which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

[bzajdek]

I have a 12" whaler clone trihull that rides front high under acceleration no matter how you distribute weight, I have a nissan 9.8 four stroke that is heavier than its 2 stroke brother so I am going to try a stabilizer for my boat to get a better ride even if I lose a coulple of mph off of the top end. Whats your vote for the best one?

 

[kandil]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

I think a trim tab would fix your problem not a fin

 

[ondarvr]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

Although the claims for them on the package may say this is a good application for a fin, its not what they do well. You need tabs.

 

[bzajdek]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

This is a 12 foot boat, I think tabs will cost more than the boat.

 

[rrhodes]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

Smart Tabs are not that much. I will try to explain my problem with the foil. Let's look at it from a stability stand point. a foil creates a pivot point along the keel of your boat. Picture trying to trailer your boat with only the center bunk. The boat will fall to one side. That is why there are bunks on each side in addition to the center bunk. The same holds true with the foil. I took a large wake sideways from a speed boat while running about 30mph in my old 19' cuddy. My cuddy almost rolled over and scared my kids so bad I had to buy a pontoon to get them back on the water. Trim tabs provide stability on the outside of the transom and actually keep the boat stable. The foil also adds additional stress to your transom.

Adding the Smart Tabs to my cuddy was the best $130 I had ever spent and the new owner loves them.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

You can always pick up a low cost fin and give it a try, if you don't like it just take it off.

 

[bzajdek]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?






It does not look like they have an application for my type of boat!

 

[rrhodes]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

View attachment 24941




It does not look like they have an application for my type of boat!

Give them a call. I am sure they have one that will work and they are very helpful

 

[Jdeagro]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

Use the ST780-20

 

[sickwilly]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

Just to be the voice of the other side, on my 19 foot boat the SE Sport foil works great. I see that they now have a way of attaching it without drilling your cavitation plate. Iboats sells them. Go for it.

 

[MushCreek]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

I've seen it argued the a fin on the motor puts stress on the motor mounts. Look at it this way- you're adding a lot of lift to the motor mounts that they weren't designed to handle. Start slamming over waves, and it makes it worse. I really don't know if that's true or not, but my '83 Johnson 35 had all of the motor mounts broken when I got it. I took the fin off.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: which hydrofoil is best on a small outboard?

I have a Stingray on my 7.5HP and am happy with it's performance. It came with an outboard I bought and after a couple months I took it off to see how it would affect the boat's handling/speed. There was no performance gain with it off and the boat was a lot slower coming on plane,,, so it went right back on.