I sent Ronnie the Tempest Plus prop that came on my 2017 Sabre FTD DC with Yamaha 175 SHO, after dinging it on a rock while idling. The prop ran OK prior to, but after talking to Ronnie, sending it to him and getting it back, it is MUCH better than new. It’s a 24″ prop, Ronnie cleaned up the dings, and appears as though he added just a small amount of cup to the tips of the blade, plus balanced and blueprinted it. As suspected, the specs were all over the place until he did his work. He also polished the prop, but left the last 1/2″ of each blades trailing edge a satin finish. I finally got to try it out this past weekend…the Alabama River has been a mess for two months or more, so I spent a couple of day on Lake Martin. PTP is approximately 3″ (I am going to need to raise it a bit more). 30 gallons of fuel, MK Fortrex 80, dual consoles, 16 rods/reels, and a good bit of tackle. Air temps/water temps were in the mid 50’s. Hole shot is 3-4 seconds. Gets on pad quickly, at 4500-5000 rpm. At 5K rpm, I’m seeing 57-58 mph (gps). I was able to get it to 69.8 mph once, at 5900 rpm. It gets to be a real hand full above 65, so I’ve got a new learning curve with this prop. There is definitely more there…honestly, I think it can see 72 with a good driver. Water pressure stayed at 20psi +, so I feel like the motor needs to come up a 1/2 inch or so to get the rpm’s up a little and a bit better handling.
Ronnie Gilbert is a super nice guy, and he knows his stuff when it comes to setting up a Tempest Plus for a Sabre. Very happy with his work!! I’ll probably be sending him my 25″ Bravo 1 FS before summer gets here and see if he can get a touch more speed from it. I really like the Bravo 1 for hole shot and handling, but the Tempest Plus is now my “go fast” prop, once I get on top of the chine walking.
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