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I decided that I was tired of using manual ballast pumps to fill and empty the sacs on my 2000 Super Air Nautique especially when I was staring at glass the beginning of the day or dog tired at the end of a long day of sessions. Therefore I bit the bullet and decided to do a custom ballast install on the SAN.
I looked into the various options for ballast pumps including the reversible pumps like Jabsco and Simer as well as the aerator style pumps which required different pumps for both filling and emptying the sacs. I finally decided that the reversible Jabsco pump made the most sense for me due to less fill and empty lines being required and the ease of installing the overall system. I then looked into how many holes I would have to drill in my hull in order to obtain moving a ton of water into or out of the sacs in a timely fashion. I finally decided that (2) ¾” holes made the most sense from a cost perspective and drilled the holes with assistance from my professional carpenter neighbor. I then attached the through hull intakes using 3M 4200 Marine Sealant/Adhesive on both the bottom and top of the hull and attached a 90 degree elbow and a ball valve to each intake. From there I plumbed the lines to the pump.
Since I have 4 sacs including the (2) V drive sacs, (1) belly sac, and (1) Fly High Integrated Bow sac I need to figure out a way to move the water from (2) pumps to (4) sacs. The simplest methodology seemed to be to use a standard garden hose T valve that has integrated ball valves built into it. This will allow me to empty or fill any sac in the system to the desired fullness as well as empty one side for when I want to wake surf at the end of the day. The Fly High Bow sac is also a little big for my bow so I wanted to be able to shut off this sac from filling once it is half full so it doesn’t push the seats up or expand beyond the available space under the bow seats. I ran the plumbing for the bow sac along the passenger side gunnels and ran the bow sac plumbing above the gas tank by removing the rear seats and floor hatch.
Then came the wiring which was a lot simpler then I imagined it would be. Basically cut two holes for the ballast switches in the spot where CC would have put the stock ballast switches and then ran the pump wiring in under the gunnels to the switches and then ran the switch power back to my battery. The project basically took me three nights of working from 7 to 10 pm to get completed. The hardest part of the whole project was working in my garage in AZ during the summer where the heat had to be close to 115+ f. Once I got my old circulating fan out of storage and used it while working on the project it got a lot more comfortable.
I water tested the system on Saturday and I was able to fill all 2000 lbs. of ballast in roughly 7-8 minutes. The best part is that my wife or friends can now fill the system once the boat is in the water and I am parking the truck and trailer and making my way back down to the dock to be picked up. No more staring at glass while waiting for the sacs to fill. The Fly High Bow sac is the bomb and it made my wake a lot beefier and more fun to ride then ever before. On Sunday I used the system for the first time while riding and I am very impressed. I only filled the back sacs half way and the wake was very impressive and my buddy Ryan pulled out his large arsenal of tricks and commented on how much he liked the wake. All in the all the system performed like a champ and I am very happy with how everything turned out. I will try to post some pics of the wake when I get the chance. Hopefully this post will help some fellow wakeboarders out in the design of their ballast systems in the future.
I looked into the various options for ballast pumps including the reversible pumps like Jabsco and Simer as well as the aerator style pumps which required different pumps for both filling and emptying the sacs. I finally decided that the reversible Jabsco pump made the most sense for me due to less fill and empty lines being required and the ease of installing the overall system. I then looked into how many holes I would have to drill in my hull in order to obtain moving a ton of water into or out of the sacs in a timely fashion. I finally decided that (2) ¾” holes made the most sense from a cost perspective and drilled the holes with assistance from my professional carpenter neighbor. I then attached the through hull intakes using 3M 4200 Marine Sealant/Adhesive on both the bottom and top of the hull and attached a 90 degree elbow and a ball valve to each intake. From there I plumbed the lines to the pump.
Since I have 4 sacs including the (2) V drive sacs, (1) belly sac, and (1) Fly High Integrated Bow sac I need to figure out a way to move the water from (2) pumps to (4) sacs. The simplest methodology seemed to be to use a standard garden hose T valve that has integrated ball valves built into it. This will allow me to empty or fill any sac in the system to the desired fullness as well as empty one side for when I want to wake surf at the end of the day. The Fly High Bow sac is also a little big for my bow so I wanted to be able to shut off this sac from filling once it is half full so it doesn’t push the seats up or expand beyond the available space under the bow seats. I ran the plumbing for the bow sac along the passenger side gunnels and ran the bow sac plumbing above the gas tank by removing the rear seats and floor hatch.
Then came the wiring which was a lot simpler then I imagined it would be. Basically cut two holes for the ballast switches in the spot where CC would have put the stock ballast switches and then ran the pump wiring in under the gunnels to the switches and then ran the switch power back to my battery. The project basically took me three nights of working from 7 to 10 pm to get completed. The hardest part of the whole project was working in my garage in AZ during the summer where the heat had to be close to 115+ f. Once I got my old circulating fan out of storage and used it while working on the project it got a lot more comfortable.
I water tested the system on Saturday and I was able to fill all 2000 lbs. of ballast in roughly 7-8 minutes. The best part is that my wife or friends can now fill the system once the boat is in the water and I am parking the truck and trailer and making my way back down to the dock to be picked up. No more staring at glass while waiting for the sacs to fill. The Fly High Bow sac is the bomb and it made my wake a lot beefier and more fun to ride then ever before. On Sunday I used the system for the first time while riding and I am very impressed. I only filled the back sacs half way and the wake was very impressive and my buddy Ryan pulled out his large arsenal of tricks and commented on how much he liked the wake. All in the all the system performed like a champ and I am very happy with how everything turned out. I will try to post some pics of the wake when I get the chance. Hopefully this post will help some fellow wakeboarders out in the design of their ballast systems in the future.
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