With props it is really on a boat by boat prop to prop basis. My boat had a three bladed prop of unknown manufacture that got torn up by the previous owner who had no problems with it. I bought another 3 bladed prop of the same size and had cavitation problems especially in turns. Then I bought a four bladed prop and dropped from a 15 pitch to a 13. No cavation proplems, max rpm's and a little faster than with the previous owners 3 bladed prop before it got torn up. I believe that you get a little better push with them, and a little more blade in the water at all times. On my boat it also handles better at docking/idle speeds.
Some tooners and people who run big work boats like them because they're good for pushing heavy loads. I don't think you'd realize much if any performance gain because your barge isn't that big or heavy.
I switched from, a 3 blade to a 4 blade. If you pull a tube or skier it helps a lot with getting out of the hole. If you don't, you're not going to notice much difference, and I wouldn't waste the money.
