Quote:
Originally Posted by tkeithlu
Let's think for a minute. The designer considered this issue and decided that the 11x22 tabs were right for this boat. What are you experiencing that says he/she was not right the first time (which does happen)? Can you not get the bow down at speed? Are the tabs creating a bunch of resistance? I recommend that you come up with a compelling reason before messing with it.
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Boat builders don't always end up installing the optimal tabs from a performance perspective. Undersizing is not uncommon for a variety of reasons. Cost, ease of making them fit (especially on hulls with prop pockets), and sometimes idiotproofing (undersized tabs to prevent people from over-trimming the boat and causing handling problems in following seas).
But the too small tabs often run close to fully deployed at
cruise which adds drag and costs
fuel and speed compared to a bigger (particularly wider span) tab deployed a lower angle.
As an example, my boat has 48x12 tabs (factory installed) and they're certainly not idiotproof. Fully deployed with low
fuel tanks, you can get the bow down so far that the boat will bow steer in flat
water. But they're deployed less than half way at normal cruise (even with full tanks), so they're well sized from a drag perspective. And you've got a great range of available trim angle rather than running at one end of the range all the time.