So this year I’ve been working on improving my surfwake with some success, though not what I was expecting. The Centurion Enzo and Avalanche are probably good gold standards for what you’d want or can expect from a wakesurf hull, though I have seen some very good looking wakes posted online behind Tige’, VLX, 247, and I think Entrust’s Moomba boat's.
Previously I made a little experiment filling in the spray pockets on my 04 Lighting. The experiment was a matching pair of Styrofoam inserts duct tapped in place. The experiment stayed in place for about 10 to 15 minutes before the duct tape gave up. The wake seemed better without the spray pocket fillers.
Since then Jeff Walker pointed out what I’m calling a middle feature in my surf wake. I think that the middle feature is caused by the Lightning’s hull extension. It would be interesting again to figure out if this is in fact the cause without making a permanent change to the boat. So I’ve built up a couple more Styrofoam bricks to fill in the hull extension, but only on the port side, the side that I surf. I’ll try them out this evening.
Last time when the duct tape gave way we had to go and recover lots of Styrofoam chunks. One thing that I did different this time was that I duct taped all the way around the entire foam core. So hopefully when the tape gives way I’ll only two big chunks to retrieve.
To get a good surf wake on my boat I need a really good list, the rub rail really needs to be kissing the water. Often the only way to pull this off is to have someone hike out board. Well Kevin Baugh scolded me when I posted a picture of one of my crew hiking out. On the Lightning it’s really hard to get ballast way out board, the top of the hull has a sharp angle which keeps ballast away from the gunnels. I think there are two features of the Lightning that perhaps make it the model for a less than spectacular wakesurf boat 1) spray pocket and hull extensions and 2) upper body V.
I made a tower mounted weight holder this weekend to try to get more ballast outboard and to try to appease Kevin. Here are a few drawings and pictures.
Outboard ballast rack on my work bench
Mounted on tower without weight
Mounted on tower with weight
Hybrid Mode
