Weight in mid 90's ski nautique

how do you guys weight your ski nautiques. right now I've got fat buddies on each side of the engine and a 600 fat boy in the back, but I wont to go bigger and steeper, any ideas or set ups you've found to work well?

I have 94 Sport (it's DD) and try to put about 1000lbs (people, bags, just depends who's on the boat) right behind the engine box on the floor. Big and steep. Haven't had many complaints. I played around with weight in differant spots. This works for me.

I run a 600 in the back... Nothing else... I just finished making about 450 of lead bricks that i'm going to put under the back seat, and maybe trade the 600 for a couple of side sacks. (though that will probably be simelar to what you run now). Let me know what you come up with though.
B

I have a 1996 Ski 176. It's a little bit smaller than the 196. I run with a 580lb sac and 100lbs of sand in the back, a 280lb sac on each side of the engine, and a 280lb sac plus 100lbs of sand up front. That's 1620 pounds of ballast plus 3-4 people.

The wake is pretty nice. I've also had no complaints. Although, I would like to make it bigger. The problem with boats like ours is the draft (or is it freeboard?). You can only sink these boats in the water so much.

With the set up I use above, my swim platform is about 3-4 inches under water. The water line is also just below the through hull fitting for my bildge pump. I'm not sure I can add anymore weight without taking in water?

I have found that the set up I mentioned above works best for my boat. Earlier this week I experimented with moving some of the weight from the front to the back. Surprisingly this made the wake much worse. Although I believe more weight in the back will benefit most boats. I guess because of the small size of my boat it didn't work out as well for me?

(Message edited by nauty on July 30, 2004)