Do I need lifting strakes on a pontoon?

In short, pontoon lifting strakes provide the ability for your boat to increase speed by lifting the boat to the surface of the water. Lifting strakes will also support your boats performance in rough waters. But, I personally would only have them if they are already a pre-installed feature on the pontoon.

What is a lifting Strake on a pontoon?

Lifting strakes are metal structures that are welded to pontoon tubes to increase the lift at the bow. Pontoon tubes have a rounded shape, and they immerse more than halfway in the water. This creates a drag force that lowers the speed of the pontoon boat.

How much do lifting strakes help?

And even though some are fitted with high-powered motors, most are too heavy to fly off in the water. There is a way though to enhance the speed profile of a pontoon boat, without adding extra horsepower, or ditching weight from the boat. That’s by adding lifting strakes. This increases the rated speed by about 15-25%.

Will a hydrofoil help my pontoon?

Hydrofoils can fit into most pontoon engines, so you shouldn’t struggle to find one to match your needs. Just make sure that the hydrofoil is compatible with the exact engine horsepower not to face issues later on.

What do strakes do on a boat?

Strakes: Are They for Lift or Stability? Don’t call those flat strips running along a hull’s bottom “lifting” strakes. Their main purpose is to prevent spray and water from riding up the hull, thereby reducing wetted-surface resistance.

Can you add a third Toon to a pontoon?

You can add a third hull to a pontoon boat. This creates a “tritoon,” a boating option that is becoming increasingly popular among pontoon owners because of several advantages over a two-hulled pontoon including increased performance and capacity.

What are strakes on a boat?

On a vessel’s hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat’s stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear).

Do Suntracker pontoons have lifting strakes?

SUN TRACKER XP3 performance models feature three 26″-diameter pontoon logs with a total of four performance lifting strakes—two on the middle log and one on the inboard side of each exterior log—for enhanced all-around performance, including faster planing, higher top-end speeds and tighter handling.

Will a whale tail help a pontoon boat?

A whale tail will only push the bow down making it cavitate more easily. A lot of pontoons will do this if the weight is not placed right. Had this problem when I first bought a new 24ft pontoon. It came with a 50 or 60 hp motor and “we” tried raising and lowering the motor and 3 different props to no avail.

What are planing strakes?

Lifting Strakes are located on planing surfaces, are designed to have a surface generally flat (zero deadrise) to water surface, and generate increased lift at improved efficiency under some conditions.

Why is a strake placed on the fuselage of a hawk?

You may have noted that the tailplane of the Hawk is a full-flying surface, also called an all-moving surface. When the stick is pulled aft, the leading edge will align with the strake, forming in effect a leading edge extension.

What kind of boat has tap fins and lifting strakes?

And because of the popularity of pontoon boats on Lake Norman, Evan decided to add two 2010 Sweetwater 2386 pontoons boats to his fleet this past summer, both rigged with Yamaha 115hp four-strokes. The only difference in the nearly identical pontoon boats-one has TAP Fins and the other has lifting strakes.

What happens to the Strake when the stick is pulled aft?

When the stick is pulled aft, the leading edge will align with the strake, forming in effect a leading edge extension. This will produce a vortex over the lower surface of the inner tailplane and prevent early flow separation at the tailplane root at low speed.

Why are the flaps removed on a hawk?

In flight testing, it was found that the Hawk would suddenly nose-dive with full flaps and gear up. This was dubbed “phantom dive”. Cutting back the flaps solved that behavior, but later, heavier versions of the Hawk needed more lift, so a different fix had to be found.