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I have a 1995 296 which came back from a service without the thru-hull fitting on the bow which I believe is to drain the anchor locker. I didn't notice this for some time so it wasn't in the cards to get it back from the servicing center. What fitting size is this and does it need to be bedded with sealing compound? Any comments about what to use and installing would be appreciated.

I have a 1995 296 that I ordered from the factory with twin 5.8 liter fuel injected engines with 290 duoprops. My props are the original aluminum delivered with the boat. I've had all of these straighened twice and just noticed that one blade is dinged a bit. I've thought about upgrading to stainless but this will cost about $2600 (which would buy a lot of gas this summer). I've heard pros & cons about upgrading and was just looking at the Volvo prop guide which shows that I can use the C4, C5 & C6 sets. My boat has hit 52 mph on the water pickup speedometer before getting bottom painted so if I upgraded, would I want to use C6 props? Haven't been able to find any documentation so far that talks about the difference between these prop sets -- only the speed chart showing the mph range. So I guess I have 2 questions: (1) Do the benefits of running stainless props outweight the cons & cost, and (2) if I did upgraded, which stainless prop set should I get? Thanks in advance for any replies.