A Wakessurf Boat Hull Test?

Compared to wakeboarding (or anything else), a boat rigged for wakesurfing handles differently, driving takes more care. I’m very familiar with the handling of my boat, an ‘04 Centurion Lightning. Malibu provided an ‘06 VLX this summer for the Scioto Wakefest. We found that there was a huge handling difference between my 04 Centurion Lightning and the Malibu 06 VLX. My experience with the VLX is very limited, just a few days. I have no other experience with other wakesurfing hulls so I’d like to hear if anyone else has similar experiences that I describe here.

When I stop to pick up a fallen surfer my Lighting generally holds a straight line. On the other hand when we stopped the VLX, the surfing wake strongly spins the boat 90 or more degrees. At first we fought the natural VLX spin. One of the surfers from Indiana, Scott S. suggested going with the flow. I think he recommended steering with the natural turn. When we did steer with the turn the VLX spun nicely about toward the fallen rider, making driving and pickup much easier.

Since wakefest I’ve only been out on the water surfing a few times. The last time out I tried to get the Lightning to respond like the VLX. The Lightning does make a slight turn and the turn can be accentuated with steering, but the response is very weak compared to the VLX.

We also noted another difference at higher speeds. Sometimes we need to pick up a late rider; dumping ballast is a pain so we run a little fast with full surfing ballast all the way back to the dock. We ran the VLX fast several times as well, there was a notable handling difference. The Lightning does fight going fast, you have to turn the steering wheel to maintain a straight course, but its controllable. With surfing ballast set up on the VLX reaching speeds, I think as fasts as 22 mph or 23 mph, it felt like I was going to lose control or at least the steering wheel was not changing the direction of the boat; I backed the speed down to rest to regain control.

There are two issues; one is safe control of the boat the other is developing an understanding of what makes a good surfing hull and how to determine if a hull has surfing potential. The short answer on safety is watch your speed or dump your ballast.

The other question is does this difference in these two handling situations indicate something useful about the surfing hull, I think it might. I think the ’04 Lightning is a poor to marginal wakesurfing hull, by comparison the VLX hull looks to have a lot of wakesurfing potential. Please note that the Avy and Enzo hulls are supposed to be among the best wakesurf hulls available, I’ve never been on either of those boats and so I have no first hand knowledge

Also recognize that the 04 Lighting is a ski hull reconfigured with a v-drive engine set up, this was an early entry in the wakeboarding market and is no longer in production. The hull on the Lighting is very busy, it has channels, spray pockets, a hull extension, and lower gunnels. I’ve done a lot to get a good surfing wake on this boat. The VLX is a pure wakeboard machine, we had a good surfing wake and got there with little effort. I haven’t looked at the VLX hull closely but what I recall is that it has a simple and clean hull, except for provisions for a wedge there are really no significant features. On Jeff Page’s advice we did not use the wedge during wakefest.

So here’s my two theory statements: 1) If a wakesurf boat, ballasted for wakesurfing, generally tracks straight when stopping the hull is not a good surfing hull; said the other way, if a wakesurf boat, ballasted for wakesurfing, spins about when stopping the hull should be a good surfing hull.

Statement 2) The more difficult it is to steer a wakesurf boat, ballasted for wakesurfing, at higher speeds, the better the hull is for wakesurfing. Don’t try this high speed test, skink your boat, or hurt some one, and blame me, be safe.

The obvious test to the hull question is to check how good the surfing wake is; why run these two tests, just surf the wake. I don’t know, the surf wake is important but it can be hard to dial in. Maybe these tests will tell you if you should even bother to dial in.

How does your boat behave and what do you think about these statements?