TBM Sponsons Kit
Posted in TBM Sponsons Kit on March 26th, 2008 by SkipTBM Sponson Kit TBM101-UL $389.95
This took some time to complete as the winter months dont really allow for comfortable testing but we got it complete as much as I see fit to review.
What you see in the above photo is a sponson kit with adjustable depth. The backing plate can be one or two deep.
We found that two plate deep offers the best stability in rough water and offered the best speed numbers as it seemed to aid with lifting the boat.
The paddles are shark finned to give some relief in the turns to avoid major speed looses in tight turns. As most of TBM Ultra products these are designed with the offshore racer in mind. The concept follows their other 250X products with complete adjustably for individual fine tunning. Since these sponsons are designed and tailored to mostly offshore use then thats where our testing will be completed.
Some install shots.
Our testing favored the double backing plate. The sponsons also where favored in the up position for offshore use.
As they were designed the offshore use was great and offered similar stability as the stock sponsons offered. The shark fin idea also prevents drag during high speed runs. One draw back to the shark fin paddles was tight and hard turning showed too much relief. TBM is going to offer a solid paddle for those who opted to use the sponson kit for buoy running or slalom. So in short the TBM sponsons show to work extremely well for offshore use and compliment their intake great nicely. Remeber that for maximum stability use bothe backing plates and paddles in the up possition.
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