I have a 15'6" Smokercraft aluminum V that I got a deal on last winter. Found a complete Mariner 30E with controls for $600, runs great after a little bit of work.
I did a little measuring and found that my prop has around a 11.25" pitch. Using one of these online calculators, factoring in my RPM's and and all that, it calculates pretty much exactly what my highest speed was during use this last season, around 26mph.
Whats funny is that a friend of mine let me use his 9.9 on this boat before I bought my motor, and it would push this boat to 16mph, with me and my tackle. The only thing that changed with the big motor is a console and controls, adding maybe 20 pounds besides the weight of the motor itself. It seems to me that a 30hp motor should push this faster, but I'm now seeing that it is probably the pitch of my prop that won't allow it to run any faster.
I've found that a 12 or 13 pitch is available for this motor. It really doesn't have any trouble getting on plane when I have the motor about the middle of the trim angle available. I do not have a hydraulic trim though, so I can't adjust on the fly.
Should I avoid such a steep pitch, in fear of losing a lot of low end torque? Or would a boat such as this not really have that problem?
