Re: Does Location of fuel tank(s)....
If your pontoon is a displacement hull (The boat is not designed to ever be on plain) then I would think weight distribution would have little impact on performance. You are displacing the same amount of water no matter how you distribute the weight.
On the other side of the discussion, if your motor is lower in the water due to the distribution there would be more drag and the angle of the motor would change. Trimming only corrects one of those issues. Here is where a hydrofoil "could" offer a performance improvement if it allows you to move your outboard up without cavitation. Hydrofoils have a bad reputation around here because they are typically used to bring a boat on plane easier at the cost of performance. In your case it might allow you to increase performance by raising your motor height to a point where you would cavitate without the foil. Adding a foil without changing motor height would be a questionable move. Adding one with a change in motor height is not guaranteed to increase performance either so do your research if you plan on considering this suggestion.
The 2 toons are rounded bottom ones that go to a cutting edge at the bow. I do notice when a person walks from the front seat to the rear seat then the speed goes down 1 or so mph. The speed goes up when we put coolers etc up front. When I first test drove the boat the speed topped out at 17 mph with 2 people on board including me. I am not sure how much he had emptied out ie Ladder, anchor, gas tanks etc. Now with the gas tank on back and loaded with a cooler and some gear bags, small anchor, paddles top speed is a little over 9 mph.
I wonder if the board the motor is connect too along with that housing sinking further into the water would cause more of a drag? Yea I think the motor is aiming the boat more upward than forward
