43MY trim tab size

[gmcop1]

Does anyone know the size of the original trim tabs for my 43’ my? Mine are only about 6x18 which seems small.

 

[Boatsb]

If it's a Bennett it's either 9 or 12 inches long. 18 inches wide may be right but it may not have been factory installed. I think wider may have needed dual cylinders.

 

[Photolomy]

Does anyone know the size of the original trim tabs for my 43’ my? Mine are only about 6x18 which seems small.

I can say that my 53 MY tabs are not much bigger than that.

 

[Walter P]

I owned 2 43DC's over many years. The first was a 1973 (original owner), the second was a 1980. Both
had bennet tabs that were much larger than you describe. While I don't remember the exact size on either
the 1980 model had much smaller tabs than the '73. Six inches long sounds about right if memory still
serves me, but they were wider than eighteen inches. In 1980 Hatteras installed the much smaller tabs
on the 43 DC's with the 6-71TI engines (which were also de-tuned by them. The thinking was that beginning
with the 1980 model year they revised their fiberglas layup schedule and the boats were much lighter
than the previous years. Hatteras told me at the time that it was because they felt it was not necessary
to use so much fiberglass as they were way overbuilt. The result was a faster boat using the pre-1980
6-71 TI engines which were rated as I recall at about 390 HP each side. My 1980 with the TI's left the
factory with detuned engines rated at only 325 HP ea, not much more than the 6-71JT's at 310. At the
same time they also shortened the trim tabs to limit nose drop in following sea's or running an inlet.
I verified this by contacting JT and Covington both of which provided various Detroit engines to Hatteras.

Well I decided to replace the factory trim tabs with much larger planes and I had JT in S. Jersey come
over and re do the engines to make up the HP loss. JT said that they were now around 400 HP ea.
When we took the boat out for a sea trial, I was amazed. We ran average two way speed trial at WOT
and got a solid 23K....but it was hairy. The boat was very squirlly and didn't have much hull in the
water (which is what I was warned would happen and advised to not do it) I left it that way for all
the years I owned her and made a couple of dozen round trips from NJ to So Fla. I usually cruised
off shore at about 17 -17.5 K which was safe and comfortable. In very calm conditions it would probably
be OK to run harder, but why press my luck.

My 1980 boat was much lighter than the '73 and it didn't plow through the seas as well as the 1973
model, but it was still a very comfortable boat. I got caught at times in some nasty conditions and
never had any broken tabbing so I guess the Hatteras engineers were correct that all that extra
fiberglass was not necessary. Of course I always suspected that the real reason for saving the extra
weight was suspiciously that the price of imported crude oil which is used to make fiberglass and resin
went sky high after the Arab oil embargo of 1979.

Walt

 

[sgharford]

On my 1976 43DC the Bennett trim tab size is 36" x 12"

 

[Pascal]

My 53 had the stock 42x15 tabs. Dieting the repower I talked to Bennett and they recommended going with 54x12. I also moved them to a standard transom mounted position instead of recessed inside the hull bottom.

The boat gets on plane easily with minimal squatting. I can’t cmoared with the original tabs since I had naturals which could never get the boat up

Bennett general recommendation is 1” per foot with a 12” cord