Baja boats

I know its an I/O but has anyone ever been sucessful with getting a good wake out of a baja, like a 208 Islander if it was weighted with about 1500 lbs, if any has ever tried or has any idea I have been looking for a boat and I found one cheap and nearby and was sorta hoping it may work. Thanks

Ed,

Look at this picture of my boat. I think the hull is quite similar to the Baja that you are looking at and that, of course, is the sole determining factor for achievable wake quality. It's 20'?" long w/ an 8'2" beam.



Anyway, the wake on my boat with no extra weight is pretty large...certainly large enough for all your basic inverts and any other trick normally done wake-to-wake. A 750 lb. sack along the back seat improves it considerably. In that configuration, it is knee high with a nice shape...good pop. I think a sack in the ski locker and some more weight up front would make it great.

The wake is a bit wide below 20mph but I usually ride around 22-23 mph w/ 65' of rope. Unless my speedo is off, I think that one might actually have a hard time clearing the wake at 19 mph. The width and steepness would probably require something like a 10 ft. high trajectory to clear it. ...my speedo could easily be off...GPS time?

Of course, you always have to play with the trim on an I/O to optimize the wake. I will also be experimenting with "hydrofoil stabilizers" as a means of acheiving a larger wake at low speeds. I've seen it done with impressive results on an older 18' runabout. We'll see how that goes.

When you say hydrofoil stabilizers do you mean trim tabs?

Usually the hydrofoil stabilizers are teh motor mounted fins.

No, not trim tabs.

I'm talking about the things you can bolt to the cavitation plates of your outdrive. They are usually called hydrofoils or stabilizers and are designed to produce upward force on the stern when starting up with the trim all the way down.

They essentially act like an underwater wing on the back of your boat to get you on plane faster. Then, at speed they are mostly out of the water.

The thing some people have noticed though is that if you trim up at wakeboarding speeds, especially with extra weight in the boat, the foil will stay in the water and the downward angle created by trimming up will actually pull the stern down...kind of like Malibu's Wedge.

How well this works will depend on several things like where your outdrive sits in the water, the design of the particular stabilizer, how much you trim it up, how your speed and handling react to the change in your hull's attitude, etc. That's why I will need to experiment a bit. I will probably end up making my own aluminum or stainless steel plate for this purpose since the commercial products are primarily designed for quicker planing and my primary purpose is wake enhancement.

Doelfin also has small stabilizers that attach to the foil. It helps with steering. I've tried them and was actually quite impressed.

We had an older baja ski boat a couple years ago and we were able to substantially improve the wake by removing everything from just in front of the bow to a couple feet behind the transom and replacing it with a Nautique.

Actually, the old boat was pretty much stock. I added a home-brewed tower, and played with the outdrive trim, moving around extra human ballast, and adjusting the rope length, but the only time we were able to get a decent sized wake, it was pretty washed out. But, it was very affordable and a great way to find out we were hooked!