20H prop

[rumleyfips]

When I bought a Bunky square nose to run ASH in 1979 I went around to see all the alky drivers in Ogdensburg NY ( Phil Lord , LaRoses, John Hammond etc ) looking for superannuated A and B alky hydro 1-1 props. I got a few at $25@ , ran one just as I got it in ASH ( 18+ transom height) and repitched a 6x9 Record wheel to be my best ASR wheel.

Gord McCready told me, around 1966, that a good wheel was a good wheel everywhere. Guess he was right.

John

[Graham]

A KC-3 brass/bronze prop ran fast jacked high on my 1957 Swift Big B Hydro and 20H with 1:1 gears. That same prop set a 5 mile competition record in CU at the 1957 Worcester, MA Nationals.

Sincerely,
Don Graham

[bill van steenwyk]

When I bought a Bunky square nose to run ASH in 1979 I went around to see all the alky drivers in Ogdensburg NY ( Phil Lord , LaRoses, John Hammond etc ) looking for superannuated A and B alky hydro 1-1 props. I got a few at $25@ , ran one just as I got it in ASH ( 18+ transom height) and repitched a 6x9 Record wheel to be my best ASR wheel.

Gord McCready told me, around 1966, that a good wheel was a good wheel everywhere. Guess he was right.

John

The comment about a "good wheel being a good wheel everywhere" seems to hold true in the PRO category also.

Butch Levendusky and I purchased a couple of Wiatrowski props from him in the early 80's (props actually made by a person who worked for Mercury who calls himself the "Prop Doctor" and is located in Texas now) and they were very similar in blade shape, pitch, and only differed in diameter and slight increase in blade area on the leading edge of the one Butch purchased which was for "C" PRO Runabout with a Konig engine.

During the time he and I owned these props, they were run very successfully on or in the following classes of racing.

C PRO Runabout & Hydro
B PRO Runabout and Hydro
RB Hydro and Runabout
D & E Mod Runabout and Hydro
Stock Model 80 Hydro in Novice class..........

and probably would have been good in others that we never had an opportunity to try them on.

As is evident, there is much HP, boat & motor type, speed, and gear ratio disparity between these classes, but WITHOUT fail, both props and later copies ran very well and won National Championships, and set many competition records. The copies made at a later time took several "tweakings" to match the performance of the originals, even though the maker had the original records and dimensions, but not the original props as they had been damaged or lost.


The same was true with several other props I had from Bill Seebold Sr. and Floyd Hopkins, and I know the same thing exists with props from Craig Dewald and others, although I have no personal experience with his (Craig's) as all the props for Tim Brinkmans accomplishments in 125CC Hydro were purchased by his father, Todd, even though we owned the equipment jointly.

What I took from all this information was if you have a good or great prop, it will run on almost anything depending on gear ratio, so take good care of it, always tighten the prop nut, and if you lose it, have patterns made or duplicates as close as possible before that happens, as they are VERY hard to come by, and almost impossible to gain back that "magic" if lost or damaged, and almost impossible to duplicate even by the best prop maker especially if other than the original builder. Moreover, the job is almost impossible if the prop is lost, even if you go back to the original maker, and he does not have the original to work off but only his records of what was sold to you.

In short, guard it like your daughter's pre-marriage virginity. It may even be MORE important if you want to accomplish great things in the sport.