How to set up new G23

[heel5man]

Our 2017 G23 will be here in a few weeks and we can't wait to take it out. We've never owned a Nautique and have also never done anything other than "stock" in terms of weighting on a boat. From what I've read, it seems like a good idea to weight the G23 a little heavier on the port side to offset the prop rotation. We mostly use our boat for surfing and beginner wake boarding at this point. It's usually just my wife and two little ones, so not a lot of passenger weight.

So would you recommend doing something in terms of a more "permanent" solution like leadwake.com bags -- or just adjust the ballast to be a little heavier on that side each time? If we put the 50 lb bags in, where would you locate them? Are there any concerns about damaging the boat if you go over rough water and caused them to go flying or are they way too heavy for that? Any other suggestions for setting it up right?

Thank you!

[Kmayotte]

Congrats on the new ride! You're in for a treat. Post some pics when it arrives.

I would use little to no ballast for beginner wakeboarding. The wake is very nice for anything (even base inverts) without weight. Equivalent or better than heavily weighted older wakeboard boats. You may need 100-200 lbs or so on the port side to clean up the wake. You can alter the "beginner wakeboard" setting to do this.

This is my wife on a stock weight surf wake with the NSS and NCRS on the mellowest setting.

[Ironman97459]

I usually run 2-250 pounds of ballast on port side to offset prop torque. I just add ballast but would like to hear opinions on using lead.


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[heel5man]

Kmayotte Looks great! I'll show my wife to get her even MORE excited!

[peter43]

You can shift ballast easily and save the setting as a rider profile if you don't want to add anything additional.


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[Beg4wake]

I got 200# of LeadWake ballast bags (4 x 50# bags). They work PERFECTLY! They don't take up hardly any room and you won't even know they're there. I just put all 4 of them in line, down in the port side passenger locker (in front of the sub). Trust me, NOBODY will regret getting these! They stay put and will not shift at all. And this allows me to manage my water ballast much more easily! When I surf or board, I just hit fill all on the ballast and go (sometimes I just wakeboard at 50% though). I only ever use the ballast shift if I have uneven weight due to passengers. You MAY could stand to use 250#s though. I may actually purchase one more bag if I ever come across one at a boat show or something.

[heel5man]

I got 200# of LeadWake ballast bags (4 x 50# bags). They work PERFECTLY! They don't take up hardly any room and you won't even know they're there. I just put all 4 of them in line, down in the port side passenger locker (in front of the sub). Trust me, NOBODY will regret getting these! They stay put and will not shift at all. And this allows me to manage my water ballast much more easily! When I surf or board, I just hit fill all on the ballast and go (sometimes I just wakeboard at 50% though). I only ever use the ballast shift if I have uneven weight due to passengers. You MAY could stand to use 250#s though. I may actually purchase one more bag if I ever come across one at a boat show or something.

Beg4wake Good stuff. Just ordered five of the 50 pounders on leadwake.com. Appreciate the help!

[airpete2424]

Just purchased a 2017 G23 Costal Edition and it was very apparent to me that the G23 does lean to the Starboard / Right side and when you add full factory ballast, with no NSS / NCRS settings its very pronounced, (I was running with 1 other person besides me in the boat). In order to correct that issue, due to prop rotation, I was close to dumping all the ballast on the Starboard / Right side of the boat to balance the wake out. I'm seeing where everyone is adding about 250 pounds on port side to correct for the prop rotation but I wanted to understand with me dumping close to 750 pounds of ballast on the starboard side that it would take more than 250 pounds to counter the right side prop rotation issue. Does the pitch of the prop also play into this equation as well and how much ballast you need to add port side to correct the listing problem?

[GMLIII]

Yep I also have a 2017 G23 Coastal Edition and it leaned as well. Buy five 50 lbs of lead ballast bags and place under the port observer seat and it will correct your lean problem instantly. I never remove these ballast bags from the boat. When we wakeboard or surf we fill all three ballast tanks up 100%.. If you go with these bags you are not constantly having to tweak the ballast shift option adding small amounts of water to one side which in my opinion is a huge pain in the a**.

[airpete2424]

Thanks GMLIII - Makes sense and was looking to do exactly what you did to help balance things out as well and not have to worry about shifting water. I like the simple approach where you fix the challenge once and never have to deal with it....