Surf behind 206?

[n8urelover23]

Looking at possibly buying a 2005 206 with a built in ballast. I love to ski and my wife loves to surf. Am planning on setting up a permanent additional pump for ease of filling and draining external ballast bags for surfing. We would love to be able to fill and drain while we are idling to where we will be surfing. A few questions...

1. I've heard the 206 skis pretty well, but have never actually skied behind it. Thoughts?

2. Anyone know how much ballast comes in the factory tank? I am getting mixed information.

3. Anyone using this boat to surf? If so, what's your set up?

4. Anyone set up a permanent system? What did you do and how does it work?

Thanks so much!

[NautiqueJeff]

The 206 skis great. Surfing will be a challenge though.

You can find all of the specs for your boat in the brochure from 2002.

https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...uals-brochures

[n8urelover23]

Thanks!

[CincinnatiCC]

I had a 206 for 12 years. Loved the boat. It skis great - not much off of a SN, with a bit more room and the open bow for the family. I would not recommend surfing with it. It is a fairly light, low freeboard boat, and you could easily get into trouble weighting it down enough to surf it. Hope that helps.

[n8urelover23]

Thanks!

[SilentSeven]

I have a 206 with the optional 200 lb 'trick tank'...that's the aft factory tank the utilizes half of the rear trunk. With the factory setup, it's definitely not a great wakeboard boat and there is no way to surf behind it. We enjoy kneeboarding (lol..yeah, i know...) and you can definitely notice when the tank is full...gives you some nice pop. However at 20mph on a wakeboard length rope the wake is pretty small....nothing you can get any real wakeboard launch with when compared to a v-drive setup.

There is someone on the board who does surf behind their 206 and has posted some setup notes. Can't immediately recall their login..do some searching and you'll find the threads. Personally, I wouldn't do it..just not enough freeboard on the boat to feel good about stuffing that much weight into the hull. If I was going to do it, I would only do it on a super flat lake where there is no risk of other boat traffic and their associated wakes.

If you wanted to make a 206 a better wakeboard boat, I'd pull the rear hardtank and consider replacing it with a bigger sack. Or maybe keep the trick tank if you have one and add a 400lb sack behind the motor. We've thought about the idea...just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[n8urelover23]

Thanks!

[SilentSeven]

ah...found it. here's the 206 surf thread i was thinking of. There's more if you search.

https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...le=#post271633

[Wornwater]

I have a 206 with the optional 200 lb 'trick tank'...that's the aft factory tank the utilizes half of the rear trunk. With the factory setup, it's definitely not a great wakeboard boat and there is no way to surf behind it. We enjoy kneeboarding (lol..yeah, i know...) and you can definitely notice when the tank is full...gives you some nice pop. However at 20mph on a wakeboard length rope the wake is pretty small....nothing you can get any real wakeboard launch with when compared to a v-drive setup.

There is someone on the board who does surf behind their 206 and has posted some setup notes. Can't immediately recall their login..do some searching and you'll find the threads. Personally, I wouldn't do it..just not enough freeboard on the boat to feel good about stuffing that much weight into the hull. If I was going to do it, I would only do it on a super flat lake where there is no risk of other boat traffic and their associated wakes.

If you wanted to make a 206 a better wakeboard boat, I'd pull the rear hardtank and consider replacing it with a bigger sack. Or maybe keep the trick tank if you have one and add a 400lb sack behind the motor. We've thought about the idea...just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I still have the kneeboard in my garage collecting dust! I'm glad I'm not the only one alive who still knows what a kneeboard is. Thanks!

[SilentSeven]

...if you have a decent board...it's (still) a lot of fun. I have a great (but vintage) Kidder pro graphite board - thin edge board,. light weight that cuts and pops well. Also has a pro type cinch strap so you can really lock it down. We do wake to wake jumps, air 360's, front to backs, back to fronts and it's all fun and generally body friendly. We'll also get 2 or 3 boards up at a time so the kids and adults can play. But yeah...total old school.

[dski]

Full disclosure...we definitely pushed well over recommended weights on our 206. We never had an issue but your mileage may vary. Way back when I posted, we were surfing in a very shallow spot and that was before I had pulled the hard tank in the rear trunk.

We have surfed it the last couple of years to the point where we finally partnered up with another family and bought a 236. We still have our 206 so best of both worlds!

Here is what I did to my 206 to get it to surf pretty well!

1. Installed to Wakermakers reversible pumps in the storage compartment in the walkway. I then ran the hoses to the back to connect to the bags. Two of the #700 bags on each side of the engine box. I also removed the rear #200 trick tank and replaced with a #400 fat sac. Really nice to have the trunk space when the sacs aren't full.
2. Wake device on the boat. This was HUGE. I tried a couple different ones and some of them struggled to stay on due to the slight curvature to the back of the 206. The swell creater 2.0 wakesurf works really well for me on the 206.
3. Bigger boards. Hyperlite venture and an Inland surfer for the big boys.
4. 9.3-10mph. Anything more and the wake disappears.
5. People on the surf side. We usually only have 4-5 people. If more, I don't fill the sacs the whole way.
6. Most of us surf on the port side. Prop rotation actually makes the starboard side better.

Great thing is we can drain the fatsacs, roll them up and put them in the back locker and have a killer ski wake. Happy to walk anyone through it that wants some tips.

[Lumpster]

Nice Write up dski, I just got a 2007 216 and we are trying surfing with limited success so far. By what you are saying I think I need more ballast as i am just using the factory tanks. Do you know if changing the prop would help? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[dski]

Nice Write up dski, I just got a 2007 216 and we are trying surfing with limited success so far. By what you are saying I think I need more ballast as i am just using the factory tanks. Do you know if changing the prop would help? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers

You will need much more than the factory ballast... a lot more I didn't need to make a prop change and wouldn't think you would need to. I was already running the acme 1868 since I am at 4500 feet and sometimes ski at over 6000 feet of elevation. I wouldn't think you would have issue with the 422 (stock prop) unless you were at high elevations.