Hydrofoil on Alpha 1 - Maxum Boat Owners Club

Bigbri · 07-20-2013, 11:14 PM

I was thinking of picking up a hydrofoil from West Marine for my 2400scr. I was wondering if these really help with getting up on a plane on that size boat?

SRPATTON · 07-21-2013, 03:06 PM

I had a 23' Drummond with a 140 hp diesel and Volvo out drive. I cut the planing time in half by adding the hydrofoil. I ran one on my Grady with a 175hp O/B and again it helped planing and eliminated porpoising. When I put a 225 E-tec on it, I didn't need it any more. I tried it because I had it but there was no change. My opinion is anytime you are marginal on HP then a hydrofoil works. My 2400 SE with the 220 HP 5.0 is a real dog on planing. Put 6 people in the boat and I have to put 2 people in the cabin to plane. I run a 14-1/2" X 17" S/S prop which works good for us as 90% of our boating is just my wife and I. I would drop to a 15X15 if I routinely carried more people.

biggerseagar · 07-21-2013, 04:37 PM

Putting trim tabs on will do the same thing.

mmwjr · 07-22-2013, 12:21 AM

2400scr should have come wit trim tabs and yes they will do the same but also allow one to adjust for conditions, weight distribution, waves, ...

My 2400 have trim tabs and they do thetrick fo me unless I have 6+ passengers then my 5.7LX lacks the torque to plane quickly, however once on plane no issues.

SRPATTON · 07-22-2013, 01:59 PM

My 2400 has the factory trim tabs. After yesterdays post I remembered I had a new hydrofoil (SE 300) in the garage that i had tried on my Grady. I installed it on the 2400, took about 20 minutes. My wife and I went out, full tank of gas, and it popped up on plane in 1/3rd of the time with tabs down. She even said WOW! I can maintain plane at a lower RPM, the boat doesn't yaw as much in idle zones, and ride seemed smoother. The other thing I tried was planing without the tabs, I never could, before under any circumstances. Yesterday I planed w/o tabs, just took the same time as prior to the hydrofoil. I primarily boat in narrow intercoastal waterway in FL and frequent planing is required due to no wake zones and large boat wakes.

SRPATTON · 07-22-2013, 02:10 PM

All my prior boats had trim tabs. As I stated, in my opinion, a hydofoil helps in marginally horsepowerd boats.

shrew · 07-22-2013, 02:19 PM

Do hydrofoils work? Yep they sure do. Would I install one on my boat? Nope, absolutely not.

The hydrofoil is creating lift at the stern of the boat. Trim tabs do the exact same thing. The problem is the HULL is what planes and lifts the boat ontop of the water. What you're doing is creating lift on the outdrive, transom assembly, etc. This concentrates force on the transom and transom assembly at a fairly isolated spot around the transom assembly. This system was not designed to take upward force. You are lifting the boat by the outdrive/outboard and transom assembly.

What these hydrofoils are doing is god, but how they are doing it is not. Just my .02

Bigbri · 07-23-2013, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shrew

Do hydrofoils work? Yep they sure do. Would I install one on my boat? Nope, absolutely not.

The hydrofoil is creating lift at the stern of the boat. Trim tabs do the exact same thing. The problem is the HULL is what planes and lifts the boat ontop of the water. What you're doing is creating lift on the outdrive, transom assembly, etc. This concentrates force on the transom and transom assembly at a fairly isolated spot around the transom assembly. This system was not designed to take upward force. You are lifting the boat by the outdrive/outboard and transom assembly.

What these hydrofoils are doing is god, but how they are doing it is not. Just my .02

Interesting Technical spin on the pros and cons of a hydrofoil Shrew. Makes Sense to me. I'm powered with a 5.7 and it does have trim tabs. So after reviewing every ones input (thanks all) I probably need to play with the tabs a bit to accomplish the same. Thanks for the input guys this forum has been a wealth of knowledge for me. Guess this newbie should pony up and start contributing to the cause.

Bri

ss3964spd · 07-23-2013, 02:41 PM

Bri,

If you have trim tabs you absolutely do not need, or want, a hydrofoil. If you want to get the boat on plane quicker put the tabs all the way down and power up. Once on plane raise the tabs a bit at a time to see how the boat responds. Trim the drive up a bit at a time also.

It just takes a bit of time to learn how much tab, and how much drive trim, the boat wants for any given condition, and you'll have to make minor corrections as conditions change. You could be motoring along with everything trimmed just right then encounter a large wake that requires backing out of the throttle and dropping off plane, when then requires dropping the tabs and drive again to get back on plane once through the wake.

Dan