I notice a few race boats at Key West run there tabs horizontal. what is the reason behind this. I going to be reinstalling my tabs next week and want to know what would be better.

you ever snowski?
how'd you learn to stop?

didn't you learn to snowplow with the skis tucked in towards each other?

Let's consider an extreme..
What happens when you mount the tabs VERTICAL and put them "down"?
You snowplow, right?

So if you go from vertical (fully snowplowing)
to horizontal (no snowplowing), then you can see that the more you stray from horizontal, the more snowplow effect you will have when you tab below neutral.

When tabs are mounted at a matching angle to the deadrise, and you run them neutral, then there is no snowplow, there is just additional "hull length". This is useful. But when you have to run them below neutral, you start snowplowing.

There are arguments both ways. I guess the real answer depends on how much tab you need to run at racing speeds.

Also heard of the snowplow effect described above.

HEY!! Your back! I look foward to your insight. Always
top notch.
Paul (hot boat). It's because its a Fountain....always on
the cutting edge.

if beek boats do it, it must be right no ?













ONLY KIDDING !!

Have also gotten the snowplowing explanation makes sense to me but who am i ?

I have a 28' single engine. I only use the tabs when its rough water or during a poker run. When I do use them I dont need much tab, either flat with the hull or slightly lower, just enough to give the hull some extra length to keep the bow from lifting.

mcollinstn from what you said it sound that I would be best leaving them where they are , and using them more as a hull extension.

if they are horizontal yes...

JEB BROWN was doing that back in the early 90's on his race boats

do the water flow calcs b4 you decide to mount them. I have them horizontal on my fountain now, but I tried that on the Venom earler this year and I found them to be useless(tabs in down position caught 2 3/4" of a 30" tab) in that position so I went back to matching the bottom. Boat design detirmines alot when making this decision

Installing the tabs horizontal is a very old idea. Far from cutting edge. CanDo