Removing an Attwood Hydro Stabilizer

[jeb6294]

1987 Starcraft SS201 with the 4.3/175hp had an Attwood Hydro Stabilizer on it when we got it. I wanted to take it off to see how it ran without, but I could see one of the reasons it was on there….the original owner Swiss-cheesed the cavitation plate. I already searched and the consensus is that a couple holes are okay, but what about 5 holes?!?!

 

[Alumarine]

I've been running mine with 4 holes in it for the last 5 years.
Till you brought this up I had forgotten about it.
I will leave them and forget about them again I'm sure.

 

[Scott Danforth]

If it bothers you, weld them up

 

[jeb6294]

I think we might be going out tomorrow so I’d like to see how it does without the foil on. Figure it’s not a big deal if I want to put it back on…just have to remember which holes to use…and if it seems better without then I’ll fill the holes.

 

[ahicks]

JB weld works great for filing those holes. Easy to do a nice job that is easily painted. The trick is to fill the hole without leaving a big gob that will need to be sanded down. A piece of good tape applied on the bottom will save you from having to sand that side.

 

[PITBoat]

Prob too late to catch you, but you might be prepared to put it back on while you're there.

I tried that, and found out that mine is necessary... it was a couple seasons back, but the boat wasn't nearly as stable as I remember, and it was hard/impossible to keep the bow from bouncing.

Maybe the PO tried it in different spots on yours.

 

[PITBoat]

Dude...

How'd it work for you? Bouncing like nobody's business?

Or more mph w/no downside (like I'd hoped for when I did it...).

Let everyone know... Or we'll remain ignorant, until we find out for ourselves.

 

[jeb6294]

I think I’m going to leave it off and seal up the holes. Can’t say I noticed any downside. The biggest difference I could feel was the transition to plane…not really faster with the foil, but you could definitely feel it when you were trimming up.

Going to go without for a while and might see about some Smart Tabs down the road if I want to try something different.

 

[JimS123]

If you leave it off, don't worry about sealing up the holes. You won't know the difference if they are sealed up or not. The metal parts of the motor won't care.

However,.....
If you DO put on smarttabs, you should worry big time about sealing up the 16 holes on your Boat's transom. 5200 is your friend.

 

[jeb6294]

Something I thought about doing is sealing up the extra holes…leave the 4 holes for the foil but fill the others…and touching it up so it looks a little better