It seems like there are two schools of thought for boat weighting to wakesurf:
1. Start heavy in the back surf corner and work up the side, keeping all weight on the surf side.
2. Sink the entire boat evenly, then list a bit with some extra weight on the surf side.
I've been tinkering far more than any man should, and while I stuck with #1 for a long time, I am leaning towards a preference for #2. Here is why:
Weight One Side:
When weighting only one side with most of the weight (1,000) in the back corner, I get a decent, though steep wake. I can surf it fine, but any weight in the bow seems to kill the wakes power by making the boat want to plane a bit at surf speed. Also, the rub rail gets very close to the water at rest, which makes me nervous when rollers hit us while floating.
Weighting both back corners:
I decided to try adding 350 lbs to the non-surf back corner. The first thing this accomplished was it pulled the surf-side rub rail higher out of the water (adding more weight, yet making me less nervous). With that extra weight in the rear, I now HAD to add 350 lbs to the bow, or it would point up to the sky while riding. Suddenly, I'm running an extra 700 lbs while keeping the rub rail higher out of the water. So of course that's 700 more pounds of displaced water in the wake -- bigger and thicker, with less risk of a wave coming over the rear corner.
Also, having less list doesn't seem to negatively impact the wake. Actually, when I had a ton of list, the wake "looked" good, but seemed softer and thinner.
The first picture (sorry about the quality, they are video grabs) is the wake with all the weight on the surf side (1000 rear surf corner, 450 side seat, 400 center ballast) 1,850 lbs total
The second picture is the wake with weight in the non-surf side (1000 rear surf corner, 350 rear non-surf corner, 450 side seat, 350 bow, 400 center ballast). 2,550 lbs total
Keep in mind, I'm working with a 21' 2004 Centurion Eclipse, so perhaps non-surf side weight just allows a smaller boat to take advantage of more weight without sinking the rear corner to a point that it too risky.
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