Harry Krause wrote:
On 12/27/2006 9:09 AM, Gene Kearns wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:30:53 -0500, Wayne.B penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:09:36 -0800, Josh Assing
wrote:

I have a 92 BlueWater cuddy runabout in need of trim tabs.

What size trim tabs should I go with?
I would suggest calling the customer service folks at Bennett Trim
Tabs and/or go to their web site:

http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/

I called them when we were putting new tabs on my old boat and they
were very helpful and knowledgable.
Has anyone tried/reviewed/know of anyone with "Smart Tabs"?
No, never heard of them.

Just adding to what Wayne offered....

sizing instructions:
http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/size1.htm

I'm not familiar with "Smart Tabs," but they appear to be a passive
gas charged cylinder reacting to water pressure from a hull as it
increases in speed. IMHO, it appears that the flaw in their entire
system is that at slow speeds the tab is depressed into a full down
position and acts as a speed brake. They market this as a desirable
feature to enhance trolling... I find it to be a ridiculous assertion
and/or feature. Their goal is for a hands-off passive system. I don't
think that will work and it would seem that Bennett's hands-off system
makes a LOT more sense. See:
http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/autotab.htm

Two more things:

(1) When I went to the "Smart Tab" web site my anti-virus alerted me
with an attempt at malicious code injection. Visit at your own risk...

(2) Bennett used to monitor this newsgroup and a tech rep would
quickly be in touch with posters to answer questions and offer useful
and informative advice. I haven't seen him here lately and it occurs
to me that if we have lost invaluable free resources like that, the
net-copping was too little and too late....



I don't think auto-tabs are a good idea. If you are the skipper, you
should always be aware of where your boat is in the space-time
continuum. Different loading patterns, throttle settings, wave and wind
conditions affect how your boat runs, and as skipper you should be alert
enough to not only notice these, but to effectuate your tabs to best
position your boat's angle of attack. Automating the tab process removes
the skipper from such decision-making.

Generally I am not in favor of devices that make boating "too simple."
Driving a boat on open waters is not like driving a car on the highway.
If you are going to drive a boat, you ought to know how to do it, and
you ought to do it every time you are at the helm.

As for the netcops, well, the chief netcop pain in the ass just drove
off Tom, who has been one of my favorite posters here. So I decided to
filter out the netcop, whose postings have become boring, repetitive and
commercial.


Harry,

I don't think you read what Wayne said, he said:

I haven't seen him here lately and it occurs
to me that if we have lost invaluable free resources like that, the
net-copping was too little and too late....

Since you have said numerous times you really don't come to rec.boats to
discuss boats, but just to meet up with some "old friends". Why don't
you just use email, it would make your life much easier, and you
wouldn't have to put up with all the 'a**holes', to use your favorite word.