Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

[sunbird 18]

I have a 20' center console with a 225 outboard on it. I had a 150 with a hydrofoil and this new 225 did not. With the new engine, the bow would rise REALLY high getting on a plane and off plane. SLowing down would swamp the heck out of the transom. Going over waves and chop, the bow flops around. With the 150 with foils on it, it didnt do any of this. I purchased the stingray XPII. Installed it. Night and day difference. No bow rise, at all, almost no angle change at all. No swamping the transom when coming off plane, much slower planing speed, trimming the engine up/down has a huge effect, from plowing like mad to pulling the bow way up. Top speed was not compromised, still at 56mph. Huge difference in cutting through chop and wake. The bow stays straight through it all! There has been absolutely no ill effect from installing this hydrofoil other than a 2 degree list to the left when punching it out of the hole. THe list disappears if not using WOT when coming out of the hole or once you are on plane it goes away. It is a very slight list, barely noticeable. Planing speed is so much lower and holeshot draft has ben much reduced. Everyone is always bashing HFs. The HF on my boat works awesome. I am an extremely avid boater who drives/evaluates outboard engines for a living.

The HF did not help my chinewalking/death wobble above 56mph. DIdnt make it worse either.

+1 to the stingray XPII

 

[Splat]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Well isn't that special.....

Its obvious you have a agenda. No one in your other thread did or said anything that wasn't out of concern for your safety. That's all. You like hydrofoils, good. General concensus around here is they are unsafe on large engines, and place undue stress on the leg. They have their place however.

So come on, be a man and come clean, what's your beef? Is it just with Nauticus or all TT manufactures?

Glad your boat performs better.

Bill

 

[IVAZ]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

The foil does do some of the things you claim. Did you GPS your speed?
Turning with one on with my i/o was downright scary. Its current home is the local landfill.

 

[rrhodes]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

If you ever take a wake from the side you will see why I won't use them again.

 

[bhammer]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

??Another?? You and who else?

Glad you have good results. As other's have said, for a very few folks, they do what they say. IMO, I don't think you made the right choice. I would have sent you my old one just to keep it out of the land fill. I did lots of tests before and after. Even was criticized here for going overboard for the many tests I did.

 

[NSBCraig]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Another $40 and you probably would be a lot happier.

 

[drewmitch44]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Those things are JUNK!!! You are paying to tear up your motor and especially the lower leg, and putting un-needed stress on your transom. I think you should have went with tabs. and i find it hard to believe that if you got your bow down like you say that you did not loose any speed. What you are doing and what those things are designed to do is sacrifice speed for whatever you are trying to achieve. So if you got good results keeping the bow down then you should have lost some MPH.

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Sunbird;

To the best of my memory I did not read any of your other posts but I would like to address this one. A hydrofoil is an additional planning surface just like trim tabs. The two main differences are that the hydrofoil is stationary (does not or can not adjust in route) and the additional planning surface is located dead center on the stern.

I would have been surprised if you could get rid of the chine walking with the hydrofoil since the hydrofoil is lifting the boat from the center and not providing any outboard planning surface to improve stability.

Hydrofoils can be made to work better on boats powered by outboard motors as opposed to I/O drive because the motor can be raised so that the foil does not run at the water surface. Your results seem to be satisfactory to you and that is great.

If you ever get a chance to try trim tabs or Smart Tabs it would be interesting to here your opinion.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

I'm another one. I am very happy with my SE Sport 300 on my IO.

I have an agenda. Its just to offer my opinion, which as we all know is like an *****%&#@, everyone has one.

Someday I will try smart tabs, and will go with Nauticus because of all the satisfied customers, here and on the Stingray Website. However, right now, I have other things I would rather spend my discretionary boating money on.

Thus, I remain one of the satisfied hydrofoil customers -- who has experienced none of the things you all say are cons with the foil.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Sunbird

It's brave to post that a foil may not be "evil" on this sight. As you've seen by most of the responses, people get very passionate about how bad they think they are, and I'm sure the vast majority of them have never used one on a motor that was set up correctly, or even had an issue a foil would help with.

I don't think a foil is the best tool in the box, but if needed and used correctly, not many other things will take it's place.

 

[MikDee]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

I think hydrofoils work better on outboards, then on I/O's, they have their advantages, but trim tabs would probably be better in either case

 

[n2ostroker]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Like a couple of others mentioned the foil that was on my boat made it downright dangerous. Taking wake from the side while on plane was scary to say the least.. Smart tabs are wonderful. I'm changing to lighter actuators but so far handling is night and day difference. I can cut turns with the best of them now. Also the chine walk you speak of I had when trimming up. It's gone. All of it. Also I've have no bow rise now and planing speed is much lower. Needless to say, it's the best $100 I've spent.

 

[rrhodes]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Taking wake from the side while on plane was scary to say the least.. Smart tabs are wonderful.

That happened to me, an idiot in a go fast boat passed my 19' Cuddy and the result scared my kids so bad I had to buy a 25' pontoon to get them back on the water.

I did remove the foil and add Smart Tabs prior to selling the boat and it was night and day but the kids wanted no part of that boat after they felt like we were going to roll over.

 

[Nico2112]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

I've used Doel Fins on 4 different Boats and OBs:

20' Four Winns 207 Quest with twin Johnsons 70HP
14' Thunderbird trihull with a Johnson Javelin 85HP
13' Gregor Aluminum with an Evinrude 25HP
10' Runabout with an Evinrude 25HP

I never had a handling problem with any of them, and they all planed fast with no bowrise (which were the main purposes of having them on).
In my family we've never been speed freaks, so the MPH decrease was not a problem for us
I'm really amazed at the handling problems discussed in many threads here, we never had any (maybe because our cruise speed was always moderate and not WOT).

Anyway, I was strongly encouraged by Rrhodes and QC not to install Doel Fins on my new Yammy F75HP, and eventhough I had them ready, did not install them.

To my surprise, I had the Yamaha mechanics come over to the house a couple of days ago, to check some loose wiring they left , and they saw the Fins laying around, and WITHOUT ASKING ME, they installed them; I was really pissed. I took them off, and now I have 4 holes on my cavitation plate. I tested my boat without the fins this weekend, and this next weekend going to test it with the fins (before deciding on sealing the holes).

I really haven't had any issues with fins before, but I was really looking forward to run the boat without them. I did, and was satisfied, but I really hate having 4 holes on my cav plate

Anyway, sorry for my rant.

If fins worked just how you wanted, then I'm glad for you mate

Cheers!

 

[sunbird 18]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Well isn't that special.....

Its obvious you have a agenda. No one in your other thread did or said anything that wasn't out of concern for your safety. That's all. You like hydrofoils, good. General concensus around here is they are unsafe on large engines, and place undue stress on the leg. They have their place however.

So come on, be a man and come clean, what's your beef? Is it just with Nauticus or all TT manufactures?

Glad your boat performs better.

Bill

Haha! I have no beef, forums are supposed to be for sharing valuable insigt, feedback and knowledge based on actual personal experiences. I have had foils on 3 of my boats, and all 3 performaed great. Is that a bad thing? I had a 20' Glasstream freespirit that ran 65+ MPH with the stingray on it and it worked great. Both motors on my new (to me) boat have foils and the boat runs great. I'm just sharing my positive feedback on a product that works for my application.

The foil does do some of the things you claim. Did you GPS your speed?
Turning with one on with my i/o was downright scary. Its current home is the local landfill.

GPSd the speed. Foil is at the surface of the water at WOT and therefore has no drag or effect what-so-ever. Make sense?

If you ever take a wake from the side you will see why I won't use them again.

I am really curious as to what happens? Does it feel like the boat wants to roll over or something. My boat has an 8' beam so it is pretty stable.

Those things are JUNK!!! You are paying to tear up your motor and especially the lower leg, and putting un-needed stress on your transom. I think you should have went with tabs. and i find it hard to believe that if you got your bow down like you say that you did not loose any speed. What you are doing and what those things are designed to do is sacrifice speed for whatever you are trying to achieve. So if you got good results keeping the bow down then you should have lost some MPH.

....Junk that makes my boat ride great....
Un-needed stress on the transom? hmmmm...can you imagine the thrust required to propel a 2500# boat through the water at 56mph? Take that thrust and put it on the end of a 3 foot lever. Compare that moment (twisting action) that is placed on your transom and compare it to the small amount of stern lift that the foil creates.... insignificant. That also applies to any argument of additional forces placed on the engine/tilt/leg, etc...insignificant compared to the normal thrust of the engine. It does place more stress on the cav. plate however.
It can make the bow plow like mad, but if you use the little switch on the throttle lever called "trim", you can adjust from bow down to bow way up. This is one of the main reasons I got the hydrofoil because it is adjustable on the fly.

Sunbird;

1) The two main differences are that the hydrofoil is stationary (does not or can not adjust in route)

2) I would have been surprised if you could get rid of the chine walking with the hydrofoil since the hydrofoil is lifting the boat from the center and not providing any outboard planning surface to improve stability.

3) If you ever get a chance to try trim tabs or Smart Tabs it would be interesting to here your opinion.

1) It is adjustable on the fly and adjusts with the trim of the outboard
2) I knew this going into it. I typically dont run at WOT, so it was not a big concern. My main reason for wanting to get smart tabs was that they would give similar performance and eliminate chine walking.
3) I'd love to try them out sometime. I am really interested to compare the two on my boat. I gave some serious thought into getting them but decided against it.

Sunbird

It's brave to post that a foil may not be "evil" on this sight.

HAHA! I see that!

 

[Mark42]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Glad it worked for you. Don't you wish all of life's problems could be solved by bolting on a $20 piece of plastic?

 

[dave11]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

I just bought a SE Sport 300 with the clip so I don't have to drill holes in my cav plate. If I don't like it - no holes. I would never have any kind of tabs on this particular boat. I had never heard of problems getting hit with a side wake. I guess that will be part of the evaluation.

I am interested in being able to stay on plane at a slower speed. I am also going to try a 4 blade prop.

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Dave11;

Why would you not want to put any type of trim tabs on this boat?

In reading your post you have invested in an SE300 Hydrofoil plus the special clamping unit at about $100.00 I'm guessing, and now looking at another $200. to $300. for a four bladed prop to facilitate better acceleration.

Sounds like a lot of money to get half the job done!

Do you get your money back if you are not satisfied with the performance?

 

[Mark42]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

A general note about add on's like fins and trim tabs. Your boat wasn't designed and built to handle like crap. Porpoising, chine walking, not getting on plane, etc are not characteristics that were built into the boat. It didn't do those things when it was new, and it shouldn't now, unless something changed. Find out what is different from when the boat was new and address it. Add on's typically only mask a problem. Fixing the problem will give you better performance than masking the problem.

So if two 80 gallon live well tanks were added to the back of the boat and it just won't get on plane, you know that the extra 1120 lbs is more than the boat can handle. Remove one and things will probably get better. Adding trim tabs will get the boat on plane, but it may be dangerously overloaded and you don't realize it. This is a bit of an exagerated example, but you should get the idea. Fix all the problems, address anything that is working against the boat, and if all else fails, then get the add on.

JMHO

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Another satisfied HYDROFOIL customer!

Mark

Actually many boats do have those problems when new, for decades there was no engineering or design done on hulls, it was just what the guy who owned the shop (boat company) thought might work. These poor designs stayed in production for years with little or no changes. As availible HP increased the problems became more evident and tabs and fins got more popular. You would be amazed at how far out of true a new hull mold can be.