Posts: 3480
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
Been thinking about this one for a while and the only thing I can think of is that the boat was listing enough to the right to the point that the stabilizing wing on the port side of the motor was out of the water while the right side was submerged. Since the foil act like a wing on a plane (same basic design as a wing on a plane....made in such a way that there is less pressure on the underside of the wing as compared to the top of the wing which creates the stern lift) my only thought is that with a fairly equalized pressure on the right side of the wing, the wing might have been acting as a curved rudder pushing lower into the water as you punched the throttle with a trimmed in motor.
Definitely is not a fun situation to feel, but here is a question for you...being it is a 14 foot boat and you weighing 275 pounds, that is quite a bit of weight on one side of the boat. Any chance you can move some other gear weight to the left to help balance out the load like your boat battery, gas can (if it needs a separate can)?
Just out of my own curiosity, what brand and how old is the boat? I think there might be some other things that can be tried, which may include taking the wing off, but depending on what you have, it may be needed and worthwhile to keep on. My gut instinct says for a 14 foot boat and 50hp, the foil is probably not something that is needed, unless the boat weight alone is over 700 pounds or so...then it might be something to consider.
In most cases, I feel the added wing is more of a band-aid for covering up some sort of set-up issue with the boat and motor combination. In almost all of the cases I know of, a foil is the most beneficial to those boats which are significantly underpowered for what the boat is rated for....like so many of the "deal" boats you see in many marine dealership ads.
Steve |
