Last winter Sabre built it's first 52 Salon Expresswith the Volvo IPS pod drive train. In this scenario the owner sought no new interior accommodation plans and was more interested in the pod technology, the joy stick docking and of course the fuel economy of a pod drive boat. The results were excellent and one of the important elements of this installation is the subject of todays blog. In our business there are many truly excellent products but I would have to place the Humphree Interceptor trim tab system in the "over the top" category.
Conventional trim tabs pivot from a point at the transom corner and displace water coming off the hull bottom to push the bow down. There is a lot of pressure on conventional "flap" style tabs and most use electrical power or hydraulic pressure to perform their function. The Interceptor principal is that a blade mounted on the vertical surface of the transom is deployed downwards into the water below the hull bottom surface, 90 degrees to the water flowing over the hull bottom. This small amount of surface area creates a high pressure area forward of the blade and in doing so creates hydrodynamic lift.
Our experience on the 52 was excellent and the product is performing well in service. The system installed on the 52 IPS has several memory settings allowing the operator to preset for specific load and weight circumstances such as high/low fuel, sea conditions etc. At the high end of their range are adaptive systems which learn by themselves and trim the boat to a predetermined state and will even adjust for wave conditions to lessen roll. Amazing stuff and worthy of a look and a "Gold Star" from the Sabre team.
Have a great and level weekend!