ballast question/idea

I'm getting ready to put my boat in the water for the first time. I have got the Bertha Ballast system and I just got my GG sacs (1150 and 2 x 565s) for my 03 Supra Launch. For surfing, its my understanding that center sac and surf sac full. Opposite sac empty. But I would imagine another sac on surf side would be good?

I've ridden with people who have extra bags with pumps, etc. It's fine, but it would be nice to use the system already in place. Would it be possible to add extension of fill and drain hose to the the sacs? That way you could move the port side sac from the rear compartment to the starbird side on the boat floor just by adding longer hoses? This would eliminate the need for extra sacs and pump... I guess they would have to travel out of the compartment over the seat so maybe gravity wouldn't allow water flow??? I don't know. Just seems there should be a way to use the automatic system already in place.

Anybody tried something like this?

I tried this last year and had mixed results. I was able to fill the sac using an extension, but I wasn't able to get it to drain.

To fill the sac you can get water through the long extension hose by driving the boat. This helps to force water through the extension hose. However, draining was a different story. The length of the hose is just too long to get water back to the pump in order to prime it. I found it just as easy to use an external pump to fill and drain.

Though, I do use the rear sac from the opposite side of the boat that we are surfing on. I just bought a couple of quick connect fittings and siliconed some rubber stoppers inside them. This way I can take the sac out of the locker, move it to the side where I need it, and then pop the quick connect plugs on. This gives me two GG sacs on the same side for a very nice wave.

The drain is the problem. I had a buddy tried this to no avail, you simply cannot get enough suction to pull it through the hose and once the first bag is drained the bags collapse on themselves. Throw a hose over the side it'll be faster anyway.

hey Richard,
How does that work exactly using your gg sacs? I was thinking the same thing, basically just trying to minimize all of the "extra" stuff on a boat. But with the fittings welded into the GG sacs, how do you cap them when full? any pics of your setup? This would at least save from having to buy/store and extra sac in the boat.

Fill side is easy. you can extend and valve the fill lines to get good pressure anywhere in the boat. Drain, as mentioned is the issue. I'm a fan of draining one sac into the bilge (use bilge pump) and letting the ballast pumps drain the other 3.

Jeremy,

Buy a couple of these fittings from wakeside.com and plug the end of them with a rubber stopper. Then you just slide the fittings onto your GG sac to keep water from coming out. You fill the sac with an external pump through the valve opening on the top of the sac. You may need a fitting for your pump to make it work with your sac. Wakeside has these as well.