slow 1-1.5kt tube and worm speed. Any thought would be greatly appreciated.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

He should buy the motor of his choice.
Then buy a "Sea Brake" or a "Sea Drogue"
The drogue will work fine on a smaller boat.
These devices are used to slow a boat down amongst
other uses as well.

Sea Anchor
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...boatbrakes.jpg

Sea Drogue
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y273/krn54/drogue.gif

See ya, Ken

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

Ken's right. I use a sea-anchor occasionally to deep-troll eels. Gets me down to about 2 mph.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

C'mon guys, I know u can use a sea anchor, but this guy waned to know if any of you with this boat had used a certain prop to get slow speed. I have a 25' inboard Sea Vee
where the only way I might be able to slow down enough is to use a sea achor like u say. I have not tried it yet. My boat wond go any slower that 3-4 kts in gear.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

What about those "variable pitch" props??? That change pitch while underway at different rpms and mph. Do they still make those?? Hadn't seen any lately. Maybe it was a fluke.

I thought they went from 12 to 23 pitch or something like that.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

propgods.com

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

If he hasn't yet re-powered, your friend may want to consider a DFI 2 stroke like the E-tec 90hp or even 75hp. My understanding is that they can idle very low, like as low as 400-500 rpm, and they sip less than .5 gph at those rpm. I'm not sure how it is done, perhaps auto gear reduction... I know Fr. Frank has a 90 Optimax but I don't know if they use a similar idle gearing/sparking or not. The caveat I've read is that they spark much more often at that rpm and thus you wear through spark plugs faster... less pitch and less blade area may also help...

For such specialized trolling he should probably consider a kicker or trolling motor... I usually can't even drift that slow...

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

I would prop the boat for best speed and economy and put a Happy Troller on it. I had one on a 20' SC that I live bait fished with. The only real drawback to it was it knocked a MPH or two off the speed and I forgot to raise it once and tore it up. It worked great.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

I saw a freshater boat today with that "happy troller" thing. I wonderedif they made a larger vbeefed up version
for a 90 or 115. That seems to me to be the best option. When not striper season, just take it off. Thanks for all your help.

Re: 18' Sea Craft Prop
 

http://www.cabelas.com/p-0000918010961a.shtml

Small - Fits outboard motors through 50 hp
Large - Fits I/O's plus all outboards 50 hp and larger