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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

New boaters are good

We've seen this all year, but the last couple of days they seem to be coming out of the woodwork:

New boaters!

New boaters are good for anyone in the marine business. They're smitten with their first boating love and they're eager to have a good time. They're spending money and ready to be educated.

In the propeller business, that means lots of educating. The main thing we need to tell newbies is that there isn't some big giant magic book that tells what prop should be on each individual boat. Using charts and good ol' fashioned experience we can suggest a place to start, but in most cases there's already a prop on the boat. Knowing how that prop runs--especially max rpm at full throttle--we can determine whether the current prop is right, or if a change is necessary.

Propeller damage is another thing. Bottom line is that any damage will compromise performance, especially fuel economy. Best to handle minor damage before it gets too bad. And best to get a decent prop fixed at a certified propeller repair shop. Many boaters don't know that a repaired prop (especially from our shop :-) is as good or better than new.

So I'll try to be patient, as I teach Propeller 101 for the millionth time. But I need boaters to have good information about their boats--and some disposable income.

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