More damage to my PROP and Stern

[pferreira]

Hello everyone!

It’s been a crazy week for me… my dog has been diagnosed with lymphoma cancer last week. And now...
Took the boat out on Tuesday and while cruising at 30+ feet of water I hit something submerged like an unmarked rock or something and ruined my prop and broke a good chunk off my skegg…
Today I found a nice Mercury Protester SS prop and got it for $100 it fits nice but it hits the trim ZINC!
I had a 19 prop before and this one is a 20.
Is it ok to cut the ZINC or is there a smaller one I can buy?
What changes should I expect from a 20 vs the 19?
Thank you for your help!

 

[midway]

You can buy a zinc with and offset tab or a zinc without a tab. My 04 came with out a tab on the zinc.

 

[Mr Salt]

While not an expert. I would expect that you will find several things with larger prop. The boat will not accelerate as fast due to the greater strain on the engine. The engine may not get up to full revs , again because it is turning a large screw. On the other hand the large screww should require fewer engine revs to go at the same speed. Also I would suggest that the first few times that you use it, look and see if it is cavatating, probably not but it would be worth the check.

 

[berth control]

I sanded an old zinc one time on a boat with a similar issue. It worked fine, but I'm not sure if it's the "right" thing to do. The zinc provides corrosion protection and if you have the tab it also helps with the boat's steering and tracking. If you have power steering it won't make a big difference, if not you will really feel the difference if you take a lot of it away. The corrosion protection really doesn't matter if you trailer your boat to fresh water. If you keep it in a salt water slip, then it matters a lot.

About the steeper prop - you can expect to see a slower takeoff due to the steeper pitch and the heavier stainless prop. You will prob. see a small gain in top speed depending on how the old prop ran. If you were slightly over propped before, you will see a pretty big decrease in performance, if you were slightly under propped before you will see a moderate increase in performance.

 

[KayKook]

I would go back to a 19 inch. That is if the boat performed as expected, and WOT was within specs.

 

[johngus]

they make a zinc for stainless prop.it has an offset

 

[pferreira]

Hi guys! Thank you for all the responses... Got it al setup, now all I need is a nice day to take the boat out and test it!
Looks like it's going to rain all weekend!