I agree, here is a better picture of my install. I didn't measure the gap, but it hopefully allows for adequate flow through the cutlass bearing.
That will be perfectly fine! Anything over an 1/8" is perfectly acceptable. I ran hard for 12 years on my last boat (30 rampage) with about 1/8" of space, cutlass bearings still going strong when I sold it. I replaced one when I bent a shaft, but only because it was already out...
P/N SS600
$825.25 each
I need 2. Total cost $1650.50 + tax
Plus cost of s hualout or diver
https://ab-marine.com/shaft-shark/
YIKES!! Wow, they went way up in price!
One example, this pic from Vinalhaven Maine
YOUZA!!! Or should I say, YIKES!!
Are the "lobster" pots using floating line. some of the stories here suggest this. Some of you make it sound normal and expected to come across a line to tangle into.
I think in some instances, yes. But that's not always the problem. Sometimes there is a floating trailer line with a float used to easily hook the line to pull the pot. Think two floats with a 10' line between them. You run it over, your going to tangle something... In my case, they are crab pots. BUT, more time than not for me, it has been heavy fishing line (400 lb mono), or just a floating piece of line in the water. You UN-knowingly run it over and it wraps around your shaft and/or prop. It can tangle and slice into your cutlass bearing(fishing line does this), or just wreak havoc on your prop(s). You will feel a vibration like you dinged a prop, only to find a line wrapped around it... Last summer 80 miles offshore I felt a vibration, my buddy said he would go for a swim. When he came up he had a puzzled look on his face. He said their was a 4' piece of 1/2 line trailing the prop, and it had a 12" eye (loop) on the end of it, which was around one of the blades of my 4 bladed prop. How it got on there like that we will never know! That was the first time in 12 years the shark shaft did not cut whatever I hooked onto.
BTW, is there any reason the prop cannot have a knife edge near the hub?
I don't know hydro-dynamically, but I'm guessing it won't really help most of the time. The line comes from forward of the prop most of the time (unless your in reverse backing down on a fish I guess?), and usually wraps around the shaft and strut before hitting the shaft cutters and prop. I have pulled my boat out in fall, and found small remnants of line still on the shaft more than once over the years. So the shark cut it off, but some was left on shaft ahead of it...