Smart tabs or hydrofoil for 16ft boat?

[Redslayer]

Hello everyone. I would like some advice please. I have a 16ft Palm Beach cc with 50hp Yam 4cyl. It's a almost a flats boats and I use it for fishing only. I'm constantly running in 3-10 ft of water in the back creeks of the intercoastal. I have read 100's of threads on this forum and postings on other sites as well, but because I have not read anything with direct relation to my boat size, motor size, and the depth of water I'm in, I am inbetween on the hydrofoil and the smart tabs.

My main problem is trying to plane at slow speed. As I am always in winding creeks and swallow water, I cant just gun it and it takes forever to plane. I know my motor has it's limitations for it's hp and I have proper weight distribution to compensate for this. I also always have my two fishing buds in the front of boat, but still have major problems plaining.

After weeks of research, I truly understand the concepts of both products, but from what I have been reading it looks like the smart tabs seem to benefit the larger boats (18-24ft) with larger motors, running in rougher water conditions than I'm ever in. Therefore I think the hydrofoil may have an advantage for my specific needs. I know most people on here hate them, but I have read some good reviews on them for the smaller boats like mine. And I'm not worried about losing topend speed or drag, but people say the foils can cause problems when turning and that concerns me.

Does anyone have any experience with smart tabs and hydrofoils for my particular size boat/motor? Opinions are always helpful, but experience is preferred. I am very interested in the smart tabs, but want to make sure they are correct for me.

John, please feel free to chime in.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Smart tabs or hydrofoil for 16ft boat?

I've run smarttabs on a 14.5 foot jet boat. HUGE improvement. The main reason you probably don't hear much about them on smaller boats is the limited transom mounting area. Smaller boats might just lack enough space.

 

[Redslayer]

Re: Smart tabs or hydrofoil for 16ft boat?

I believe I have the room on my transom. So would you recommend the smart tabs over the foil even in the swall water conditions that I'm always in?

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Smart tabs or hydrofoil for 16ft boat?

Have you tried any different props? You may be able to find one that will get you out of the hole and on plane quickly and hold you there at lower speeds. I don't know on the avaliability in your application though. On my boat I use it for alot of water sports(totally different I know) and after changing from a 3 blade to a hi five the boat jumps on plane and I can hold it there at 15 mph and up which works out nice to pull my 8 year old on a wakeboard. You may lose a bit of top end speed if you change to a power prop so if that is not an option you may be stuck with your same question/dilemma. I have had foils on I/O's and outboards and they do help, they can change handling a bit but nothing drastic at least in my experience.