Re: Hydrafoil
to say I wasted $50 on the stingray hydrafoil would be a little harsh but if there was a way I could get any money back on it I would. I bought it for a 2002 bayliner 19' with a 3L merc alpha. This one in particular, the way it's shaped, has a few affects. It will get the boat on plane quicker, keep the boat on plane at slower speeds & rpms, and allow the boat to plane with more weight further aft. In that respect, it's great. But on my boat, or so I was told by stingray customer service, is the outdrive sits lower in the water compared to other boats. So the hydrafoil rides deeper, causing more drag, and severely limiting top speed. The boat normally did 41mph at 4800 rpm, the hydrafoil dropped it down to around 35 mph at ~4500 rpm with a huge wash. The solution according to stingray was shim the hydrafoil to it sits 1/4" above the cavitiation plate. I can see this working, but it'll put huge amounts of stress via 4 1/4" bolts to the cavitation plate and I don't feel like breaking the drive. The worst thing about the hydrafoil is the side to side distance it has, it'll act as a lever on the drive cav plate and is probably the main reason these things break the cav plate. And this is also the reason it gets harder to turn the boat with a hydrafoil. There are other brand hydrafoils which mount to the drive and just extend the cav plate rearward, they don't add anything sideways. These I think would be the way to go as long as they're not too long, and you don't have a setup like mine where it sits low to begin with.
