I have a Supra ssv24, when I get my bags full my platform seems to cut up the wake a bit... Has anyone fooled with changing the platform, or removing it completly..
You definitely want to look into a platform that does not have a lip along the bottom....I used this suggestion from Ragboy at wake9. I was able to design a deck using a piece of plywood...I took this deck to the local boat shop and their fiberglass guy was able to mold a new deck using the old decks materials.
I will hopefully have the parts done by the end of the week. I removed the swim deck a few weeks ago... absolutely huge! When weighted good, my swim deck was about 5 inches under the water (standing still), when at surf speed you could see the deck slicing through at least 4 or 5 inches of water. Lot of foam with the deck, no foam and tall without.
I'll post before and after pics when I get the mod done.
@gary as long as you make sure that your wake will not have a big rooster when you remove the platform or raise it. On my boat, we found that the deck was necessary, when you remove it, wake was clean, but we had a rooster that was not horrible, but annoying, would splash rider's face randomly. So if you have tested with deck removed, and that isn't an issue, great.
Another consideration is safety. Think of the times a rider gets REAL close to the boat. Will raising the deck 8 inches allow the board to get under? That could be a real issue.
Lastly, I think it is more important to make the bottom of the deck smooth, not necessarily get it up. You may find that raising it up, makes it worse unless the deck is all the way out of the water. I have found that a deck with a lip that causes wake turbulence will cause more turbulence in the wake when closer to the surface that if it is deeper in the surface.
Just thoughts to consider, but please document what you do and take pics and video so we can all add this to the knowledge of swim decks and surfing.
i am in the process of trying to design a new platform too... I was thinking aluminum at first like ragboy but now more and more I am wantig to go 3/4'' ply and either urethane it white (makes it smooth and seals the crappy ply) or line x/rhino line it but that won't be "smooth"
I took my swim deck off the boat, turned it upside down on a piece of 3/4 inch plywood. I made a template using the deck and brought the edges in about 6 inches and tapered the sides as much as possible. I took this to the lake and did a test run....I was able to get about 95% of the deck out of the wake stream. I took this template to a fiberglass guy who made a mold of the plywood and used the material from the old deck to make the new one. The important issue is to make sure to get rid of the lip on the bottom.
Thats very interesting, the first version is cleaner, second version is throwing up that spray. The first version, the water looks identical to how the water comes off my aluminum deck. But not the second.
The glass deck is pretty beefy....about 4 inches thick. Would have liked it to be thinner. When the wake stream comes out of the hole it hits the side of the deck, which causes the spray. However, I really don't notice any degradation of the wave in the pocket. And the spray does not bother the rider.
My FAE does not attach to the swim deck, it mounts through the transom. I have all the materials cut for my new deck mounts, just need to get them welded up. Hopefully this weekend!!!
It has been done....but it only affects my wave when there is a medium amount of weight....problem went away when we went from the 400# to the 1100# sack.
New deck is done. 8" higher. Wake is at least twice as big with same amount of weight in the boat. I forgot to bring the camera for the test run. I'll take pics and post them next chance I get.
Here is what I did. Works perfectly. It doesn't touch the wave at all. I just cut off a few inches on each side. Then re- routed it and it looks stock.
That does look OEM Duffy. My biggest problem with my swim deck is up at the boat, the water wraps around the transom and hits the front of the swim deck and then sends a spray about 18" high and over to the other side. It then winds up littering the face of the wake with a spray, like from a garden hose.
I sure hope the Boat Manufactures check these forums on a daily basis... I would love to see some dealer options in the next year or so... Thanks for the info guys...
Here is how I fixed the spray from my fae. Prob would fix your spray. I call it my FAE mud flap. It's a dump truck mud flap. It matches the angle of my transom and it's zip tied to my FAE mounting Tubes.
The pipes are brass and are full of random nuts and bolts I had. It makes my wave flawless =
It actually works so well that FAE might start making them in a little better build quality. A bunch of centurion owners with the short swim decks have put them on to stop the fae spray. My swim deck is so short stock that the FAE actually creates terrible spray.
Last edited by duffymahoney; 08-18-2010 at 1:38 PM.
Reason: Add
I have that when I tested a smaller swim deck made from 3/4 ply - it made the wake impossibly ugly. My spary, right now, is from the outside corner. I'm not explaining this well. Let me try again - I haven't cut down my swim deck, so it's still full width. The right front corner looking from the surfer towards the bow, catches water as it comes around the side of the boat. It's the NON-surf side and when the water wraps around the transom, it hits the swim deck and sends a plume of spary about 1.5 feet in the air - almost like a fountain and that spray winds up on the face of the wake - imagine the arc from the right front of the swim deck back away from the boat and landing at the front of the wake just past 1/2 way across the width of the transom. When I cut down the sides of the test swimdeck, I wound up with a super ugly confluence because I have spray pockets and the inside of the spray pocket sent a crazy spray of water that messed with the face unless the swim deck knocked it down. I need something like your mud flap (great name! ) but that would attach to the side of the boat at the transom!!!
Are those the deck supports making that thin slice in the wave? So this is the deck up 8 inches more than normal? That is pretty interesting. One side effect, a fat guy like me is NEVER getting back in the boat. LOL.
The deck on our boat really used to be an issue, but once we added more weight (the 1100# in the locker, and the 400# on the floort + 400# on the seat) the cut sorta disappeared.
We tried to smooth out the bottom of the fiberglass deck but found a cheep teak deck off of an old mastercraft made the necessary modifications and machined the brackets to fit the stock locations. Works perfectly except very slippery when slumped so go easy no the teak oil.
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