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If the motor is mounted high enough, the whale tail should be out of the water when at high speed, so it should not affect performance. Many dealers recommend those fins because their customers are getting excessive bow rise at takeoff; typically the dealer has mounted the motor too low. Win/win for the dealer, not so much for the customer! You may well find you no longer need the fin once you find the correct motor height.

Maybe I am missing something, but the full throttle range seems to be 5500-6000 (http://www.evinrude.com/en-us/engines/etec_v4/etec_115_v4) rather than 5000 - 5500 as reported earlier. I always like to be at the upper end of the range, as it tends to improve acceleration and gives you greater flexibility, such as when you are heavily loaded. So if raising the last hole gets you to around 5800 - 5900, perfect!

Yes, you could probably squeeze out another MPH or two by trying to find the perfect prop, but you've described the greatly improved handling you experienced with the Viper - to me that's more important.


Tim