Pro Air Nautique (216) questions

[Kevin_B]

Does a Pro air Nautique come with rear ballast only or can you find some with center ballast too?

Also other Pro air owners have anyone successfully installed extra ballast, such as a sack in the rear locker and some sort of front ballast? Ideally would like to run plumbing off the stock system and daisy chain some more weight.

[MHayes]

RE: Pro Air Nautique (216) questions

The Pro Air only came with factory rear ballast. If you do a search, you can find many threads that discuss people adding additional ballast to their boats. Most typically enhance the stock system with additional pumps, thru hulls, etc. instead of just adding to the stock system.

[MHayes]

RE: Pro Air Nautique (216) questions

Here's some good threads to start with

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ewtopic&t=2192

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ewtopic&t=8781

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ballast+system

[bkhallpass]

RE: Pro Air Nautique (216) questions

Just a point of information, the Pro Air Nautique was never on a 216 hull. The Pro Air, Air, and Sport of that era were all 21 foot (roughly) hulls. BKH

[Miljack]

I've got a Pro Air and did a ballast project;

http://planetnautique.com/index.php?...ghlight=winter

I decided to pull the stock hard tanks, and used Flyhi "Gravity Games" sacks, 19 x 19 x 42 I think? If you look it up on their site you will find what I'm talking about. I also plumbed in a custom sack in the ski locker, and that will hold a lot of water, probably close to 600 pounds.

If you want to do it right, plan on a pretty big project. I had to work pretty hard to get the plumbing size that I wanted to keep the fill times short. I enlarged the stock 3/4" through hull to 1 1/2" with the appropriate ball valve and plumbing to the fill manifold/pumps. The stock system has one fill and one empty pump, my system has a fill pump (Tsumani 1200) and empty pump (800) for each bag. I opted to empty throught vent/overflows so that I could ride home while emptying the ballast. I also used a "RV wastegate" which works well to keep water out of the fill side while running (aerator style pumps will require something to keep water out once your running, otherwise, water will get through the pumps and into your ballast system.).

I can surf on either side of my boat with just the wife driving and my son riding in the boat, of course it's much better with more friends, but we can free ride no problem.
We get more storage in the trunk with the tanks out, and the system fills and empties without drama.

YMMV