Tweet
Ok, I had been all talk and no game, but I was really inspired by Andrew's NSS Build
I had started originally thinking of Marc's simple test NSS and liked that as well.
So I aimed for the middle. But think I have something that many of us could build if we want.
I templated out the back of my boat using cardboard, and was looking for something I could cut that wasn't wood, but wasn't aluminum. I went for plastic, HDPE, cheapest source is actually cutting boards at Walmart!
But easy enough to trace out the shape of the edge of my hull ('04 SV211) to get the right contours. Then did some 20degree slots in another piece that were 2.25" long to match what I would get if I went to Lenco trim tabs.
To mount it, I realized that my swim platform mount actually has a 3/8" piece of plastic between the metal and the hull. Pulled that off, and replaced it with my base cutting board. I got the board sized so that the top corner is actually "pinched" by the swim platform at the outer corner to provide some extra support. The movable part is cut around that so that it doesn't touch the platform but starts high so that when it is down I get full height out in the water.
Bolted it up with stainless hardware and a wing-nut on the top nut so that I could manually loosen it, extend the outer piece and then tight it back up.
Here are some pics so this makes sense. The first one is "closed" and the second one is all the way deployed.
I used a dremel tool and file to get the contours right so that it isn't out "in the water" when you look down the hull. But the 20deg and 2.25" slot get me about 2" in the water.
Here is a shot of what it looks like deployed when in the water, looking down from my swim platform.
You will notice that it is held in place a bit by the swim platform so that I am not worried (too much) about it bending or breaking off.
Now for the best part... load up the boat and test it. We started off with stock ballast (700lbs ish) and then put one fat sac across the back for another about 600 lbs. Then 10.5mph, which has been our typical speed. And BAM!
The pics don't show it real well, but the wave was super-clean. This is nothing that I had ever been able to do before. Oh, and it was me and my 3 girls in the boat, so I normally can't even get close to this without 9 people and lots of sacs.
We surfed it, but it needed a bit more height and push. I slowed down to 9.8, which helped and the wave stayed clean, but we wanted more. So one more fatsac on top. Not quite full, so probably 600 pounds or so more. Much nicer!
You can see that the wave was bigger and stayed clean. The pocket got real long. I surfed it too, and I initially felt like I wanted it to be steeper, but I could ride the wave anywhere. I managed to ride all the way back on our 25 foot rope. Normally, I can get a nice steep wave, but the pocket for me is really short. This was amazingly long. I could easily ride at full length and then come back up. I wasn't letting go to test as the water temp was 45deg and I didn't want to get wet, but wow.
I want to have more time to play with weighting and speed, but it was so good first shot. Normally the SV is really sensitive to weight placement forward and back or left/right, but this seemed really stable. i didn't bother moving when I was driving and the wake was great. When my girls moved around to take pictures you really didn't notice much.
So, next step is to transfer this to laser-cut aluminum and go for the full "Andrew" version. But this is pretty easy.
Total cost was $20 of cutting boards and maybe $20 of stainless hardware. All cut with a jigsaw, dremel, and files. I could easily re-make this a bit neater and keep it manual, but winter is here and I want to go all out, but if you were thinking about trying to do something like this, it can be done without any holes in your boat or fancy tools.
I'm sure I am forgetting something, so ask away. This project will now consume me for the entire winter.
I had started originally thinking of Marc's simple test NSS and liked that as well.
So I aimed for the middle. But think I have something that many of us could build if we want.
I templated out the back of my boat using cardboard, and was looking for something I could cut that wasn't wood, but wasn't aluminum. I went for plastic, HDPE, cheapest source is actually cutting boards at Walmart!
But easy enough to trace out the shape of the edge of my hull ('04 SV211) to get the right contours. Then did some 20degree slots in another piece that were 2.25" long to match what I would get if I went to Lenco trim tabs.
To mount it, I realized that my swim platform mount actually has a 3/8" piece of plastic between the metal and the hull. Pulled that off, and replaced it with my base cutting board. I got the board sized so that the top corner is actually "pinched" by the swim platform at the outer corner to provide some extra support. The movable part is cut around that so that it doesn't touch the platform but starts high so that when it is down I get full height out in the water.
Bolted it up with stainless hardware and a wing-nut on the top nut so that I could manually loosen it, extend the outer piece and then tight it back up.
Here are some pics so this makes sense. The first one is "closed" and the second one is all the way deployed.
I used a dremel tool and file to get the contours right so that it isn't out "in the water" when you look down the hull. But the 20deg and 2.25" slot get me about 2" in the water.
Here is a shot of what it looks like deployed when in the water, looking down from my swim platform.
You will notice that it is held in place a bit by the swim platform so that I am not worried (too much) about it bending or breaking off.
Now for the best part... load up the boat and test it. We started off with stock ballast (700lbs ish) and then put one fat sac across the back for another about 600 lbs. Then 10.5mph, which has been our typical speed. And BAM!
The pics don't show it real well, but the wave was super-clean. This is nothing that I had ever been able to do before. Oh, and it was me and my 3 girls in the boat, so I normally can't even get close to this without 9 people and lots of sacs.
We surfed it, but it needed a bit more height and push. I slowed down to 9.8, which helped and the wave stayed clean, but we wanted more. So one more fatsac on top. Not quite full, so probably 600 pounds or so more. Much nicer!
You can see that the wave was bigger and stayed clean. The pocket got real long. I surfed it too, and I initially felt like I wanted it to be steeper, but I could ride the wave anywhere. I managed to ride all the way back on our 25 foot rope. Normally, I can get a nice steep wave, but the pocket for me is really short. This was amazingly long. I could easily ride at full length and then come back up. I wasn't letting go to test as the water temp was 45deg and I didn't want to get wet, but wow.
I want to have more time to play with weighting and speed, but it was so good first shot. Normally the SV is really sensitive to weight placement forward and back or left/right, but this seemed really stable. i didn't bother moving when I was driving and the wake was great. When my girls moved around to take pictures you really didn't notice much.
So, next step is to transfer this to laser-cut aluminum and go for the full "Andrew" version. But this is pretty easy.
Total cost was $20 of cutting boards and maybe $20 of stainless hardware. All cut with a jigsaw, dremel, and files. I could easily re-make this a bit neater and keep it manual, but winter is here and I want to go all out, but if you were thinking about trying to do something like this, it can be done without any holes in your boat or fancy tools.
I'm sure I am forgetting something, so ask away. This project will now consume me for the entire winter.
Comment