Will a Stingray Hydrofoil help?

I have a 17 1/2 Alumacraft bass boat with a Yamaha 80 hp outboard. The boat rides fine but at full trim it porpoises to the point I have to trim it down quite a bit. Before it starts porpoising it hits about 38 mph.
Has anyone tried a Stingray Stinger hydrofoil(clip on)and if so does it help? Do you think one would help/solve my problem?
Any help, suggestions or anyone who have tried the hydrofoil are all welcome. Thanks for your help.

FWIW between my brothers and I (we used to run ~8 boats and ~12 OBs between us each season, small & large, fresh & salt use) have put fins or foils on a dozen or skiffs from 12' to 18' over the years. My boatclub also has a fleet of small skiffs (> 20 at the dock, size limit to 14' length) and I'll help other owners setup and maintain their skiffs and more than half wear fins/foils.

Once hulls get bigger and/or heavier, I really prefer trim tabs. Smart tabs would be an option for a boat from 18' to maybe 20 to 22' in length, HP dependent of course. But any bigger and Bennett trim tabs rule!

Here the benefits as I have experienced them firsthand, listed with the largest or best improvement IMHO:

-Keeps the bow down when rising onto plane - THIS being a huge safety issue!
-Eliminates porpoising
-Allows a slower 'on plane' speed, sometimes ideal when running in a tight/close spaced chop
-Makes the hull (smaller skiffs) less sensitive to trim, i.e., weight distribution fore to aft
-Improves stability while running or crossing wakes at a slight angle
-Improves tracking/grip in turns, less tendency to roll
-Improves fuel efficiency when the OB height is setup correctly [This factor alone should probably be closer to the top of the list, but I only confirmed on the 1 boat that had a fuel computer built into the GPS with realtime/instant values of gph and mpg.]

The only negative I have ever experienced is some loss of 'potential' WOT speed, but again - if the OB height is setup correctly, the foil or fin should be just above or at thr surface anyway, so in theory, any added drag should be negligible!

FWIW, through various testing from boat articles I've seen, the most efficient foil/fins tested were the SE200 and SE300 by SE Sport. IMHO do not buy or use the 'clip' feature - every one I've seen has always fallen off or let go sometime in its life/use ... If you are going to use one, bolt the sucker on ...

Link to SE Sport = https://www.sesport.com/5_32.asp

JDflats said:

Any help, suggestions ... are all welcome. Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

Before you add anything ... where is you OB mounting height set? The vent plate above the prop should ideally be out of the water whilst running on plane, with OB trimmed out until she vents (RPMs rise, noise rises, prop slips), then trimmed back down just enough to stabilize RPMs and stop the venting/prop slippage.

Here are my top 2 boating pet peeves ...

#1 - 85% of boats run the wrong prop - too much pitch!
#2 - 95% of boats have the OB mounted too deep ...

I use one on my 14' deep V StarCraft with a 25hp remote. Bought the boat with it on. Once I took it off and gained about 3-4 mph on my top speed. But then I put one more person in the boat and without it took about 90 seconds to get the boat on plane (not kidding). Put it back on and it hops up on plane in a jiffy. It definitely adds stability in rough water.

I had a 17' Wahoo center console with a Mercury 90 hp that had one on it when I bought it. I was worried about it possibly clipping the side of a big rock so one day I took the hydrofoil off and took it out for a run. At about 2/3 throttle it started to porpoise and it took longer to plane off so I put it right back on and it ran so much better with it I left it on. Towards the end of the season I clipped a big rock with the motor but luckily had no damage to the motor or fin and decided to sell it since that summer was a higher than normal river level so I think I got really lucky making it through the season.

Smart Tabs....three boats....no complaints...No loss of speed and far better control and planing, at high and low speeds. Check out their site and watch the videos.

richg99

I have the bolt on one on my 17' Spectrum aluminum bass boat with a 70hp Force. It may help me plane a little better/faster but not much. My boat has a very smooth hull aside from the rivets and not too big of chines either so it doesn't take turns well...but the hydrofoil really helps in that department. Fuel economy seems the same either way. I choose to run without it primarily because it seems to create some extra noise and because I'm always bumping my shin on it while its on the trailer. I will put it on though if I am anticipating and unusually rough water as it seems to help a little in that area (I typically choose to go fish in sheltered areas though in those cases).

I has an se200 on my 25hp Evinrude. Really helped get up on plane. I got a new boat last year with a 90 HP Mercury Optimax. Wish I had one on this motor. For two reasons... 1) staying on plane at slower speeds and 2) to help keep my speed up while in a turn. I noticed that if I try to make a sharp turn I would lose speed and sound like the RPM's increase.

Sincerely,

jbird68