Does a new propellor affect fuel economy?

I have a fairly heavily weighted 2001 SAN, and the original prop has a small chip in it. There is no vibration yet, but it is something I want to get fixed before it becomes a problem. If it can't be fixed, my brother and I are going to buy a new prop. We are thinking now of simply getting the same pitch prop, since it has no problem getting us out of the hole, but I would be willing to reconsider if a different pitched prop not only got us out of hole the same speed, but also saved us gas. If the trade off is a faster hole shot at the cost of higher running speeds through the day and more gas consumption though, we're definitely sticking with the same pitch.

What prop do you currently have? I know on my old boat I switched from an '03 OJ to a new ACME and everything improved, better holeshot, better fuel economy, better topspeed, lower RPMs, everything! I know that isn't suppose to happen but it did!

using my boat as an example, after switching from a 19 pitch to a 17 pitch, got a better hole shot but noticed an increase in gas consumption. neither were huge, but both were noticable.

Call ACME propeller and give them your info. They can run some numbers and tell you what to expect.

I still have the stock 17 pitch that came with our boat. What one did you have Bocephus?