Thread: Hydrofoils...how well do they work?

Greetings Gator Bait. I have a very similar sized Alumacraft 15 ft wide-bodied jon with a 40hp Nissan Marine on it. I believe I can help you with your planing issue.
As you may know... you can affect your boat getting up on plane (and level of plane) by adjusting the engine tilt down (lower) (toward the transom) to lift the front
end and up (raise) (away from the transom) to lower the level of plane. I can't tell if you have electric tilt on your boat or not... it looks like you do. I do not.
You can adjust the bottom of your tilt by changing the motor level on the engine mounting bracket. You can see in the pic of mine that I have mine set on about the
fourth hole and I did install a hydrofoil on mine. Both drastically affected how my boat jumps on and maintains the level of plane that I like.
The tilt setting I have my motor at... along with the hydrofoil seems best overall... whether I am by myself or if I have someone with me.





Experiment with the tilt settings based on your average people load in your boat and yes, I recommend the hydrofoil installation.

Let me know how it goes for you.
Special K

Some boats they help and some the don't. You can usually help it a whole lot by making sure the motor is tilted properly and the boat loaded evenly.

Had a 70 h.p. Mercury on 16 ft Lund. Worked well got up on plane much quicker. Don't remember the brand. Maybe Mustang but not sure.

I just bought a stick steer too gator. My friend at work has a stick steer with a 35 hp on it. He said a hydrofoil was a must on a stck steer cause even though it really didnt given him much improvement on getting up on plane. It did suprisingly make it handle better and turn sharper.

My stick boat had the holes in the decavitation plate of the motor, but had no foil. I guessed that the previous owner tried it and decided against it. Mine was a 16' Sea Nymph and had no interior to speak of and hopped up on plane pretty quick. I had the motor adjusted as high as I could go without getting blowout(air to the prop) and it worked as well with riders as when alone. I had 4 adults in it once and it still planed, but took a while. I still miss it sometimes. Got 19 to 22 mph with a 25hp Johnson.

I have a Stingray hydrofoil on my current Johnson 115. I can't tell a difference on getting on plane any faster but it will stay up on plane once I'm up there at a lot lower speed which makes a tank of gas go a lot farther. Redistributing a lot of my weight forward helped more than anything on improving my hole shot even after playing with different props and moving my motor up and down.

I put one on my Nitro and it really helps with getting on plane. I have a 60 horse 4 stroke on a 16 foot glass boat so I'm a little bit on borderline underpowered. I went over to the foil since I was having issues getting on plane unless I was running with an empty livewell and less than half a tank of gas. I put on a 4 blade prop and that helped but it took the foil to be able ot get the boat where it would go on plane easily. The only side effect of the foil install for me is that the boat is now very sensitive to a weight imbalance, I have the cavitation plate too low in the water which makes the foil catch water and try to pull the boat whichever direction the weight imbalance is (ie if it is too heavy on the right then it pulls right and vice versa). As far a getting on plane at slower speeds I can attest to that also.

They definitely make a difference. How much depends on other things. Alot has to do with weight distribution from front to rear of boat.

I like the Stainless Steel ones...a bit pricey though.They look better, "sleeker" than plastic and wont flex/bend.