2008 230 SANTE Best Ballast Set up?

[DBattt]

Just bought a 230 Super Air and am looking for the best set up for surfing? Appreciate any recommendations.

Thanks,

[Ckowals1]

If you plan on doing all or a majority of your time surfing, take out the tear hard tanks and plumb in 1100 fatsacs (w719) in the rear lockers (you lose your fill gauges with this setup for wakeboat which may be valuable for wakeboarding). I have mine filling from the rear of the boat and venting fron the front most topside plug.

For the bow, overflow the stock tank into the fly high arrow sac (w721).. the hard tank overflow will fill the bottom of the arrow sac and vent from the top of the “point” of the arrow.

Not necessary, but i run an extra 500 pounds of steel shot bags (100# on surf side under the back corner seat, 50# non surf side under back corner seat, 150# port side storage hatch across from the drivera seat, 200# in the nose under the seats).

I run 11.2mph on zero off and put the hydrogate full forward if surfing port side and put it all way back when sirfing stbd side.
This throws a fantastic wave that i get compliments often on.

[swatguy]

Ckowals nailed it.


I concur with him. We also run the hydrograte same way. While you do lose the gauges , the pumps have timers that time them out after certain time span , so I adjust by how many “cycles “ I need


ill add that I find 300-400 lbs of pop bags stuffed way in the nose makes a tremendous difference in the surf wake and wakeboard wake and is a must for any serious rider

[hal2814]

There’s a post somewhere here with a solution to keep gauges while moving from hard tanks to bags with the float meter and some plumbing parts. I strongly agree on replacing the hard tanks with 1100s. The arrow sac is also spot on. For anyone else reading the arrow sac doesn’t work in later model 230s but are the best choice for an 08. I also ran about 700lbs of lead midship. I left the hydrogate on full vert and used a liquid force mega wake shaper.

[dougmch]

I read much of this thread and am very appreciative of everybody's input. I was mulling over the wide range of shot placements including far stern and up in the bow, and also the fact that some people aren't running the belly full. I was ready to post questions but I think I answered most of them myself.

I'm going to eventually get to shot placement but on the way there address weight (force) and moment. I am interested in where people placed their shot.

I submit that speed and NSS are easily adjustable/controllable, through a wide range. What isn't always easily and instantly controllable are how deep the boat is in the water and its attitude (ie "bow up"). The thread tells us that boats with lots of people (ie they are heavy and deep) can always be tuned to make a great wave, although you may need to adjust speed (easy) or attitude (easy since you move people around). There was some back and forth regarding boats maybe getting too heavy and too deep and then the NSS would be too far submerged but I don't buy that ---- NSS is drag and causes crabbing with the resulting asymmetry in the wake.

I'll set aside the necessity for imbalance side to side to offset the effects of prop rotation -- that is a well understood characteristic.

I observe that faster speeds are being quoted as appropriate when the boat is loaded up, and going faster causes the hull to not ride so deep under these conditions. So you get a similar shaped but longer wake as compared to a lighter boat going a little slower. Makes perfect sense, and the conclusion is that within reason heavier than normal can be made to produce a great wake, with easy adjustments. There are diminishing returns of course, and the incremental improvement to the ride for the crazy sacked out boats is nowhere worth the hassle. I am talking mainstream users here.

With heavier being better, then why would anyone not fill the belly under normal conditions? (I don't want to leave any weight on the table so to speak by not filling that tank.) I believe the answer is in attitude. Attitude is a function of lots of factors, but when thinking of ballast, a key consideration is the moment (force x distance). One small kid can have the same result moving to the bow as a big guy shifting a few feet. Those people running less than fully bellys - may be doing so because the attitude isn't right -- they need the bow a little higher. They probably aren't saying that per se, but looking at the wake and making changes to optimize it.

Let's look at moment for a moment. Say I place 400 lbs of shot in the rear locker centered at 5 feet from the very stern and 100 lbs in the bow, at 20 feet from the stern. The down force is 500 lbs total and the moment about the stern is 4,000 ft lbs. Since the boat is rigid, this is exactly (and I mean exactly) the same as placing all 500 pounds at 8 feet average, from the stern. The guy trying real hard to wedge the shot in the stern and also get it far in the bow for maximum leverage gets the same effect as the lazy guy tossing it under the seats where it's easy. So for my shot, I should put it where it fits, with consideration of where the optimal moment is. That's the 64 dollar question. I'll look back and see if I can tease that out of the postings.

I would be very interested in where the guys who really have the wave perfected are putting the shot. I expect the answers to be all over the map, but the moments are probably in the ballpark. I'll even opine that for shot, it's less about the shot weight and more about the moment. Placed to achieve the same moment, the 800 pounds of shot guy will get a similar result to the 500 pound guy. The 800 pound guy does have a couple percent weight advantage, but we are in to those diminishing returns.

So back to the guys who aren't filling their belly tank, their shot is probably on average too far forward.

My takeaways:

1. Best to place the shot so at lowest normal loading (fewest people) you can fill the belly and get a great result. If you aren't filling the belly you aren't as good as you could be.
2. Put the shot where it's convenient, keeping the moment in mind.
3. If the belly can't be filled move the shot back.
4. If your crew is more than your normal lowest loading then you aren't worried about it -- you can move people around or trade the belly water for the people intent on sitting up front. You'll still be heavier to get the same attitude so you are better off than for the low loading condition.

A test with a 300 pound guy (port) a 200 pound guy (starboard) with full bags and no shot, and incrementally moving them up the seats and looking for that perfect wave, could give us the answer. Then place the shot to get that moment.

Doug