Sharrow Toroidal Propeller

[Mtea]

I happened upon this new propeller (toroidal design) from Sharrow marine that might be interesting to the waterskiing community.  Data from Boattest seems to say it has a better hole shot, improves performance a ton in the mid-range RPMs (boat goes faster, planes sooner using less fuel at lower RPM), is quieter, less captivation, better control in reverse. They are very expensive, but they recently signed a production agreement with Yamaha to increase production (and hopefully bring down cost).  I found several videos on youtube and some boating forums discussing the prop.

It seems like these attributes might be beneficial to further calming the wake behind a ski boat.  The test videos I saw were all on outboards, no I/Os or direct drives.  Any chatter out there about them?  I have nothing to do with the company whatsoever.

https://www.sharrowmarine.com/

[Horton]

Yea I get all the press releases from these guys. Have you seen the price per prop?

https://www.sharrowmarine.com/store/mx

[Andre]

5k ???  That'a lot of 5 gals cans...

[Mtea]

I would think the $5k price would come down as they ramp up production with Yamaha who is going to offer them on their own outboard motors according to the press release.  It would be interesting if someone could negotiate a propeller test on a tow boat to see what happens.  How much would you pay for significantly better performance or a better wake if that turns out to be the case?

[skibrain]

Interesting, but the thru-hub exhaust design is irrelevant to the inboard tow boat market. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by skibrain

[ski6jones]

@skibrain looks like only available for outboard at this point.  Would be cool to test though.

Just add that $5k to the cost of an already ridiculous boat price.

Next up, auto driving!

How high can boat prices actually go before nobody can afford them?  Asking for a friend.  Already there for me.

[JayG80]

I saw a boat on a trailer this week that had that prop fitted on 4 Yamaha 300 hp outboards.

[aupatking]

Had a pretty long discussion about these last January.

 

[aupatking]

May make sense for my fishing boat but really can’t see a whole lot of advantage at the current price for our inboards. Just the thought of adding $10,000 to the $60k repower I need to do on my fishing boat makes me dizzy

[6balls]

It will sell for the big offshore multi-outboard set.  Boats costing millions, what's $5k in a prop?

[Drago]

I would say this is a solution to a non-problem in 3 event

[Horton]

Sharrow and MIT have both been working on toroidal propellers which have shown incredible results.

 

[JackQ]

Good luck with getting toroidal reworked after you ding it.  If it can be done, I doubt it will be cheap.  Someone should do the math, how much gas would you save to cover the cost of the prop and the occasional subsequent rework? I hazard I am not completely atypical and seem to go 2-3 years before my prop gets  dinged by an unknown object or being stupid and hit the left when to far forward and not paying attention.