Bluewater yachts?

Hi Steve. I'm just seeing your post now. Lol. I'm slow on checking the forums. We are in Marina Beau Chene. Is yours the Bluewater across from Friends? We would love to connect with fellow Bluewater owners in the area.
Regards,
David

You want to see the size and amount of blades on your old props and WOT rpm, consult a good propellor shop like frank and jimmy's in fort lauderdale and they will be able to easily figure out where to go from there and get you new ones.

Current props are 17" dia. 4 blade. Not sure about pitch. They've been patched at least twice before and they are warped (can see that when looking at them from the side and turning the prop). With these current props I could not achieve more than 3600 rpm at WOT. And there was some vibration when pushing over 2400 rpm.

While the boat is out the water, I measured the waterline length and beam and draft depth. The lift had a gauge which gave us the weight (31,800 lbs). Using an online calculator, it indicated 18" props with 12" pitch for a four blade prop.

I'm going to see what the boat yard's prop guy comes up with. They are evaluating it as well.

I would stick with the same diameter you had, to work the math you also need your gear reduction......you also NEED your current pitch. Then just subtract pitch.

Gear reduction is 1.9:1.

My wife and I are on our 2nd Bluewater. First was a 1992 45, now a 1998 510 (same as 5200 classic in 1999). Liking the look is always a subjective thing but I think (obviously) they are the best looking boat we see on inland waters. Correct that you don't want to take one offshore and that is why we are looking to sell it as we want to do the loop in 3-5 years and prefer a diesel boat for a liveaboard. Fantastic lake boat though and this nonsense about being hard to dock is rubbish: the engines/props are as far out to the edges of the hull as they could possibly be and this gives you great leverage. A decent captain can swing this boat around at will in any condition. Ours has a bow thruster and I've used it twice in 100's of outings. See bluewater510.com for more info. Would I buy another one? Well, I have the one I always wanted but conditions have changed but yeah, I'd buy another one. If I could find a diesel boat as clean as ours, I might buy it tomorrow

Update on our little maintenance and refit project. Clean bottom with new bottom paint, new props (4 blade, 18" dia, 17" pitch) validated after test run with clean bottom, engine service including carb rebuild and conversion to electronic ignition, and a whole bunch of other maintenance work not associated with propulsion performance including installation of new AC units, fiberglass and gel coat work, deck drain thru hulls, etc. Final results on performance is we can now make cruise speed of 15 knots at about 3400 rpm and max speed of 19 knots at wot of 4000 rpm.

As to the handling comment from HogHaven, I agree. I have no bowthruster, just the main engines and I can spin the boat on a dime with minimal issue and have no problem docking side or back in. It gets a little tricky in the wind trying to back into my slip but that's because of the relatively light weight to size ratio and high wind area of the cabin and flybridge (especially with isenglass enclosure in place on the flybridge) and my own experience factor. Overall maneuverability and handling are very responsive IMO.

I own the 1984, 47 ft flybridge sedan for the last 12 years. It has served me well, but it is time to let it go. I got old. The pluses for this boat are it's roominess, when ever we travel with a group, our boat always ends up with the gang onboard. It is fairly fuel efficient for it's size, about one mile per gal at 10 mph, and it is a very good looking boat. It always receives compliments. It would make a good lake boat with it's high bow. The hull is solid fiberglass, no core material to soften. The sides are plywood cored and I have had to do some repairing, but any boat this old will have the same issues. All in all for the money, you can't beat them. Large heads and showers, bed rooms, galley, great live aboards.

Top of the day. Have had a 1987 42' for 16 years, love it.

Do you still have your 5200, beautiful boat. (I play the lottery ever week for one!!!)

Do you happen to know if are restrictions for using the Bluewater's for commercial, specifically, from the Cert. of Doc. under Restrictions??

Yes Big John we still have it and have lowered the price some. Ready to move on to our future Great Loop boat whatever that ends up being. See the BlueWater510.Com website for the latest info. Thank you for your post