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Now for the harder stuff. This boat did not come with ballast built in. I have a pile of bags and pumps from both this boat and my old boat. In reading, I find alot of people have removed the original hard tanks and aerators anyways, so maybe I'm lucky I'm starting from scratch?
The plan is to use two 540lbs big bags in the back corners with a 500lbs ski locker bag from WakerMakers in the ski locker. We may need to add a bit of weight to the nose once everything is finished, but we'll see how it goes. Last year we found a nice surf wave with the 540's filled, a 300lbs bag in the locker and another 300 in the bow walkway that we couldn't fully fill. The WM ski locker bag I bought measured like it will be able to fill completely and I should be able to move some of the weight further out to the nose, so I'm optimistically hoping it'll work out. I bought ballast pumps and some other parts during Wakemakers Black Friday sale last fall and have their Wakemakers house branded Johnson 720 GPH pumps.
I plan to integrate into the factor keypad and at this point.
Anyhow here's the start. First things first was to find a spot to mount the intakes. I could have gone to a larger single intake, but I chose to do 3 individuals. I'm using 3 x 1" WM brass inlet fittings. After some reading most seemed to suggest not to keep these in a straight line, which makes good sense. I measured everything a number of times and then built a test bench out of plywood to make sure all the fittings had the proper clearances for install or removal. I found with the 1" ball valves, I needed about 6" CTC to ensure there was no contact. From here, I made a cardboard template to measure inside and outside of the hull. Measuring on the outside of the hull vs the inside was a bit of a guess as I wasn't quite sure how thick the hull was to account for curvature. I ended up assuming it was thicker than it was.
The best place I found to mount the fittings was on the starboard side of the engine block, despite my 6'+ frame needing to become a contortionist each time I went down into the ski locker. I found measuring off the prop shaft support was the most reliable measurement inside/outside that was close. I made my template to fit over those bolt holes and measure.
After alot of measuring I put some painters tape on the hull and drew it all out. After going back and forth between the inside and the outside of the boat, I ended up spacing the 3 holes over a 15" length and offset each hole by about 5/8" from it's neighbor. That was about as much room as I could allow. Reasoning for this was that the handle of one of the ball valves was close to the engine starter and reversing it bought me alot of room.
I had both 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" hole saws. I like tools and admittedly have alot. Unfortunately , the 1 1/4" hole saw was too tight and the 1 3/8" was too sloppy for my liking going through plywood. I rarely have seen a hole saw not have a slight wobble to it so they always seem to come out slightly oversized. WM site suggested that a 1 3/8" was allowable, but I would have been using quite a bit of sealant to fill that hole. I bought a 1 5/16" hole saw and it was bang on perfect. I would highly recommend this to anyone installing a 1" inlet fitting.
As others have done, and WM's site suggests, I drilled through the gelcoat in reverse until I started to see fibreglass powder. One hole I drilled in reverse the entire way and I believe it came out cleaner than the ones I switched to a forward cut. If you've worked with fibreglass before, you know this, but if you haven't, use all the necessary PPE and a long sleeved coat or jacket when you are doing this - fibreglass slivers and dust is annoying to work with.
I then took some 80 grit sand paper and cleaned up the holes inside and out, and chamfered the edges out. Cuts came out really nice and clean and never ende dup with any chipped gelcoat.
The plan is to use two 540lbs big bags in the back corners with a 500lbs ski locker bag from WakerMakers in the ski locker. We may need to add a bit of weight to the nose once everything is finished, but we'll see how it goes. Last year we found a nice surf wave with the 540's filled, a 300lbs bag in the locker and another 300 in the bow walkway that we couldn't fully fill. The WM ski locker bag I bought measured like it will be able to fill completely and I should be able to move some of the weight further out to the nose, so I'm optimistically hoping it'll work out. I bought ballast pumps and some other parts during Wakemakers Black Friday sale last fall and have their Wakemakers house branded Johnson 720 GPH pumps.
I plan to integrate into the factor keypad and at this point.
Anyhow here's the start. First things first was to find a spot to mount the intakes. I could have gone to a larger single intake, but I chose to do 3 individuals. I'm using 3 x 1" WM brass inlet fittings. After some reading most seemed to suggest not to keep these in a straight line, which makes good sense. I measured everything a number of times and then built a test bench out of plywood to make sure all the fittings had the proper clearances for install or removal. I found with the 1" ball valves, I needed about 6" CTC to ensure there was no contact. From here, I made a cardboard template to measure inside and outside of the hull. Measuring on the outside of the hull vs the inside was a bit of a guess as I wasn't quite sure how thick the hull was to account for curvature. I ended up assuming it was thicker than it was.
The best place I found to mount the fittings was on the starboard side of the engine block, despite my 6'+ frame needing to become a contortionist each time I went down into the ski locker. I found measuring off the prop shaft support was the most reliable measurement inside/outside that was close. I made my template to fit over those bolt holes and measure.
After alot of measuring I put some painters tape on the hull and drew it all out. After going back and forth between the inside and the outside of the boat, I ended up spacing the 3 holes over a 15" length and offset each hole by about 5/8" from it's neighbor. That was about as much room as I could allow. Reasoning for this was that the handle of one of the ball valves was close to the engine starter and reversing it bought me alot of room.
I had both 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" hole saws. I like tools and admittedly have alot. Unfortunately , the 1 1/4" hole saw was too tight and the 1 3/8" was too sloppy for my liking going through plywood. I rarely have seen a hole saw not have a slight wobble to it so they always seem to come out slightly oversized. WM site suggested that a 1 3/8" was allowable, but I would have been using quite a bit of sealant to fill that hole. I bought a 1 5/16" hole saw and it was bang on perfect. I would highly recommend this to anyone installing a 1" inlet fitting.
As others have done, and WM's site suggests, I drilled through the gelcoat in reverse until I started to see fibreglass powder. One hole I drilled in reverse the entire way and I believe it came out cleaner than the ones I switched to a forward cut. If you've worked with fibreglass before, you know this, but if you haven't, use all the necessary PPE and a long sleeved coat or jacket when you are doing this - fibreglass slivers and dust is annoying to work with.
I then took some 80 grit sand paper and cleaned up the holes inside and out, and chamfered the edges out. Cuts came out really nice and clean and never ende dup with any chipped gelcoat.
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