I have had some performance issues with my 2004 Carolina Skiff J16. It took a long time to plane and would hardly plane with a full rear livewell. I have distributed weight the best I could but nothing really helped all that much except having my fishing partner move forward a little while trying to get up on plane and then once the boat was on plane he could sit back down. I installed a The Original Doel-Fin Hydrofoil from DAVIS INSTRUMENTS. This thing made a huge improvement in plane out time. It took probaly a quarter of the time if not less to plane out. It was really easy to install and took only about 15 minutes. I am not affiliated with Davis Instruments just a very satisfied customer. I honestly didn't think this thing could make this much difference. I didn't get a chance to test turning or speed but will once the weather warms up a bit and I get more time behind the wheel.

They do help. I noticed a huge difference in time to get on plane when I had one on the 25 HP on my boat.

I had a OMC GT150 at one time on a bass boat and it was very heavy. I use the Attwood model with the turned up ends to help get on plane faster especially in shallow tidal waters. By design, it was mostly out of the water at speed so it didn't affect the top end.