Mastercraft wedge?

My buddy says someone told him you can get a wedge for Mastercrafts. Is this possible. It's a 99 x-star.
If it is possible, what kind of cost are we talking and where would i look?

I thnk the wedge is specifically (sp?) designed for MALIBU BOATS. I have not heard such a thing.

Why would you want to put a wedge on your MC?

Hopefully Jim will post on this subject to share this experience. I understand he had to modify the Wedge for his Mastercraft.

I think it was right after that pic was first posted was when Malibu started requiring a HID# to verify they were selling to 'bu owners only.

what does the wedge do??

it swings down, and will sit behind the prop, its a hydrofoil that pulls the back of the boat down, with out haivng to add ballast.

Is it just me or does it appear in that picture that this MC owner modified the rudder to allow the wedge to fold down and not interfere with the rudders ability to turn??? I wonder what affect this had on the boats driving mannerisms?

Scary.... I wouldn't do it. MC's may be strong enough, but aren't specifically designed for it. if you want a wedge, buy a 'Bu.

haha that was done back in the day and worked awsome. We rode the heck out of that boat. That wedge had like at least 200 to 250 hours on it and it never had one problem.

whoa i havent seen that photo in years. i saw that when i first started riding. kinda wierd all these years later i now ride with jim.
oh yeah squid, call him "pebbles" he hates it

why are we calling him pebbles?

KState-
In the original post that he put up back in the day, he did say he had to notch the rudder just a little. He claimed there was no difference in performance. I think he also had said he re-inforced the transom where it was mounted. Sounds like Squid or Alan might be able to give up some more info...

OK, I will add some comments on all the modifications.

The wedge needed to have the vertical bars shortened and the angle of the wing changed. I did notch the rudder to eliminate interference from the wing when in the down position. The bracket attaching the wing to the transom is made from stainless and is curved to fit the back of the boat. The bolts through the transom have bars backing them on the inside. The bars backing the bolts have a diagonal brace welded to a bracket bolted through the rudder packing through the bottom of the hull. The installation was quite the project requiring removing the gas tank, ventilation etc to access the transom. Once it was installed it worked pretty well and made a bigger wake than having two sacks in the back. The wake had more of a peak than with sacks but I didn't do a lot of tweaking with adding weight to the front. The boat did not turn too well when going slow with the wedge down but anything over about 10 mph was fine. At about 28 mph it would start porpoising. It seemed to burn more gas than with sacks. I purchased the wedge in 97 when they were just coming out and Malibu was not monitoring hulls. It was not a simple install and would not recommend it unless you have access to a decent fabrication shop.

Hope that helps.

seams to me you could build a wedge for any boat with some steel and a welder!!..maybe even could build a wedge for a outboard putting it either on the outboard itself or before the outdrive!

Ryan,
You could build one yourself. The current wedge was made from aluminum and it does have an hydrofoil profile to be more efficient than just a flat plate at an angle. I had done a similar concept to a previous boat I built with a wedge on each side of the transom back in the late 80's. They were just angled flat plates and it had the same effect but probably had more drag. It also did not seem to affect the turning of the boat like the wedge.

Thanks, that answered my question and I'll take that as a no!

the original wedge seams to be just a flat plate!! thats what i see on my buddy's malibu

I would agree it is flat, but the leading edge has a radius and one side of the trailing edge is tapered. You can see the taper on the trailing edge in the picture above. It is not a lot of profile, but it is more efficient than just a flat plate.