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2012 VTX surf setup - stock ballast


oldjeep

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Wife bought a surfboard at the boat show this year and we finally got around to trying it out during lake week last week.   We used the factory surf left preset which fills the left tank, center tank, puts the wedge down and runs the boat around 10 mph.   The preset doesn't put any water in the bow tank.  We set all the passengers on the left side (didn't amount to much, mostly kids and women).  Everyone who tried was able to get up and go ropeless - basically just standing in the pocket but we were all about 4" off the platform. 

We've got no intention of filling the lockers with sacks since we use that space, but figure there is some tuning that could be done on the preset to make the wave a little longer so that you don't feel like you are going to land on the platform.  Everyone who has any interest in surfing again is under 175lbs, most are closer to 120.  Board is a Ronix Modello stub fish

So - thoughts?  I'd consider picking up a mission surf wedge if it works decent with stock ballast.  The boat was spooky enough to turn around the way it was weighted.

Edited by oldjeep
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Things to try...

Full MLS, bow, center, both rears.  Need bow weight.

Set any additional people on the surf side.

Speed up a bit to try and lengthen the pocket.  When evenly weighted seems to need more speed than listed.  

Play with the wedge to see if you can lengthen the pocket too.  

Build a suckgate to see if you can get the results (cheaper than the ready built options).  Boat sits much more level and easier to turn around.  

Edited by blk93jeepzj
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You'll likely need some sort of surfing device.  I had wicked wake surf on my 2012 VTX, changes the wave significantly.  It's a pain to store though.  I've heard really good things about the nauticurl wake device.  https://nauticurl.com/  Fill all tanks to the top, put a surf device on the opposite side of the boat that you want to surf on, and I know you don't want them, but I highly recommend extra bags.  I have two 750's in my lockers.  Had 550's on my 2012, and the extra weight helps a ton.  You'll want to list your boat just a little bit, so having everyone sit in the back corner will help with that, or you can empty a little out of the non-surf side tank.  Edit: 10.8 mph, wedge 2-3 clicks up from all the way down.  Good luck!

Edited by Sixer
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You're pretty mechanically inclined. Use a @martinarcher system and add surfgates.  Everyone will be surfing in a few weeks.  You'll want bags too. Storage space is over rated :lol:

As many threads here have stated - surf boards are very different from each other. You'll have 3 in no time.

  • Like 1
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While not exactly what you want, what we do is pretty close.  We fill all the hard tanks (less than full on rear non surf side) and use a Nauticurl on the non surf side.  We do have extra 400's in each rear locker which while surfing do limit storage but when they're not full we still use the lockers for vest storage. When we started surfing last year I'd run between 9.6-10.2mph but this year I'm finding I can run at 10.6-11.2 and that helps too...

With our VTX we definitely need extra weight up front though, which to this point has been some of my bigger friends.  Just waiting to pull the trigger on a bag w/ pump once I can find what I'm looking for.  Once we weighted the front of the boat the wave length increased a bunch. I'm no longer worried about surfing right onto the swim platform.

My boats up at the lake (Northern WI) for the next month but I'm fairly close to you in the Twin Cities. If you want later this year if timing would work out I could bring the Nauticurl to you and you could throw it on your boat to see what a difference it makes. I have friends who live in your neck of the woods and I'm out there every once in a while.

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We do about the same, except without any type of gate, and have a bag that fills under the spotter seat, and partway into the dash storage compartment.

I dont dare put more that a 400 bag up in the bow, cause we have dipped the bow a few times, and thats the real risk.  The boss gets mad when that happens.

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I’m still trying to figure out our vtx surf wave. I couldn’t get anywhere close to a surfable wave with the stock ballast. I’m currently sitting at mls full, 1100’s in the rear (I doubt they fill past 800ish), 1000lb triangle in the front then either a 600lb bag in the middle or three adults. I’m running a homemade suck gate and right around 12-12.6mph. 

Seems like I’m running a lot more weight then most but without it I end up with a pocket about 2’ long. Maybe I’m doing something wrong 🤷🏻‍♂️, always open to suggestions 👍

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Try moving it forward till you find a good spot, since you have lots of weight.  I have mine under the gas fill cap, but it is a 23 foot boat too.  

Try to get it as high on the lower section of the hull as you can.  It needs to "spray" water over the top a bit to get that delayed convergence effect it appears.  Don't want the thing submarined at speed, need it to brake the surface tension if you will .

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