Value of Hydrofoils

[Dhadley]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

Absolutely! The fin is a tool - it allows you to do other things to help performance. A fin all by itself, and without doing anything else, seldom helps anything, if it does you're very lucky. And it depends a lot on the shape and size of the fin. If you just bolt it on, you'll most likely be very disapointed. Get the proper one for your application, mount it, adjust your set up and you'll be amazed what it can do. Get the wrong one or don't adjust your set up and you'll swear (incorrectly) that they're all junk.

I put 15" Goodyear slicks on a VW bug once and they killed the performance. I don't know what those NASCAR guys are thinking!! (See what I mean?)

 

[walleyehed]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

Did it float????

 

[Dhadley]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

Fortunately I never had the opportunity to find out!

Now, I can tell you how long a 1968 3/4 ton Chevy truck floats..........

 

[Cap'n Dave64]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

I just put a stingray hydrofoil on my Starcraft 16ft Starfire with a 60hp 4stroke Yamaha. Here's what I think:

Pros: Gets on plane faster, holds plane at lower speed (15mph vs 12), much smoother ride thru chop, much less roll in turns, quieter (less wave slap), lower bow at any speed, less steering grab when hitting waves at an angle, less wake at transitional speeds

Cons: 0.5 - 1mph loss at WOT, one more thing to hit something with (not that that has happened)

Oh yeah that top speed loss? only applies to flat calm conditions. Otherwise faster with hydrofoil. It's like a brand new boat. It seems to me that people with light fairly fast boats like mine have had the best results, I'll gladly swap 33mph top end with 34mph top end for all the other things. BTW tested the boat on consecutive days in exact same conditions and boat loads (only diff was the foil) and was blown away.

 

[EricR]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

My friends 1975 Starcraft "Chieftan IV", a 22' aluminum cuddy cabin with a vee hull all the way back (no, I do not know the deadrise angle) and a 165 MerCruiser was vastly improved with the one piece Stingray hydrofoil. Bow rise was greatly reduced, the boat pops right up onto plane. Steering effort was not noticeably changed at all. Top speed with a 19" pitch aluminum prop is 36-38 mph by both GPS and speedo depending on load and wind conditons.

I know some folks swear they are junk, some love them. They may not work the same on all boats.

I have a 1969 Glasspar "Avalon", a 15' vee hull powered by a 45 horse Honda four stroker. I plan on taking the normal load of wife and two small kids, 6 gal of gas, my GPS and tach and finding calm water at a slack tide (no current) to test in. I will ease the throttle up with the trim at mid position. Note rpm, time to plane and top speed. Then I will firewall the throttle from trolling speed and note the same.

Then I will bolt on the foil back at the ramp and go right back out to note the same. If it does not do it for me, I have four holes to JB weld shut in my cav plate.

Then I will get back to y'alls!

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Value of Hydrofoils

It's more work than that to see if you get improvements, you may also need to raise the motor and possibly get a different prop. Just bolting one on typically doesn't help, that's why they get so many negative reviews.