Bull
I have one of the Stingray clamp on style foils.It does what I needed it to do and that was to keep the bow down when pulling the little ones on the tube.It also helps greatly when punching into a short chop on the bay at low speeds.I can plane easily at 10 knots with a level attitude.
For me it was money well spent and took me 15 minutes to install of which 8 of those minutes were spent extracting it from the bloody packaging. Jim
Haines Signature "FinaLeigh" 580F 135 Optimax
CH 81 & 72 VHF
mate go the 4 blader, Will help lift the bum....
i just so happen i have a solas 17p for sale if interested.
take a feed & leave the rest to breed
The Stingray XR111 is what i have fitted. Jim
stingray.bmp
Haines Signature "FinaLeigh" 580F 135 Optimax
CH 81 & 72 VHF
I also had some nasty little things happen in the HH 680 running downhill in shorther steep swells. Can't say for sure that the foil contributed but quite possible, Also thinking back to an old VMR boat with twin outboards and foils on both also did some scary things in the same sea so it may be a downside. Depends on your boat and type of use, the things I mentioned above happened mostly at night when a bit harder to pick the sea conditions.
I would look at it as a last resort and try all the things like weight distribution and tabs first even if just fixed ones.
The Hydra-foil will always put your bow down slightly, which of course will greatly assist hole-shot, slow planing and sloppy head sea conditions, but you do need to be quick on the slight leg up-trim when turning down sea, along with constant tweeking adjustments and a steady cruise speed or they can create a bow-steer effect.
IMO the Stingray is the best foil choice for larger (seven to eight metre), sterndrive fitted boats, along with transom mounted trim tabs.
They also assist high, narrow, deep V boats like the seven metre Whittley Cruisemaster with lateral stability (laying over on a chine just after reaching planing speed), instead of constantly working the trim tabs to stay level.
I installed foils on my Kc 5.2 hoping to get on the plane quicker with the little 60's.. First outing was nice and calm and I thought they were mint, second outing was a bit sloppy and the boat turned into a wailing banshee that wanted to kill me! Now my outboards look like a pin cushion agree with the other guys absolute last resort