Trim tabs and a hydrofoil...Would you do it?

[FishFinger1977]

Hi all,
Was just wondering if there is any benefit to fitting a hydrofoil to a boat with trim tabs on it? Never really thought about it much before as I have never had a boat with trim tabs until now and before that hydrofoils were the best thing I ever put on. Any ideas? Regards Scott

[FNQCairns]

No comparison the tabs lift the hull, a foil lifts the engine, if the engine is at the correct height a foil can be a good addition but only then.
Tabs will compliment every hull to some degree and leave the engine to do its only two jobs thrust and steerage.

So I guess fitting a foil to a tabed boat is a step backwards but fitting tabs to a foiled boat would be a step forward :-? ;D

cheers fnq

[bidkev]

No comparison the tabs lift the hull, a foil lifts the engine, if the engine is at the correct height a foil can be a good addition but only then.
Tabs will compliment every hull to some degree and leave the engine to do its only two jobs thrust and steerage.

<snip>

cheers fnq

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that statement gives the impression (to me) that you don't use the engine to trim the boat but trim the boat entirely via use of the tabs? Am I correct?

I only use the tabs to trim list in a side sea or due to uneven load.

cheers

kev

[FNQCairns]

Hi Kev, once you have tabs you only need to use the engine trim to align the direction of thrust with the sea surface, if that makes sense. The tabs do a far far more efficient job of trimming the hull.

In theory and with practice the engine trim is almost redundant when tabs are fitted, holeshot and extra highspeed boats are an exception, but on a fishing/pleasure boat and esp once on the plane tabs should do almost all of the trimming job.

cheers fnq

Edit: one of the complaints regarding some hydraulic tabs is that they are too slow to handle a holeshot on a highpowered boat so people use the engine trimmed in to compensate. The electric ones are supposedly faster but seem to be less reliable.