Slalom Tug Bow Weighting

[Rednucleus]

99% of my skiing is in the course.  This year I have the luxury of access to two private lakes and the use of three different boats (turning 60 in June, justify it as an early BDay present).  Boat #1 is the 98 Sporty - no wake, drives like a sports car. Have been skiing behind it since new. Boat #2 is an 03 Sunsetter LXI - back to this one in a moment. Boat #3 is a 14 Nautique - I have been out 7 times so far behind this tug.  I find it really tracks straight in the course with minimal driver correction, even with bigger short line aggressive skiers. So back to the Sunsetter. Was out Wed after driving the Nautique Sunday and felt in comparison the bow was riding a bit high and kind of floated side to side thru the course. Have seen others talk about bow weighting for slalom and wonder if that would help. No complaints on the wake, just how it handles through the course.

Thanks for your input Crew.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Rednucleus
typo

[oldjeep]

I think most of the bow weighting for slalom talk is from us v drive skiers.  But easy enoufh to try out with a bag or 2 of water softener salt. 

[onamission]

Grab yourself 3 or 4 50 pound  bags, ( someting strong lkke shot or sand bags - small) so they can be moved  around easy.  I hate to call it normal,  but we normally put one by the passenger seat, one in the bow under the seats,, and one or two that you can move side to side or at the pylon depending on crew weight.

The sunsetter I would put i 100 pounds n the front floor locker, 2 50 pound bags to move around,

Edited May 5, 2018 by onamission

[Sixball]

So the 03 Sunsetter LXI is the same hull is as one I ski A 99 But my first thought, Does the rudder have pull if you are not turning or is it trying to turn?  I am thinking it tuned incorrect. I don't feel it in the SS we are  running.  Yes many of us weight our ski tugs DD's It is more for the wake. I ski a CC 196 often and it is very stable no weight and might be the best wake we ski.  I have not skied a sporty or 14 CC. I have not heard any one weighting the CC 200 (2014) but I don't ski it and only know one person skiing it now but they are very happy with the boat.

[Rednucleus]

Thanks Sixball - The Sporty and CC are great as is, just noticing the SS has what I describe as a mild "bow float" and rides a bit higher than the other two. I will report back on the rudder question next time I drive it. I have a couple 40# bags of cat litter; maybe bring those next time - should fit well under the bow seats. Drove the CC again this AM, continue to be impressed on how straight it holds down the course.

[ahopkins22LSV]

I run 150 pounds of lead from lead wake in the bow on our TXi. It should help with tracking for you too. It’s also really nice to be able to have the boat basiclly level if you only have a driver. I’ll shift two bags to the passenger seat and leave one in the bow passenger side. 

[Woodski]

@Rednucleus:  Don't forget it does act a bit like a teeter totter, so taking out extra stuff at the transom will level the boat via raising the transom.  Before adding ballast, and since not your boat even better, time to get out the bondo and add some hook to her .  That will do exactly what you want and help tracking as that will tend to pin the boat and add stability (kind of like feathers on an arrow).  You can get an idea of effect by playing with the hydrogate on the 200, that pretty much does the same thing just a different way of adding hook.  If you chicken out on the bondo, yes bow weighting will help, but just to be clear, many a tournament promo boat has been tuned via the bondo method, it was very common up to fairly recently.  The 200 is a very stable, solid driver through the course, they pretty much pin that hull to the surface, that is why it takes the power level and fuel consumption to push it along, you certainly notice how flat it rides, that is a lot of wetted surface area.