Hello fellow boaters! I would like some input and some pro's and cons and maybe even a real life experience to help me decide how to solve my problem.<br /><br />My wife and I have been happy boaters for about 10 years. During that time we always had the same boat - an older 19' Four Winns with a 305 engine & Merc Cruiser outdrive. Boat had a Stingray hydrofoil and always ran great - no problems. <br /><br />We recently upscaled to a 21' Mariah with the 350 (5.7)engine and volvo penta dual prop outdrive. This boat had a smaller stingray hydrofoil on it when we got it. We boated for a while - just me and her - and it was great. Boat rode great - came out of the water quick - ran about 55mph (by the speedo!) and was always a great ride even in rough water. We did notice that sometimes it had a slight tendency to "lean" one way ot the other slightly when catching a wake from a boat in front of us - but it was just a little lean and nothing I couldn't live with.<br /><br />Last weekend we had our first outing with more people in the boat - 4 teenagers + my wife and I and it was a whole new experience. For starters as soon as we left the no wake zone the boat came up and was leaning off to the side - and people were jumping from side to side to try and level it out didn't seem to make a lot of difference. And the leaning would vary from side to side as the day went on - you never knew which way till it came up out of the water and then sometimes it would change.<br /><br />I did find that if I trimed the motor back up it would plane back out straight - but when I did - all my steering went away and it was like steering on ice. The boat also had a real nasty habit of trying to "dive" into turns basically leaning so far over I thought it was going to flip someone out in the water. This boat is bigger than my olde one - and I used to carry a lot more load in the old all the time so I don't think it was overloaded by any means at all.<br /><br />I have been researching your forum and decided the hydrofoil has to go - it worked fine on my other boat - but doesn't like this one at all for whatever reason. <br /><br />Which is better - Smart Tabs or something like the Bennett Trim Tabs? I like the idea of Smart Tabs hands free operation - when my kids are skiing I have my hands full just trying to steer and work the throttle. I also like the idea of being able to trim out one side or the other manually with the Bennett Tabs. <br /><br />Pros? Cons? Experiences with either? <br /><br />Any help would be appreciated.
<br /><br /><br />My boat is a 25ft cabin cruiser, more like a pocket cruiser. I use the tabs to plane off and then disengage, I may use them on long trips to tailor the boat attitude but too much of a hassel on short jumps. But for skiing you could just leave them engaged in the down position but you will be back into the bow steer condition.<br /><br />The Bennett tabs I have are great! I wouldn't enjoy my boat near as much without them. They also have excellent customer service and have a presense here on the forums. Don't misunderstand me, for what I do the Bennett are better than delivered pizza and sex, but for you, I am not sure.