Nauticus Smart Tabs?

Anyone here ever used Nauticus Smart Tabs on an outboard jet? I'm seriously considering installing a set of the SX type on my boat to see if it would improve the hole shot and reduce the distance require to get on plane. Have seen a lot of positive reviews online about these trim tabs, but haven't seen any discussions with anyone that has actually used them.

https://nauticusinc.com/smart-tabs-sx/

Larry, what can I say?? I am very pleased to be able to help you after all the help you have given me!!

I have a 19.5' fiberglass dual console that I fish out of. The boat has a 4 cyl. 130hp engine and calls for a (6 cyl.) 150. Empty she SCREAMS. She will hit 40mph, hop on plane and do the job well.

The issue came later. I bought a 40 gallon Super Bait Tank (custom made). It actually holds 45 gallons of water (360lbs.) and the tank is 30-40lbs. on its own. Now add me and 2 other fishing buddies. The only place that I had to put the tank was behind the console. So guess what, the *** DRAGGED badly. Would barely get on plane, and when it did, I had to give it lots of throttle and had my nose pointed to the sky.

Put a set of smart tabs SX on there, and it’s like a whole other boat!! Planes right out with all that weight, and will stay on plane at 4200rpms (22mph). Empty she will stay on plane at 3500rpms(16-17mph)!!

The tabs are manually adjustable, meaning you have to do it out of the water. I just set them for the load that I have. If I go catfishing with one person and no bait tank, I will set the tabs on 1. If I have a heavy load, I will set em on 5. You don’t NEED to change them once you put em on, but it helps get a little more performance out of it.

The downsides: if you are in rough water (which you won’t be) and you need the nose up high, you cant do it with the tabs installed. Regardless of what the nauticus website says, unless you are porpoising at WOT, you will CERTAINLY see a decrease in top speed, due to the increased drag.(I lost about 1mph, from 39mph to 38mph)

Something that they offer now that will combat issue one, is they have a little switch that will disengage the tabs and pull them upward, and you can easily do that while on the boat. (if you were drifting shallows you could flip em up.) If you drift backwards in current and catch a tab you will NOT be happy.

SO, all in all, for my application I am VERY happy. I have also considered adding them to my jet boat. If I do, I will likely install the stainless steel set rather than the plastic. It will match the boat better, and probably hold up better also.

You can see the tabs from the side here:

By the way, I LOVE this boat, even though she is a '95. :mrgreen:

Thanks! Appreciate the info.

Larry have you pursued this idea?

No, I haven't. I have small (about 6" L x 1.5" W) aluminum trim tabs on my boat and I bent them down a little (1/4" or so) just to see what effect it would have. Just that small of a change dropped the bow down enough to cause it to plow through the water and reduced my WOT speed to about 22 MPH from 26-27 MPH with the trim tabs in line with the bottom of the boat. I had to bend them back up to where they were.

After that experience, I've come to the conclusion that doing anything to drop the bow down any further than it normally runs will be counter productive. It runs fairly flat the way it is, so I've decided to just leave it alone. I realize that the Nauticus tabs are supposed to raise up after the boat picks up speed, but I have doubts that they will work that way with my boat and motor. I suspect that the already poor performance will be reduced even more.

I hear ya there! Crazy that a little trim tab action can change things that much.

The thing about smart tabs is they are "supposed" to come up when on plane, but they still cut in just a bit and place a load on the water. I have yet to find an honest person that has not lost some speed at WOT with them installed.

I had a 2070 Lowe and it would porpoise like crazy. Even with all the batteries, fuel and one person up front and the motor trimmed all the way down at full throttle. Turns out it was a hull design issue as I found out later that several other people had this issue.

I made adjustable tabs 4"X10" out of 3/16" aluminum and put them 4" in from the sides. I set them originally 5 degrees down from the line of the bottom of the boat. They would make the boat plane in mere feet but it slowed the boat 8 MPH. I kept messing and the magic spot was 1.5 degrees. It would plane in half the distance it used to, stopped that infernal porpoising and only slowed my WOT speed about 1 MPH.

They are easily made and if you make them out of aluminum they will take as much abuse as you can dish out.