Scott, I used to have a 20.5 foot, 4.3L Rinker with a foil on the out drive. We tried the boat with and without the foil. The wakeboard wake was better without the foil, but it took longer to get on plane. I drove the trim from a modest nose down position to a hard nose down position. Too much nose down didn't help the wake and was probably hard on the outdrive. BTW, nose down will also help you get on plane faster.
I don’t recall having a problem with proposing but I did have huge speed control problems. Maintaining wakeboard speed was very difficult, the boat was always on the verge of coming on or off plane. I actually wore out the throttle control at the wakeboard speed spot.
I think trim tabs will help you get on plane faster. Once you’re on plane I think that you’ll want tabs up. Since trim tabs will help you get on plane faster, they should let you put more weight in the boat. As long as you can get on plane I think that weight in the bow should help with speed control.
I’m running over 2,000 pounds of ballast for wakesurfing. I was worried about the load that I was putting on the motor and transmission. As I mentioned before (email) I sent one of my props to ACME so they could change the pitch from 12 to 10.5. Sounds like you’ve got a good prop.
Hey I just got a Fresh Air Exhaust system in the mail today. As soon as I get the boat back from the shop I’m going to put it on. Now I only need to get my dry suit and we can hit the water, I still owe you a ride