Finding the best prop for your boat can be a challenge. One that performs best during all kinds of load conditions, sea conditions and does it all to the very best efficiency can be difficult. I recently had my labbed props reworked by BBlades and the results were impressive.

“Lab Finishing” for stainless steel wheels can improve the specific performance characteristics of standard propellers, and BBLADES has decade’s worth of prop geometry formulas to get your props just right for your boat and setup.. BBLADES normally handles the entire consultation by phone direcly with each of their customers. This is done at no additional charge. My situation was a little different, lucky for us during last February’s Miami Boat show the PowerBoat Nation booth was just across the aisle from the BBLADES booth. I was bale to lug my props to the show and have a easy and a little more personal consultation.

Before the re work the boat was a little hard to plane, acceleration was down and prop slip was 18% running at 5200 RPM. Yes sir only 79 MPH. So I lugged my props to Brett at theBBlades booth during the Miami Boat Show and he immediately knew what to do.

In short, the tips were modified and the edges reworked, They reworked each blade to match and then sent them back in their custom BBLADES packaging.

After this rework: Boat planes off very well, mid range acceleration is back and top end improved a little now running 83 at 5200 for 15% prop slip.

Most impressive to me was the 4000 rpm cruise. The CIGARETTE is running 65 MPH and seems to handle so much better at this speed. Before I would have to run 4300-4500 to get 65 MPH.

There is a potentially a better prop for my application. It has 5 Blades and is available but, I need to save some nickels. When that purchase is made I will let you know what the results are. The biggest takeaway from this deal is just because your props are already labbed they may not be what you need and a little rework can really make a difference.

BACK TO SCHOOL SALE AT BBLADES

On Sunday September 7 about 300 people gathered at a beautiful setting in Bristol, Rhode Island to remember Mike and celebrate who he was and what he meant to all of us.

Mike was without question an innovator who saw things coming way before anyone else. Strongly emotional about his passion to build the very best boats in the world.

Many of his close friends and fiercely loyal owners shared their stories about Mike that revealed how much he meant so much to so many and how he affected all of our lives in one way or another. It was mentioned repeated how Mike was responsible for so many of us knowing each other. Mike was the hub and founder of the many wonderful relationships and friendships and his memory will live long and forever because of who he was and what he accomplished within his time with us.

Another memorial will be held on the west coast on Saturday, September 20 in Fresno, Calif. The memorial is scheduled to begin at 1100 at the Wedgewood Banquet Center at 4584 W. Jacquelyn Avenue. The contact phone number for the venue is (866) 966-3009.

The Outerlimits family is requesting photos of Mike be sent to fiorememorial@whipplesuperchargers.com

From the Outerlimits Facebook Page:

“To celebrate and commemorate the amazing life and times of Outerlimits founder Mike Fiore, we are reaching out to those of you who knew and loved him. We are looking for images and videos of Mike—rather than the boats he built—who was taken from us all much too soon. We hope to incorporate these videos and images into Celebration of Life Services for Mike in California. Please send your videos and images to: fiorememorial@whipplesuperchargers.com.”

I felt so very privileged to be able to attend this memorial.

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One of the things we have been working on behind the scenes is the new details and development coming from SKATER POWERBOATS. Some great news that we at PowerBoatNation have been holding back was recently debuted to the public at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.

A cool new feature on Dave Valentines brand new F-22 Raptor themed, 426 SKATER is the integrated flush gauges. This idea has been a project in the brain trust of the new owner and SKATER Powerboats for some time and through a resourceful collaboration of efforts with the guys at HARDIN MARINE the vision has become a reality and a huge success.

Not one SKATER is the same as another and this custom approach can be taken to any level. The idea was really spawned by the new boat owner as he designed the gauge faces for use in the new instruments. SKATER took over from there and relied on he talents and machining capabilities of HARDIN MARINE to provide the unique lenses that could be integrated into the dash.

The style and art of this new gauge set up is sure to bring out new and interesting configurations well beyond drilling a hole and placing a manufactured gauge within.

This finished part is so cool that it provides a finish rarely seen beyond what you would find in the high end automotive market and is a small step toward what the future of what can be done within the powerboat world.

Congratulations guys! A stunning boats with some industry leading features.

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Carey Downs and Jeremie Floyd were killed in a boating accident last Friday Night. Carey was the always happy and so very well liked charismatic personality at Pier 57 in Counce, Tennessee. Jeremie was the husband of Marsha Floyd, who is always regarded as the back bone and foundation of the original Pier 57 owned by David Woods.

The details of this tragedy are not known other than they were in a bass boat suffered and suffered an allision with barge on the Tennessee River.

Carey was a friend and always a strong supporter and advocate of the Performance Boat School as well as Powerboat Nation. At events and boat shows the first sight of Carey was always with his great smile and genuine greeting. In my mind Carey will always be remembered as one of the truly good guys in this industry.

The entire team at PowerBoatNation extends our heartfelt condolences to the Floyd and Downs Families and mourns the loss of these two remarkable men.

The Emerald Coast Poker Run was again a great time. Our boating friends came in from all over to enjoy Boat Week. PowerBoatNation was on hand to have fun and bring back as much as we could to give all of you who couldn’t make the run a little slice of the excitement. The Florida Powerboat Club again played a significant role in making this event so good for everyone.

The event raised at least $150,000.00 for the Emerald Coast Foundation and the generosity of the people of powerboating was again over the top.

Enjoy the video and look to PowerBoatNation to continue to bring you the real life of Performance Powerboating!

If you weren’t amazed and astounded by the workmanship and level of machine work that the Goodwin Competition crew puts into the design of their behemoth 2000HP aluminum engine blocks then you might need to quickly get to a hospital its possible that you have no pulse? Recently we looked deep into the foundation of just what goes into the construction of the engine block of the Goodwin Competition engines.
We’re now we’re moving up the food chain to see the real “secret weapon” of the package: The semi-hemispherical combustion chambered cylinder heads that allow what seems like a tornado’s worth of air to move through the engine.

First you need to know that Goodwin’s facility is one of the most sophisticated technical centers in the country, so it’s no wonder they have the ability to do CNC machining of cylinder heads, 5 axis CNC porting, and custom profiling.

These engines cylinder heads start out as the highest quality 6061T6 billet aluminum ingots (Chunks) that enter their facility at 151 lbs and for a mere 76 hours on each they are precision sculpted down to a mere 59.4lbs. The combustion chambers are designed to accept massive 2.600″ (YES, nearly 3″ !) intake valves and 1.940″ exhaust valves. The unique combustion chamber design provides what Todd Goodwin explains to be unparalleled valve train dynamics, combustion efficiency, and fuel distribution and atomization.

So of course the physical numbers are staggering in size I couldn’t help but ask what the flow numbers of the cylinder heads were? I got nothing but a grin from Todd as he pointed out that was proprietary info but he would elude that its 15% better than any cylinder head they have ever seen.