TOPIC: Doel-Fin results

My old Merc 650 with a fresh 15P prop ran ok but cavitated pretty bad on takeoff and in fast turns. Last fall I installed a Doel-Fin just when winter came in, so I didn't get to test it until the past weekend. Very impressive results. Cavitation is gone. I experimented with the tilt setting and at the #3 setting the boat flew, but the cav came back so I went back to #2 setting. Biggest performance gain this trip was that I found I had both carbs running way too rich on the idle mixture (like 2 or more turns too rich). I fine tuned those and found that the leaner idle setting has quite a big effect on top end rpms. I guess it's like motorcycle carbs, where idle mixture can affect the whole powerband. Getting the carbs dialed in also cured the stalling when going into gear problem.

The video was taken after the wind kicked up on the lake. We were taking off with a 20 mph quartering headwind, 2 people in the boat, and it was getting kinda white-cappy out there. With the Doel Fin and the leaner mixture, the boat handles much nicer and really hooks up on take-off. It should really scoot with just me aboard. You can tell by the shaky camera, there was quite a chop. My son cut the video short because he was having trouble hanging on.

Great to hear you're getting her dialed in Norm, sometimes makes all the difference in the world right!?

Sure does. This is the second boat I've used a Doel Fin on. Used to think they were just snake oil, but on both boats I saw a huge difference in performance, especially on takeoff.