Cavitation, (which is often confused with ventilation), is a phenomena of water
vaporizing or “boiling” due to the extreme reduction of pressure on the back of
the propeller blade. Many propellers partially cavitate during normal operation,
but excessive cavitation can result in physical damage to the propeller’s blade
surface due to the collapse of microscopic bubbles on the blade.
There may be numerous causes of cavitation such as incorrect matching of propeller
style to application, incorrect pitch, physical damage to the blade edges, etc...
Be advised disturbances in the water flow forward of the propeller can result in
blade damage which appears to be blade cavitation, but is actually due to non-favorable
water flow into the propeller.