Hydo-foils ??
 

Has anyone put one of these on a Mariah ? If so , do they work as advertised ? They claim to give your boat better fuel , faster speeds , less bow rise , better stability , quicker whole shots . Anyone ?? 1996 Mariah Shabah 212

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

You'll find most people on here are usually taking them off.

They don't do as much as they claim, and most of our members here will tell you to invest in a set of Smart Tabs instead. Do a search for "Smart Tabs" and you'll find all sorts of information! :wink_thumbup:

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

Just installed the Smart Tabs on my 1994 Mariah 180 Talari. Much better performace than the hydro foil. Save yourself the time and money and install the Smart Tabs. Good luck!

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

Removed my hydrofoil this sping and installed Smart Tabs (SX with 80 lb acuators) 1995 210 Talari this spring and have been very pleased. Planes quicker with hardly any bow rise, can stay on plane at a lower speed (about 16 mph), hardly any low speed wander, and gained about 3 to 4 mph topend with the same Hi-five prop as before. John at Nauticus tells me I could probably gain more top-end with a 3 blade, but for now I'll leave it alone. The customer support at Nauticus has been outstanding as well.

Larry

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

My Shabah came with an aluminum hydrofoil and I'm pretty happy with it so far. My bro-in-law pulled his off his 22.5' boat and wasn't pleased with how slowly he planed out compared to when he had it on, so he bolted it back on and he's happier.

I have read lots of opinions about undue stress on the lower, but I have yet to hear a single anecdote where a hydrofoil was the cause of a lower unit failure. I've heard stories about people hooking stuff in the water because of a hydrofoil, but it's pure speculation in most cases about where the debris actually caught.

There's lots of opinions about why an aftermarket product would enhance what the super genius Mercruiser engineers have devised. My argument to that is, why is there demand for aftermarket performance products at all on cars, boats, and motorcycles? I bet in the next decade you will see lower units with larger cavitation plates rolling off the line.

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

I know personally of two situations over a period of about 5 yrs where the installation of the hydro-foil lead to cracks in the cavitation plates due to being overstressed. Both individuals claimed that they didn't recall hitting anything, I cant recall exactly what the engineering report said was the likely cause on the one but the other was on a 22' boat that was used mostly for tubing etc. The owner indicated that he would often have a couple of riders & would see how big a wake he could make then attempt fast circles to bring the riders over the biggest waves. The engineer involved figured the stress of the hard cornering likely was the contributing factor to the failure.

Hydrofoils have been around for a long time now. If they were such a great idea, every manufacturer would already be constructing their outdrives with large cavitation plates......

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

Thanks Mikey. I usually hear that a friend of a friends father-in-law's ex-roomate knew a guy........I have a smaller, lighter boat, but that's definitely a case for trim-tabs.

You know as well as I do that manufacturers have a ton of factors that go into their engineering and production decisions, functionality across the spectrum being one along with the cost of retooling. I think hydrofoils aren't appropriate for lots of situations so they won't become standard. I see as many boats with 'foils as not around here. I could definitely see future generations of drives with wider, stronger cavitation plates or as a dealer option. If boat manufacturers were worried about making "the best" product, none of us would be tooling around in boats with decomposing wooden stringers and decking. Viable composites have been around for decades, right?

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

Quite true. Hydrofoils do have their place & uses or they wouldn't still be around. Personally i think they are most effective on small - medium size outboards pushing aluminum runabouts. I'm not so sure about the future use of large cavitation plates except maybe in specialty applications.

As an aside....i used to own a 16' Grew with a 70hp Evinrude on the tail. I installed a Stingray foil and it made a huge difference in planing. Where it didn't help was at high speeds. I found the boat tended to get a bit jittery to the point of being scary.

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

One downside I have noticed with my 'foil, especially with a small boat, is that it'll list nicely at low speeds if my passengers and load aren't balanced. That's the case on any smaller boat, but I think it's more pronounced because of the low plane speeds. A little throttle and some wheel in the opposite direction will usually clear it up.

Re: Hydo-foils ??
 

Off the subject....how far is Las Cruces from Albuquerque? Where do you boat around there? I stayed in ABQ for 3 nights on Jul 6-8th while on a drive from Vegas (the glitzy version) to Oklahoma City. My dad has a 96 yr old cousin in ABQ. The day we were going to stop in and visit (the old 'cousins from Canada' event), the ambulance was there & dragged him off to the local hospital cuz of a sudden illness so we never got to meet. ABQ is a nice city though, old town was small but good, beer was cold and the green chiles took a little getting used to.... :D