The fishing boat propulsion system employing the modified stern shape and the tunnel to protect a propeller is developed to increase the cruise speed and reduce he problem resulting from the open propeller accidentally catching the waste net and able on the sea. Using 3 different tunnel types, the model test was performed in the circular water channel and the panel method based on the potential theory is applied to analyze the open water performance of the propeller. In the numerical analysis using he potential-based panel method, it calculates the hydrodynamic interaction between the propeller and the tunnel and evaluates the effect of the tunnel geometry. From the numerical and experimental results differing tunnel geometries, the propulsion efficiency is increased by the larger diameter of the inlet than the outlet of the tunnel and the smaller gap between the propeller tip and the tunnel internal surface. These results provide the information of the propeller system with the tunnel and the hydrodynamic interaction between the propeller and the tunnel.