I'm spinning a 20 pitch Raker at 5500-5600 RPM trimmed out. Only when I'm trimmed way out in a chop I would sill 5700 5750 RPM. If I drop down to the 18 Raker, My RPM's are up around 6000....
My skiff is listed at 375lbs, but I have the carbon hatches on mine. I'm sure that drops a few pounds.
Mine is a 2012 Ankona Copperhead Tournament Series
I get blow out when jumping on plane if I open up too far.
My RPM's are way different than Ryan's. Mine have always been higher than his skiff by a few hundred RPM's.
I tried the Viper 17 and Viper 19.
The Viper 17 my skiff was burying the bow, only seeing 36 mph at 6000+ RPMs. I ran the boat with it like that once.... I then ran the Viper 19 and got 5800 RPM's but I was still burying the bow. Getting far too much stern lift. I changed over to a Raker 20 for it's Bow Lift. My hole shot has decreased but I got the best speed at 41mph. RPM's at 5500 most of the time. They say the full 60 horses are at 5800 RPM so I figured drop down to the Raker 18 to bump the RPM's a bit. The 18 was bad. Top speed was 36 and RPM's were around 6000. So I was forced to settle with the 20 Raker. Hole shot is not so good depending on the load. The hole shot with both Vipers was incredible. It was instantly on plane. Whereas the Raker's, not so much. Seems like the Viper 19 gave me the best performance numbers, I just didn't like that it stuffed the bow so much.
Soon after that, my 30 days of the Evinrude Prop Program were up. So I stayed with the 20 Raker. I may just take it to a local prop place to tweak it a bit. If not, I can always buy aftermarket and keep the Raker as a spare. Right now I have a 17 pitch aluminum as a spare.
The Raker 20 still seems to give me some stern lift.
If I back off the throttle to 5000 rpm's, I can control the bow lift much better. And by playing with the trim and the tabs I can get it back up to 37-38 mph at 5000 rpm.
The skiff handles great in turns. It hugs turns incredibly. It seems like the big props we're spinning tend to lift the stern up. It seems like a Jack Plate may counter that lift and do great.