My 1997 Nautique Super Sport Upgrades

[JWAT]

Here's my attempt at converting the '97 Super Sport I purchased at the end of last year into a Super Air. Added tower, racks, stereo, perfect pass and ballast so far. I don't have any good pics of the boat yet, but there are some good pics of the stereo, etc.

LINK

[Alan-S]

RE: My 1997 Nautique Super Sport Upgrades

Great boat man! I am jealous of your ballast system, I have the stock 2001 SAN system plus a 600 in the locker. What I am really curious about is your Planet Audio Amp. I have the exact same amp. its a five channel right? I am currently running my inboat speakers and my sub with it, and it does great, and I run my tower speakers on a sep. 100x2 amp. But I keep my amps on the top of my rear right ballast tank, and have been for 2 years now. I think it is time to move it up front like yours. Could you let me know how you built the supports like that, it does not look like you cut any carpet.

[JWAT]

Actually, I did have to cut some carpet. First, I cut two pieces of MDF to mount the amp to. I then carpeted the MDF so it would match the carpet on the side walls. Next, I cut two rectangles out of the carpet on the side wall to match the shape of the two MDF pieces. That way you are glueing the MDF directly to the bare fiberglass. Then I just used liquid nails to glue the two MDF pieces to the side of the hull where the bare fiberglass was. After that, it was just a matter of mounting the amp to the MDF boards with screws.

It really wasn't that hard at all. I didn't really want to cut my carpet either, but it's the only way to do it. I asked about just glueing the mounting boards to the carpet and everyone said not to. Hopefully my explanation is clear enough. If you have any other questions, let me know.

[bfinley1977]

great looking boat!! i have a question i have a 1997 sport that i am adding custom ballast to it do you have anymore pics of the ballast system that you wouldnt mind sharing so i can get some more ideas on how to building my hard tank by chance.

[Alan-S]

Cool, I am going to try to get started on that tonight. My only other problem is that I have two very different length amps, as you know that planet audio amp is really long. I guess I will just have to use much wider boards. Thanks, I have been putting this off long enough, you have inspired me.

[JWAT]

If you noticed in my picture, I used two smaller boards (one at each end of the amp), instead of one big board. I would do it that way because it is a lot easer to get the board to mount flush to the hull. The hull kind of curves where I mounted the amp and if you try to use one big piece of MDF, it won't sit flush with the hull.

[JWAT]

bfinley1977,

Sorry, I originally missed your post. I will see if I can get some more pics of the ballast system for you and post them here.

[JWAT]

Here are a couple more pics of the ballast system. There's really not much more to show.

I have attached a pic of the ballast manifold that is hooked to the 1.25" thru hull and feeds the three simer pumps. I also attached a pic of one of the rear sacs, the center sac and the distribution blocks for the ballast switches. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Alan-S]

Just finished glueing up the boards last night, one more question I had was how you ran your wiring, I do not want to have any interference like I do now. I see your sub is in the same place mine is now and I assume your HU is in the stock location by the driver's seat. could you tell me where your ran your RCA's, power, and rca's. I am assuming you didn't run them together. Thanks alot, Alan

[JWAT]

I ran my RCA's from the head unit, under the open bow to the amp. Then I ran the power and ground wire from the amp up underneath the gunnel on the left/port side of the boat and back to the back where my battery is. That way the power/ground wires aren't crossing the RCA's.

[mike-d]

ballast manifold

Justin,
fyi,
if you added a one way check valve to your manifold, and added another 3/4 inch port on top of the manifold with a hose to the thru hull, you can actually see when your bag is empty or such. This way you wont have to open up your lockers to see when they are empty. You can even get fancier and have the empty hose up near the drivers thru hull. The tug boat look is pretty cool!! especially at the ramp.

Mike
2001 san

[JWAT]

RE: ballast manifold

Thanks for the tip mike-d. I actually thought about doing that, except running an empty line for each individual sac, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Even though drilling the holes in the bottom of the boat weren't a big deal, I wanted to keep them to a minimum:-) I may add overflow/empty lines later on, but for right now, this will work.