Customer Reviews

Sting Ray XRIII Senior Hydrofoil Stabilizer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having just bought my first boat in 30 years, I'm still relearning some things about handling a 16 foot boat. The first few times out on rough water the bone jarring slams between waves grew old quickly. Several boater friends suggested getting a stabilizer. After researching a number of options, I decided on the Stingray XRIII. It claimed to be the best in several aspects and was twice the price of the others I looked at, but if it did as claimed then I felt it would be worth it.

I received the Stingray the week before Fathers Day and with a planned gathering at my brothers place on a local lake I felt I had a great opportunity to test this out. It was windy and the flurry of other boats on the lake made for some pretty rough going. I started off without the stabilizer on the motor, my son and I cruised around, taking notes on things like fuel flow rate, smoothness of ride and hole shot time. Took the boat back to my brother's dock and quickly installed the Stingray. Installation is super easy and we were back out in less than ten minutes.

Here are the claims made by the manufacturer and my findings:

Claim... "By capturing the prop wash, the XRIII harnesses its power for added thrust."
Findings... Inconclusive, the water was too rough to really go full out for more than a short run, but the indication is that this is true. The boat does seem to go faster at a given RPM compared to running without it. The "rooster tail" is all but gone too, since the Stingray sticks out about 18 inches behind the prop, it catches the prop wash that is usually thrown up above the surface and directs it back, thus capturing that wasted energy.

Claim... "Better Fuel Efficiency" or "You'll enjoy better performance and greater fuel savings."
Findings... I really can't say for sure, running flat out is still running flat out, so the fuel consumption is going to remain the same, however, since you get better speed, you'll get from point A to point B quicker, so using less fuel between two given points would stand to reason.

Claim... "Stops Porpoising"
Findings... It certainly does smooth out the roughness of choppy water and eliminated the porpoising I experienced at anything above my test speed of 30 MPH. In fact I was able to open it up full throttle or nearly 40 MPH for a short distance without being banged to death like we were without the Stingray installed. It was still rough water, but I couldn't open it up all the way before, and though still not a nice ride at that speed, it was much smoother than before the Stingray was installed.

Claims... "...fastest hole shot yet", "On Plane up to 50% Faster" and "Reduced Bow Rise"
Findings... "YES! My son and I took an average of three times trials without the stabilizer on, and my boat took between 6 and 7 seconds to get up on plane each time. After the Stingray was installed it took three tries just to get the time. The transition is so smooth and without the usual bow rise that I was missing the point where plane was achieved. When I finally figured out when the boat was reaching plane, the time was just over three seconds, or half the time as without the Stingray and the process of getting there is almost level and smooth as silk. A wonderful improvement almost worth the cost for this alone.

Conclusion: I took the boat out on Puget Sound last weekend, and it was great, the Sound is a big body of water that is pretty rough most of the time, so I really wasn't sure I wanted to take a 16 foot boat out there. It's been two weeks since Fathers day, and Sunday was beautiful with very calm water, so we put the boat in the sound and went for a 30 mile cruise. Even as the wind came up and the water grew choppier the boat handled beautifully. We had three people on board, but I was still able to approach 40 MPH, I have only been able to achieve about 42 MPH when alone before now. So the Stingray XPRIII hydrofoil does seem to give a speed increase, a much faster hole shot, and far smoother ride. I'll need to do further testing on the fuel economy claims, but the bottom line is that with the improvements I see so far, I think it was worth the investment to buy the most expensive hydrofoil/stabilizer I've looked at.

Bought in Feb. Lost in April. Worked great for a while. The entire fin with torque plate is in bottom of lake. I did not hit anything. An I tighten as far as to just not break anything. I will get another one but will not trust the "No Drilling Required"

I have a Starcraft FD 191 deck boat with a Yamaha 150 4-stroke. the boat is a bit on the heavy side and is also a bit tail-heavy. Having experienced the benefits of a Sport Marine Hydrofoil [...] on my previous boat which was underpowered, I immediatly wanted to get the same improvements on my new boat without drilling into a brand new engine. Previously the boat had a tremendous about of bow rise at hole shot, took ~11 seconds to fully plane out, fell off of plane at 22mph(3500rpm), and topped out at ~45mph.
Now the bow rise is less pronounced and of much shorter duration, planes-out at ~6 sec, stays on plane down to 15mph with much less trim jockeying, HOWEVER, the top end is now about ~41mph
The improvements are well worth the tradeoff in topend. As to reviews where folks relate losing the hyrofoil, It seems that it is very important to use "loctite" on the anode bolt... time will tell.

I just bought one of these no-drill hydrofoils. I owned one before on an older motor, but it was the drill version. I am sure this one will perform as well as the other, maybe even better based on the design. In any case, I want to address the folks that say these fall off. I can see no earthly way this thing can come off if you install it per the instructions. It's simply not possible. I did buy a longer bolt for my torque tab (which you must remove to install the hydrofoil) because with the hydrofoil installed, the bolt required about another half inch of length to get plenty of threads into the torque tab. When I reinstalled the torque tab (which holds the hydrofoil on) I also added a lock washer and used the loctite included in the kit. I can't imagine this thing coming off. It is solid. I think if it fell off any boat, it was probably poorly installed and the torque tab probably came off too, because the bolt came unscrewed, because the bolt was probably too short, and probably because the owner failed to use loctite or allow it to cure (24 hours). When all else fails, follow the instructions.

THE FIRST ONE WORKED WELL FOR ABOUT A COUPLE OF HOURS UNTIL IT FELL OFF AND IS THE BOTTOM OF LAKE ERIE SOMEWHERE. THE SECOND ONE NEVER MADE IT OUT OF THE MARINA WHEN THE OPERATOR OF THE DRYSTACK GARAGE BROKE IT OFF. THE THIRD ONE HAS MORE STAINLESS HARDWARE HOLDING IT ON THEN IS NECESSARY, BUT AFTER PUTTING 3 OF THEM ON MY NEW BOAT, I WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT I DO NOT LOSE OR HAVE IT BREAK OFF AGAIN. THE STABILIZER DOES WORK WELL, JUST DISAPPOINTED I FOLLOWED THE DIRECTION THAT VERY FEW TOOLS ARE NEEDED.

Just installed this Hydrofoil Stabilizer on our 2000 Maxum and it's making an amazing difference in our boat's performance! Very easy to install, too!

I have a 29 foot pontoon powered by a Yamaha 115 4 stroke. The prop would consistently "cavitate" every time I turned the boat quickly while pulling a tube, slowing the boat tremendously. This hydrofoil eliminated this cavitation allowing me to turn the boat sharper to get the kids outside the wake. The only downside is that it states that it will increase speed, which, in my case, it doesn't. Also, be sure to put a couple of bolts when connecting to be sure it doesn't fall off while under way. I recommend it!

We already had a hydrofoil on our engine, but my husband really wanted this one; guess he liked the sporty look of it. So we bought it and had a chance to use it one time this fall before cold weather set in. We are AMAZED at how well this lifts the boat out of the water. We are on plane in no time. When we slow down, the stern of the boat doesn't sink deeply into the water. We absolutely love this product; it outperforms the other unit that we had. I can't wait to see how well it pulls a skier. Plus, there is no cavitation in tight turns. This product is highly recommended and well worth the money.

I purchesed this hidrofoil, its works very well, used on Mercury 115hp 2011, i use my boat on water sking.

I used this every day for two weeks on Bull Shoals Lake. I have a 90hp Merc OB on a 17ft Deep-Vee hull. The first two days, I just wasnt sure...was there any improvement or am I just imagining it? But as time went on and we boated through a variety of conditions, I definately feel there was a performance improvement. It does smooth out the ride and decreases porpoising. The best thing about it is that it totally stopped the yawing that my boat always did. It also rides on plane at lower speeds than without the hydrofoil. I dont think it planes out any faster as my boat planed out pretty fast without the hydrofoil. It seems to create some extra vibration at really slow speeds, but it was minor. I cant comment regarding top end speed performance decrease because we never run at the top end. I can definately say that if it dropped off or got broken, I would replace it. I am pleased with the performance improvement. My family noticed the improvement too. I still feel the cost is too high, but it is a quality product that probably had a lot of design development costs associated with it. I highly recommend it.