Hidden ballast on 210

[99SAN]

Has anyone ever thought about putting ballast under the side channels in the older 210's. You would have to cut the fiberglass, install bags, run the hose out of a hole and make a door out of the piece of fiberglass that was cut out. These boats are very solid and I think one small square wouldn't hurt the integrity of the hull.

[99SAN]

Had another thought. The hole wouldn't have to be very big to install the bag and I wasn't sure if there is foam in the channels

[Chexi]

Just use pop bags or similar sand or steel weighted bags in those areas. Its way easier.

For the record, I do not advocate using this type of ballast for all your ballast. I wouldn't use more than 400 - 500 lbs of steel/lead ballast. Use bags for the rest. Don't want to sink your boat.

[s_kelley2000]

Are you talking about under the floor (yes there is foam there) or up underneath the gunales? There is minimal foam under the guanles, maybe an inch. I am not sure where you are talking about so it's hard to comment further but it sounds like more work than it is worth.

[99SAN]

Are you talking about under the floor (yes there is foam there) or up underneath the gunales? There is minimal foam under the guanles, maybe an inch. I am not sure where you are talking about so it's hard to comment further but it sounds like more work than it is worth.

Yes under the floor. It wouldn't be that hard. Cut out a small square and insert the ballast.

[core-rider]

The floor cavities are filled with foam so in order to install bags you would first need to remove all that foam which would require a decent sized hole in order to access and then dig out. The extra space you would gain would be minimal and oddly shaped given the floor is flat but the hull bottom is angular and contoured. We're not talking perfect squares or rectangles but closer to wedges. To properly fill the spaces you would need to have custom bags made. The amount of work, cost of custom sacs, and potential negative impacts to the boat structure would be a huge no go IMHO.

[s_kelley2000]

I agree with Jason, way too much effort for minimal gain and the potential to mess up the structure of your boat. I have never seen the inside of a 210 but there can't be too much room between the main stringer, secondary stringer and the edge of the hull. I am not sue if there are ribs or not but if there are that would further limit the size of the bag you could fit down there.

You can fit Sumo 900s in each rear locker, 580 in the ski locker or probably a little bigger if you do a custom bag and then you can get 450ish into the U shaped sac under the front seats. If you need more than 2830 lbs of hidden ballast you can stash some lead out of site. But if you had all of that ballast full you would probably need more weight in the bow to counteract the full 900s so you'd probably want the triangle sac or something like that in the bow instead of more weight under the floor in the rear of the boat. If you wanted it "hidden" you could get a snap on bow cover.

[99SAN]

Yeah u guys are probably right. I would like to have more storage for gear instead of the bags but want a great wake, so on the older board it's one or the other. I didn't really think about the stringers running that far forward. I was just getting opinions. Thx I'm going to stick with my 750s in the rear hatch. They give me a little room for gear.

[Chexi]

Today I was out on my 2000 SAN. My setup was 160lbs of pop bags in the nose (split evenly between the sides) and 80 lbs of pop bags under the observer's seat/port gunnel near my amp. My wife was driving and we had two kids in the boat. Assume maybe 400lbs of people. I had both my rear 750s and my center locker 400 empty. No porpoising, and the wake was terrific. It was not a monster wake. It was enough to boot me nice and high, but not so huge that it would have caused skid marks. You may be a much better rider than me, but I think way too many people make way too much out of adding ballast. I understand mega ballast for surfing, but for boarding, with this hull, one really does not need near the ballast people want to use.