My view of my hyrofoil

[TonyHouk]

Hey Y'all,
Well after last week and the other few times that I was able to take the new motor out, I felt I had lost of the steering. I even moved the connection on the new steering arm in farther to hope that would help. My biggest symptom was not being able to turn sharp. With the Nissan I could what I call parallel park the boat to the dock. Now bare in mind that the Nissan had the hydrofoil on it. With the Evinrude I was never able to control it like I could with the Nissan and the hydrofoil. So the other day I took it off and put it on the Evinrude. At the dock today I could put it where I wanted to. When I was doing my high speed runs I put here on her side turning sharply. Nothing that I felt worried about. To each their own on their opinion of the use of the hydrofoil but I am keeping it on my boat. Well have fun, Tony

[delevi]

Hey Tony,

Glad it worked out for you. You ever try sailing with it, as in motor down but not running in some heavy air and seas? I wonder how much "rudder grip" that hydrofoil might provide. You probably don't know yet with the new motor, but I sure am curious.

Leon

[TonyHouk]

Leon,
With the old Nissan I sailed all the time with the foil on it. I was too lazy to raise the motor. I had the battery die on me once. That was when I was running a single battery. No with two batteries I am still too lazy to raise the motor. With the foil on I still lose traction and th eboat will round up when it heels too far. I like it like that. It provides what I think is a sense of safety. The wake from the boat is so much smaller with the big motor scooting me along. No more plowing. I didn't get to test the Smart Rails because there was no wakes. They have worked marvelous with the other motor so I know they will work great higher up from the water, because of the boat planing. Well y'all have fun, Tony

[K9Kampers]

...You ever try sailing with it, as in motor down but not running in some heavy air and seas? I wonder how much "rudder grip" that hydrofoil might provide...

On that idea - Last year end-of-season, having removed my canted rudders, I was motoring aound with the mast up & thought I'd try sailing using the OB down as a rudder. Fairly light winds, maybe 5-10 mph, I found the OB alone rather ineffective as a rudder. Yes, it worked, barely, as I was constantly oversteering & overcorrecting. To continue the experiment, I set the OB straight and steered by trimming in/out the genny & main. Made several long tacks this way before calling it a day - too much work!

I sooo want to go out today, forecast on the lake is 5-10 mph, but webcams where I would be show calm waters & lazy flag. Air temps in the high 30's, but it would be worth it with some wind!!

[delevi]

About 60 degrees here and the rain just stopped. Would love to go out for a sail but the Admiral is leaving for a business trip tomorrow so I have to hang out here for some quality time.

my canted rudders

K9, please do tell more.

[K9Kampers]

Leon -

As an experiment last year, I had my original rudders modified by DOH Engineering. Referred to as the "Ramp Effect", when Stephen (KHE) saw the pic, he called them canted. The angle of modification resulted in a quicker turn to port, but suffered to stbd. Ended up changing them out to new IDA's!

Canted Rudders

[delevi]

I'm glad I'm not the only one experimenting
Cheers,
L.

[Compromise]

Interesting topic.
Having gone from an X to an M, I'm having similar issues to you. You going from one motor to another.....
I felt I too had better turning power on the X and have been wondering if it is the smaller rudders on the M or the smaller prop on the Tohatsu.
I literally have to give bursts of power to get the desired turn when docking, this could be 'dodgey' for obvious reasons.
Your thread has me wondering if the foil might help the manueverability for the M. Although I'm having a hard time understanding the improvement in turning

[solentboy]

Hi Tony,

This Hydrofoil sounds really useful. I have not heard of it before. aAy idea where I could get one for my Yamaha ?

Cheers

[Loefflerh]

Compromise, that is interesting: I experienced exactly the opposite. I was pleasantly surprised that I can turn much tighter with my M than I could do with the X (slow speed) - and for me its very obvious because I have to turn in a very narrow and shallow channel ( dead end) around. So it must be the motor / propeller setup: my X had a Mercury Bigfoot, now I have the Suzuki 70 installed on wedges.
Hans

[TonyHouk]

Solentboy,
They are called a number of names. I just used what I had known as a generic name. Permatrims.com makes one. Along with a bunch of others. You will get the idea. I think it is the fact the thrust of the engine is not wasted but somewhat captured that allows the boat to turn sharper with the foil on vice off. I might buy a piece of aluminum and make one like the Permatrims foil for my engine. The bottom cavitation plate on my motor is just slightly below the transom so it would be corrected buy bending it a little towards the front. Well have fun. I have to study and then tomorrow I am going to mount the outside transom plate. I had it machined yesterday. Forty-five dollars to have it machined. Makes me want to buy a mill. Well that and it is a manly tool. Have fun, Tony

[Compromise]

So it must be the motor / propeller setup: my X had a Mercury Bigfoot, now I have the Suzuki 70 installed on wedges.
Hans

It's gotta be the prop then. Was your a standard prop on the Mercury?
My X had a 4 stroke yamaha 50 with bigger stainless steel prop. The Tohatsu prop is the factory standard....

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Maybe it is something to do with the bigfoot because I took the hydrofoils off of mine and I think it performs better without them. I also removed about 300# of extra weight that the P.O. had put in the bow of the boat and that made it perform better too.