Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

[JustAnotherBoat]

Like the title says, I need some input. Looking for what will work best for wakeboarding. I would like to have the best of both worlds(short of buying a new boat)-good boating manners and keep my wake the same size. I need something to correct the bow rise I have when taking off and trying to plane. I always to prefer to go off real world experience vs "claimed results" from the advertisement.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

Tabs... Definitely.

And if you want the best of the best in a set of tabs, I would recommend a set of Bennett's in the correct size for your boat.

 

[dvan1901]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

Tabs, but you need manual tabs, not Smart Tabs. I say this because you will want the front to be up more so you can have a bigger wake and manual tabs will let you do that.

 

[JustAnotherBoat]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

Decided to go with trim tabs, but I figured I should measure first. Good thing I did. Where the tabs would be mounted on the boat they would get ripped off by the trailer and possibly be in the way of the ladder. Looks like I will have to settle for a hydrfoil since it will be out of the way. I know they are not what everybody likes but looks like that is what I am stuck with. What are the pros and cons of running with and without the hydrofoil. If anybody has any input I would appreciate thier feedback. Thanks

 

[Shouldn't Have]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

I had a 18 foot searay with 3.0L 135 HP alpha 1. I put a hydrofoil on that many moons ago and loved it! Just make sure you get one large enough. I forget which brand I had, but it was about 20-24 inches wide overall.

The only down side was that I could not level the boat port and starboard. Always had to ask people to move around.

But for planing and smoothing out the ride, it worked very well.

 

[WTR4FUN]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

I bought my boat used about 3 months ago and it came with a hydro foil on it already. I've been out 9 times on the boat, and the first eight trips I thought that the boat had a tendency to pourpoise too much. On the ninth trip, I had the foil removed and couldnt get the boat to pourpoise. I also felt like the boat had better handling characteristics after removing the foil. Time will tell for sure. Oh yeah, its a 18ft open bow Monterey with a vp 4.3GL.

 

[JustAnotherBoat]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

what type of hydrofoil did you take off? and to every one else that has one, what is a good brand I am looking at the SE Sport 300.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

The only down side was that I could not level the boat port and starboard. Always had to ask people to move around.

...and because it lifted from the center, the hydrofoil made your balance problem worse.

 

[dvan1901]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

Hydrofoil isn't going to buy you anything wakeboarding, if anything, it may hurt you. Part of the reason people go with the foil is lower planing speed; you don't really want to be on plane when wakeboarding. You want to plow through the water to generate as much wake as possible. A foil could actually reduce your wake. Think of a wakeboard boat, they have no traditional planing capabilities, they plow through the water. That's why they also have Fat Sacks too. Forget the foil alltogether.

 

[WTR4FUN]

Re: Best for wakeboarding:---Hydrofoil or Trim Tabs

what type of hydrofoil did you take off? and to every one else that has one, what is a good brand I am looking at the SE Sport 300.

It was a Sting ray.