Dave and MM:
The other three Heats here do not have tabs, and they all seem to handle pretty well without them. But rough water here is a 3'er. After boating in what I call rough water at he LC Poker Run, inconsistent 3/4'ers with some nice 5/8'ers thrown in just for sh-ts and giggles, I can tell you that the tabs do help. They also allow for a low bow rise planing with heavy loads. In heavy traffic areas I hate losing sight of what's in front of me for several seconds. I've seen jet skis appear out of nowhere when the bow falls, and I'm sure if I ever hit one of these bastards, it would be "my fault".
They also work pretty well to even out lateral imbalances. One other thing that I've noticed versus the other Heats is that mine seems to bridge rollers better at speed, even when they aren't deployed. I think they hold the transom up, after launching off a wave, and keep the bow from kiting as much.
Regards,
Steve

I feel it is absolutely necessary to have tabs on the mid cabin boats to be able to level the boat. People are constantly moving around, fore to aft and side to side while underway, so I end up constantly working the tabs to keep the boat level. It's not uncommon to end up with 6 people all sitting on one side of the boat. Instead of yelling at eveyone to move all the time you can just adjust the tabs. You don't have that issue with the closed bow boats.

As for prop testing yesterday............
the boat seems to work fine now with 4 blade B-1s. If for no other reason than they're less expensive than 5 blades, I guess that's progress.
The best running one ran just about the same as my lab 28" P5-X. This is a weird prop. It came on my buddy's 29' Fountain. It's a 30" B-1 that the factory apparently ground ALL the cup out of. Very weird looking, but on his boat with the stock 575, it worked pretty well (83/84ish). After adding the boost kit, it would break loose with any throttle. He had our local prop guy add cup back to prop. This was in the reduced blade area left behind from the factory grinding. With only this mod, it was 400 RPMs faster than my factory 30" B-1. I think there is plenty left, as this prop has never been balanced, thinned, or sharpened. It ran 84.5 at 5600 on my boat. I think his best was 87 or 88 at similar RPMs. By the way, the X dimension his 29' Fountain is................19 1/4s".
I'm sending this prop along with my stock 30 to Matt. Matt has probably seen this Fountain factory "blueprint/mod" since he's worked on everything fast, but in case he hasn't, they do seem to be on to something here. We'll have him work his stuff from there, and then copy the results over to mine. I think there is another 2/3 MPH left in this prop, but we're getting close to the old limiter (5800 on our modified ECUs).
I also tested a 32" Merc lab B-1. I can't pull it, 5300 @ 84 MPH, and it took a country mile to get there. In the summer, it would be even worse.
So, is it the 1" spacer, taking my X dimension to 18 1/4"s, or the Imco gearcase loading the props better? I think it's some of both. The P5-X seems happier to me @ 19 1/4"s. The Bravos seem OK where they are. We'll get Matt to work the 30s over the winter, and test again next spring, with and without the spacer.
Dave, the dimension to the bottom of my transom bracket is 6 7/8"s. It would be less if Toby measured from the bottom of the trim line " junction box" that extends below the bottom of the bracket.
Regards and Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! Anybody going to Key West?
Regards,
Steve

BobL:
I have similar issues when my "social friends" ie wife's girlfriends, are on board. They don't understand, and you don't want to come off like Captain Blye with the bikini crew . Rather just hit the tabs and try to blow their tops off. I only got one this summer ............I'm sure it's worse with even more seating area.
Are your tabs mounted like mine?
Regards,
Steve

Nope, mine are on the outside. My exhaust is close in, but I don't have the steering arms to deal with since I have the ITS.

Bobl,
Thanks.
I wish mine either retracted more, or were closer to the chines so they just caught the spray coming off the corners of the transom at speed.
I guess I'll have to remove the tabs, and tie up the rams next spring, to see if they are slowing me down.
Regards,
Steve

Steve,

By looking at your pic the tabs look like they are parallel to the hull. Are they all the way up?? The transom confirguration of the heat makes any upgrades very interesting.

Magic,
They are actually about 2o + at full retraction, like the picture. However, when a boat rocks back on it's tail at high speed, tabs mounted close to the keel can drag on the surface, holding the nose down.
The transom on my boat is full and tight, and that is probably why the factory mounted the tabs where they did. I wouldn't have done it that way. It would have been better had the tabs been mounted closer to the chines. I may have to move them.
Steve