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Need Help Fine Tuning Wake - 2017 Axis T-23


OliverKlozoff

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My boat is surfing great, but is there a way to get rid of that line of wash that runs across the top of the wave?  It's especially noticeable at the front of the wave, where the wave is smooth and clean most of the way up, but then at the top there is a 6-inch block of wash that almost looks like a curb.  Otherwise, the wave is great--steep, long, plenty of push, etc.  It just becomes a problem if the nose of the board hits that line of wash when attempting 360s.  I'd like to know how to make that part of the wave lay down when I want it to.

I have seen the wave "lay down" and smooth out a few times, but I'm not sure how to replicate it.  Once was when I had the boat set for goofy (50% more rear ballast on starboard side), and someone wanted to surf on the port side.  It happened again randomly when I had a bunch of people in the boat.

Is this related to the speed / placement of ballast / prop rotation / slight turn of the boat?  Should I not use the wedge and instead try another 1,000lbs on the floor?

I normally use the wedge, fill center tank, 650 in the nose, and both rear hard tanks plus 1,000 plug and play bags in the rear lockers.  I have tried letting various amounts of water out of the port 1,000 bag, and sometimes I put another 400lbs up front.  My family only weighs about 500lbs total.  We mostly surf goofy / starboard side.  Have tried everything from 11 - 12.3 MPH.

No matter what I do with ballast or speed, the wave is awesome.  I just want to know how to make it lay back and smooth out when I want it to.  See pic below.

 

rucvur.jpg

 

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try cheating to the surf side a little (moving your crew to that side is easiest).  you should be able to get more of a curl and not so much wash on that wave for sure.

(Great pic too!)

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Slow the boat speed down a little. That much weight in the. Lay should be giving you a much better wave than that, but it looks like you're running a touch too fast. 

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Well, I tried everything.  Long story short, I think it's related to prop rotation.  The boat just throws a smoother wave on the port side.  Or at least, it's easier to get a smooth wave on the port side.  I was able to clean up the starboard side wave a good bit by reducing the rear ballast.  With a reduction in weight came a reduction in speed needed for the wake to reach the ideal shape.  I was also able to reduce the line of wash across the top of the wake by making a slight turn to the port side when set up for a starboard side wave.  

Of course the reduction in weight made the wave a little smaller, but it still surfed fine.  That said, no matter what I did, the port side wave looked great.  It's too bad, because most of my crew is goofy footed, but after studying the wave at every possible speed and ballast combination, I decided it's about 90% cosmetic and doesn't have a big affect on the way the wave surfs.  I'm still looking for suggestions, but this is what I tried:

Wedge only: Wake was clean on both sides but too small.

Filled nose tanks and floor tank, stopped filling rear ballast when nose and floor were full: Wave was small, but still usable.  Could see small line of wash developing on starboard side.  Port side wave looked cleaner.  Small jet of water shooting up from surf gate tells me surf gate not completely submerged.

Left port tank as it was above, filled rest of starboard tank, which listed the boat: Wave larger on starboard side, but so was the line of wash across the top.  Port side wave still looked fine.  It looked good no matter what I did.

Filled both rear ballast systems all the way.  I think there is some hard tank that then overflows into 1,000lb bags: Wave is huge with just me and 2 kids in the boat.  But port side wave is really clean, while starboard wave has that line of wash.  Still surfs great.  Just washy.

Same as above plus 400lbs in the nose: Wave longer, but more or less same as above.

Pulled the wedge up and filled a 1,000lb bag on the floor: Wave behaved almost exactly like when the wedge was down.  Wedge and 1,000lb bag seem to be nearly interchangeable.  This was interesting because I thought maybe the wedge was the issue.

Finally, I arrived at this setup, which might be my new go-to configuration: Front tank (650) and floor tank (???) full, 400lb bag on the nose, rear hard tanks full plus about 1/2 filled 1,000 bags in rear lockers, wedge down.  That got a great starboard side wave that was steep with plenty of push.  A little washy compared to the port wave, but still a joy to ride, and wave is probably 85-90% the size it gets if I go ahead and fill the rear ballast all of the way.  

With this setup, I can get the starboard side wash to lay down a little if I turn slightly to the port side.  However, I can also pull up the wedge, which makes the wave less steep and solves most of the wash problem.  This could come in handy if I want to take one run on a steeper wave and then lay the wave back a little more to work on 360s.  I can just take the wedge up or down and adjust speed accordingly.  This seems like a decent work-around, although I'm still annoyed the port side wake looked very clean under almost any conditions.

Regarding speed, the wave seemed to like 12+ with both rear 1,000lb bags full.  11.6 with them half-full, and then 11.2 if I then pull the wedge up.  That's consistent with what someone posted in another thread about the relationship between speed and ballast / weight.

I'm not sure why I'm telling all of this to strangers on an online forum.  Maybe it will save someone a quarter tank of gas.  Or maybe someone with a similar boat has more ideas to try?  I don't need much of an excuse to take the boat out...

 

 

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Have you tried running a tad listed to the surf side?   Fill your rears all the way but load up the one side just to list it over a tad.  Slow it down to 10.4 and slowly work upwards as well. 

I'm sure someone on here as experience with your specific boat. 

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Not gonna lie, I quit reading after the first paragraph. Are you sure you have starboard and port correct? Every Malibu/axis I have been on has been the opposite. Better goofy aka starboard wave than regular aka port due to prop rotation. If your boat is in fact opposite, drop me a line when you're ready to sell...

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7 hours ago, Pnwrider said:

Not gonna lie, I quit reading after the first paragraph. Are you sure you have starboard and port correct? Every Malibu/axis I have been on has been the opposite. Better goofy aka starboard wave than regular aka port due to prop rotation. If your boat is in fact opposite, drop me a line when you're ready to sell...

No worries, I wouldn't care either if I didn't have this particular issue on this particular boat.

These aren't from the best angle (I was driving), but you can see how there is a ridge of wash across the top of the wave in the first image.  Yes, I'm being picky.  In the second image, the top of the wave lays back and is smoother.  I'm thinking a smoother wave crest is a little better for getting air and turning 360s.  Both waves are great, and I'm happy with the boat, but I'll bet there are some pros on this board who can teach me how to really dial it in.

For what it's worth, you can see a little spray on the right side of the top image, which means the surf gate wasn't completely submerged.  I think at this point I had is listed slightly as Cole2001 suggested.  If I add ballast, the surf gate really goes deep and that little jet of spray goes away.  The wave also gets bigger, but so does the wash across the crest.  If I slow down, the wave gets shorter and steeper, but the amount of wash increases.

 

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2zibyfd.gif

 

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so did you try cheating to surf side a bit?  My bet is that if you have the weight biased just a little bit to the goofy side that this will completely clean up.  Could be as simple as moving one adult.

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57 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

so did you try cheating to surf side a bit?  My bet is that if you have the weight biased just a little bit to the goofy side that this will completely clean up.  Could be as simple as moving one adult.

Thanks--I will try that.  It's amazing how moving 1 person can change the shape of the wake.  Next time out, I'm going to take note of exactly how much water is going over the surf gate and how that affects the wave.  There is probably a sweet spot in there somewhere.  I think the hard tanks in the stern might be 250#, then add another 1,000# of plug-and-play bags on each side, and maybe it's just too much or it's out of balance with what's on the bow.  I appreciate the input.

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You have 1000 PNP on each side? Seems like a lot. When you say 650 in the nose, is thst the PNP bag under the seat? If so, it probably doesn't fill to 650? I think with that much weight in the back you may need more bow weight. Try only filling the PNP rear bags half. You may be pleasantly surprised. 

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