Whale tail Question

[Bellasdad]

I bought a pontoon boat that has a Mercury Classic 50 on it and the previous owner put a whale tail on the motor . Will that help or harm the performance of the boat ?

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Some will say nothing, some will swear by them up for you to decide. Pontoon it should not be needed.

 

[matt167]

Purpose of the whale tail is to provide lift at the stern. 50hp on a pontoon, makes it wishful thinking

 

[aspeck]

I am thinking it is just additional drag on your pontoon. I would suggest running it with and then without. My bet is you will leave it off.

 

[Scott06]

Purpose of the whale tail is to provide lift at the stern. 50hp on a pontoon, makes it wishful thinking

I am thinking it is just additional drag on your pontoon. I would suggest running it with and then without. My bet is you will leave it off.

These two are spot on. I ran a dole fin on my previous boat (17 ft sea ray 3.0). It did help with planing until it cracked my cav plate…

on a 50 hp toon any improvement it wishful thinking. Try it with and without, if it does any thing positive would suspect that it is covering a motor height issue or other setup problem