SB, are you currently useing these?

So they don't increase the running surface, but create some drag with their lift?

Yes, I like to try new stuff that I hear good things about. In this case, I tested some before the boat was even ordered.

I liked them then. I like them now on my 330 SY Monterey.

The hole that fits the operating/wire housing that goes thru the transom looks by eye-ball to be about the size of a quarter in diameter, maybe smaller.

I don't think that I have a 70mm x 55mm space left on my helm to install the controler as there is already a in-dash fishfinder and GPS mounted in the available space. Maybe it gets mounted on the gunnel next to the throttle control?

I'm finding a price range for QL300 (15' to 24') from $550 to $750.

I have found it cheaper, but I think that a Bennett set up would be even cheaper, as Bennett can be bought without the helm station indicator. That is a extra cost feature with other brands, is my understanding, but standard with the Volvo Kit.

You want to be able to read the lights to see how far down you have your tabs with the Volvo system. So, I would want that panel in line of sight.

Buy a system without a read-out display and those perhaps could make for a happy skipper. Less info, but most likely less money, but still infinite control.

I read somewhere that because the mechanism sits at the very bottom of the transom, that drilling the hole for the electrical cable can be tricky. Seems it was a 1" (?) hole that needed to be drilled into the transom, and then met by drilling at an angle from inside the bilge area. This is all from memory.

I believe that the mounting holes are drilled INTO the transom, and not THROUGH it.

Very attractive system, nontheless. I'd like to put tabs on my boat, because it pounds in the rough stuff if everyone is seated center or aft. It will also lean if people aren't seated "just-so".

I liked the idea a lot and almost bought them when I was looking for trim tabs.

I would have done it, except that drilling that 1" hole all the way through the transom at an angle to meet with another 1" hole drilled diagonally down from inside the engine compartment is not a DIY kind of job. There is no way I could have made those holes meet correctly.

I think they need a professional to do the install.

Look at figure 15 here.

I told the Volvo guys that one of www.BoatingABC.com members said that, trooplewis, and they told me that the hole size has not been a customer issue. So, I do not know what to say. The hole looks as I said, to an eyeball look, to be about the size of a quarter.

Maybe its farther up from the bottom running surface of the boat that your understanding of inside and outside tunnel holes that match up in the middle is somewhat different than you read/think?

After reading the directions it seems to me that you do not necessarily have to drill both an outside and an inside hole, you only do that if your hole saw cannot drill all the way through. They seem very nice, and if I needed tabs these are what I would get.

In looking at Figure 15, there is a proceedure. Drill hole A (1"), then drill hole B at an angle inside the hole A through the hull, then go inside and drill hole C.