2010 Wake 230 - adding additional ballast

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roju6

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Hi all, there are a few posts about using these boats for wakesurfing and the challenges to be had, but with a boat that is paid for I'm willing to spend a few bucks on ballast, etc. rather than shelling out $100k+ for a big name boat.

That said, we have tried surfing using just the stock 1000 lbs of ballast on the boat, and the wake is just not quite tall enough to get the speed we need (I'm 6'6 and 230 lbs, most of my friends are 200 lbs also). I have bought some additional fat sacs but haven't had a chance to try them yet. I got a 370 lb bag which will fit on the floor in the bow underneath the filler cushions which is handy. Then a pair of 400 lb bags, I'm thinking of putting on on the floor in front of the rear wrap around seating and seeing if that additional 770 lbs is enough or if I need the other 400 lb bag as well.

One thing that I'd love to do is actually put these bags down in the hull if they would fit, and plumb them into the existing fill/drain system so they would be completely hands free and out of the way. I haven't pulled things apart to see how much room is below the floor, wondering if anyone has done something like that?

I find there isn't a ton of storage on this boat so I don't want to use the ski locker or under the front seats for ballast if I can put it somewhere else. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated!
 
It's doable, but not the best platform. You could easily get into an older Nautique or Malibu for about $40K that would surf circles around our jets, but it wouldn't be as new.

I'd recommend trying a wake shaper (there's videos online on how to make them pretty cheap) or moving your ballast around to get the boat lower in the water and possibly listing to one side or the other. Our hulls aren't designed as well as the newer purpose built boats.

I've seen Videos on YouTube showing people surfing behind 230s, but they don't really explain their set-up.

Trial and error on this one.
 
I agree it's not the ideal setup, and eventually probably will move into a different boat, but for now this is the one we are keeping.

I do have the Swell Wakesurf shaper (and yes, it is possible to mount on our boats, but there's not much for location options), however that is just for cleaning up the face of the wave, not building the wave. That allows me to weight the ballast evenly rather than listing the boat.

Hull design is the biggest problem, these boats sit so shallow compared to a v-drive boat. Which is a real plus for shallower water, but doesn't have the displacement either. Once I get a chance to add the extra ballast I bought I'll post some pics/videos, I'm pretty confident that will be enough to get the wake big enough, then comes the task of cleaning it up if possible.
 
Well after a summer of trial and error, we've been close with surfing but not quite there.

The video was with the stock 1000 lbs of ballast filled, a 370 lb bag on the floor in the bow, and a 400 lb bag on the floor in front of the back seat. There were 4 adults in the boat.

We tried using the Swell wakesurf wedge, but putting it opposite of the rider caused too much oversteering which pushed the jets at the rider. Thought of it afterwards that maybe putting the wedge on the rider side would push the jets away from the rider, but thought of this too late to try.

Have basically come to the conclusion that my board is too small for my size. I'm 6'6 and 235 lbs on a Hyperlite Shim 4'7 board. I tried this board behind a 2018 Centurion Ri237 loaded with ballast and couldn't let go of the rope either.

I've preordered a new board for next summer, a Hyperlite Landlock 5'9 board. I'm going to make this work yet, at a cheaper price than buying a different boat.

 
What speed are you going? Everything I've ever read said speeds should be between 10 - 12 mph.

I know we could get my buddy to surf with a rope behind our 210 going slow and moving a lot of water. We just didn't have enough weight to make the wave big enough to provide the push that was needed to lose the rope.
 
We tried a variation of speeds from 9 - 15 mph just experimenting to see how the wave would look. Too fast and the surfer won't keep up no matter what.

I think we will try loading up even more ballast at the back of the boat to get the ramp bigger, and maybe try the wedge on the same side as the rider which would result in pointing the jets away from the rider and clean up that edge of the wave, possibly.
 
Have you tried weighing down just one side of the boat? You may do better putting all the weight to one side, including your passengers, to get more of the boat in the water. Most boats I see without wake surf systems will either have their boat weighed down evenly front to back with a lot of additional weight to the point where there's very little freeboard, or they'll weigh down one side only.
 
Listing the boat is just to clean up the face of the wave, which is exactly what the wake shape device does if you ballast evenly.
Since lack of weight has been the issue, we've just weighted the boat evenly to drop the back as much as possible. I'm not concerned about cleaning up the wave at this point, until we've gotten the wave big enough to surf on anyway.

As we've all concluded, hull shape and lack of displacement is the biggest wrench in surfing with our boats (with the jetwash being the next challenge).
 
Replied on another thread but just saw this. Will be trying to engineer a shaper in the off season but was successful in getting several different riders ropeless. Don't have ballast yet but had 8 people helping. Varied about 12-15mph

IMG_8962.JPG
 
What size of a board is that? Came to the conclusion that is my biggest challenge given my size, so a new board has been ordered for next summer.

I also found we had to go a little faster than what the recommended surfing speeds are for v-drive boats just due to the jetwash and how the wave forms.
 
It's the hyperlight landlock, 59" pretty long for a lot of wake surf boards, wanted something I could use at 230#s, couple of the 20 something's I had said was really stable compared to the smaller. They like. Said they couldn't do as many tricks but they liked it.

Yeah, 10 on ours was not good, wake was ugly. Got it sped up a bit and was decent. They said really long compared to their vdrive.
 
Ha, that is literally the board I just ordered because I'm also 6'6 and 235 lbs. Actually I pre-ordered the 2019 version I guess, but it should be shipping in October they thought, but good to know that it's big enough for someone my size.

Next summer will be more experimenting with ballast, speed, and shape because I like the boat otherwise and planning on keeping it.
 
That's great, we like the board so far. I'm going to be hitting up the neighbors who are both engineers to see if we can come up with something to both clean up as well make bigger wake etc. Like you, I'm not getting rid of the boat but figure why not at least try to improve with what I have.
 
Keep me posted guys. Got my Wake 230 last year and looking to improve the wave with both weight and shaper next summer. All feedback welcomed!
 
I have a 210 wake with stock ballast and one 400lb bag I put on the back seats and typically 3-4 people in the boat. my wave gets just big enough to carry the rider but not big enough to do anything with. I plan on getting two more ballast bags.
im typically around 11-12 mph in dead calm 40ft of water.

seems like in your video another issue you might be battling is rougher water.
 
has anyone found a ballast bag to fit the wet storage locker on the swim deck?

I bought a 3 piece set of ballast bags and pump, there are 2 - 400 lb bags, and 1 - 170 lb bag, the smaller bag fits on the floor in bow (so you can still close the door, and below the filler cushions). Tried that bag up there, with one 400 lb bag on the floor in front of the back seats, still wasn't quite enough to get the height we needed.
 
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