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Hi all, below is a copy/paste of an email written by Mr Smelly's brother-in-law wherein he describes his experience of an Axiom. It's pasted exactly as written. There’s been a lot written/said about Axiom propellers, much of it from people who have never owned or used one so now that I’ve gone from standard turbine to Axiom and finally (?) to a Crowther, I’ve put these notes together for my ugly brother in law to post. Use them as a decision making aide or just to pull to pieces, I care not. All I will say is that if you haven’t used/experienced the Axiom propeller, your views are at best hearsay and at worst complete and utter bullocks (or something very similar). ;-) I have a 66’ boat with an old 3 cylinder air-cooled Lister driving it and I don’t like over-revving the engine but do like to move at a reasonable speed rather than dawdle. That said, I consider a reasonable cruising speed to be around 3 mph with the top end of 4mph reserved for when speed is of the essence. The boat draws around 31 inches at the double depth skeg when stationary (about 27” on the chine at the start of the rear swim) and when I bought it it wore a standard turbine style 22 x 14 prop. This original prop drove the boat reasonably well but it wouldn’t stop it at all and ‘walked’ the back end severely under hard reversing so I decided to change the propeller. I did the research and read various reviews looking for a prop to improve stopping/reversing and picked Axiom. I contacted them and they recommended an 18” diameter prop with 28o of pitch – Axiom don’t do their pitches in terms of inches. This was the earlier type of Axiom prop with shorter squarer blades, I think they’ve since changed the design to longer blades (?). It did what it said on the tin in terms of improving stopping (vastly), reversing and the boat steered better at slow speeds. And whilst I was concerned at the reduction in diameter, I was happy with the purchase despite the cost. Bear in mind I could only compare the performance of the Axiom against the prop I’d taken off. Up until last year it had always been a holiday boat, we didn’t travel far, fast or much on rivers and speed/power/thrust was never seen as an issue. Last year we moved aboard permanently and in taking on a short section of river under ‘yellows’ during our travels we seemed to lack the punch required and barely made it across even using far more revs than normal, it also seemed to struggle to reach a decent cruising speed judging by the multitude of boats that catch us up especially on longer pounds. As we intend to eventually travel far and wide, we decided to change the prop again for something specifically designed for us so we spoke to Crowthers. They were very good in terms of explanations especially when I expressed my concerns regarding backward steps once they confirmed intended diameter and pitch. The Crowther manufactured ‘Lister’ style 22 x 15 prop was ordered and has now been fitted and in all honesty hasn’t improved things much although it does at least as well in all areas. The main improvement is in winding where it seems to turn the boat more easily. In general terms, it does seem to move more water or maybe it moves the water nearer the surface making it more visible? Anyway, given all the above and solely on my boat, it would seem the Axiom definitely outdid a standard turbine prop and isn’t quite as good as a properly matched/styled propeller but given the reduced diameter, it will fit under a shallower rear end. Hand on heart, I wouldn’t recommend it for a slow revving engine as I still think it’s not fully right for a ‘thumper’ but that’s just my opinion based on my experiences, the final choice would lie with the purchaser. Lastly, I really do need to re-trim my boat fore and aft which may alter current performance entirely and may have been the reason the Axiom has ‘underperformed’ since we move aboard with the increased weight etc. – who knows? But if it does make a vast difference I’ll let my ugly brother in law know.