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rough water ride.


smuurph84

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what's the general rule of thumb, is it the bigger the boat or the heaver the boat?  will hopefully be upgrading soon and being on a busy lake one of the top priorities is rough water ride. i know everyone says to test drive , just curious on how an A24 would compare to a 23lsv or an m220? or are they all basically the same with the 24 and 25 mxz/lsv being the best?

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The new 23 LSV rides really well in rough water compared to older models.  They changed up the angle of the V in the "right spot" that when you are landing on the rough part of a wave, it makes it more bearable.  But, a longer boat and heavier are going to naturally ride better through the rough water.  I have a friend that has an Ri257 and can cruise through some rough water on Cumberland at 27 mph like it is nothing and following him, I have had to constantly slow down in my old boat ('14 VLX).  

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Look for the 'deadrise at transom' number, if you can find it. Bigger number means it has more of a "V" and will cut through the waves. Smaller number means it has less of a "V" and will slap the waves more, for lack of a better term. Boat length and weight also play a role. It's difficult to find deadrise numbers on these types of boats. Some manufacturers seem more proud to post them and others less so, I'm guessing because their deadrise numbers are lower...or it's just less relevant with these boats.

I'd love to know the deadrise numbers of Axis and Malibu boats for the past 3-4 years. Does anyone have those numbers?

Edited by formerathlete
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Yes - Bigger boats handle chop better than smaller boats. However, feathering the throttle and manipulating the steering helps enormously too. If you are a snow-skier, I'd tell you to drive your boat like you are skiing a mogul hill. Also, driving behind a boat like your buddy's Ri257 (or just about any wakeboard boat) is asking for terribly rough water. Either stay up closer to him and stay outside of the wake, or drop way back and follow from a great distance after his water has moved out of your path or settled a bit. 

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My '19 23 LSV didn't ride near as good as my buddies '20 X22.  I am not sure my '21 is going to be all that much better than the '19.  The '19 23 LSV did ride better than the '17 21 VLX that we had before (obviously).  I wouldn't put the LSV in the winner circle vs others in rough riding quality.  It certainly wins in many other areas - but for us, there is some things to be desired for in rough water.  We are on Lake Norman which is big rough lake. 

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48 minutes ago, Five Cent Worth said:

My '19 23 LSV didn't ride near as good as my buddies '20 X22.  I am not sure my '21 is going to be all that much better than the '19.  The '19 23 LSV did ride better than the '17 21 VLX that we had before (obviously).  I wouldn't put the LSV in the winner circle vs others in rough riding quality.  It certainly wins in many other areas - but for us, there is some things to be desired for in rough water.  We are on Lake Norman which is big rough lake. 

Off topic - It is all relative.  I have LOVED my limited time on Norman due to how calm it was...  They have done a great job on Norman mandating what is acceptable as far as shoreline - rip rap or natural vs bulkheads.  Makes a huge difference in water quality.

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yeah I am on Lanier and its prob very similar to Norman as far as how busy it gets. I guess I should have worded my question a little better. is it better to have a longer less heavy boat like the a24 vs  a shorter but much heavier m220. i am sure a test drive of both would give you an idea, just curious if anyone had some direct experience.  

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Ive heard of people filling their belly tank to improve rough water ride. Only the belly tank though. I have not tried myself yet so cannot confirm. Worth a shot though!

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16 hours ago, smuurph84 said:

yeah I am on Lanier and its prob very similar to Norman as far as how busy it gets. I guess I should have worded my question a little better. is it better to have a longer less heavy boat like the a24 vs  a shorter but much heavier m220. i am sure a test drive of both would give you an idea, just curious if anyone had some direct experience.  

We lived in ATL as well.  Our boat back then was a 25' Baja (pre kids :)) and we were putting it in at Vanns Tavern Boat Storage.  One of the best set ups to date for us.  Miss those guys...  That Fish Tails place for Sunday afternoon lunch :thumbup:.  Man, we don't miss that drive from Lanier back down 400 to the city....

My vote would be the heavier boat.  Simply because I know how heavy an X22 is and the M220 is right there.  My dealer said all but the same when we were getting our '21 in that the M220 would do better in the chop.  For us the M220 and X22 weren't even close to budget.

Lanier is ROUGH from my boating experience.  Where I have spent considerable amount of time boating, I would rank it the second roughest only behind Lake Erie (not apples to apples - but it is still boating).  Lake Norman would be third and then all the smaller inland lakes and Ohio River that I grew up on.  Rough on the roughest day on an inland lake in Ohio has no +33' cruisers, lots of surf boat and a plethora of +23' bow riders.

18 hours ago, amartin said:

Off topic - It is all relative.  I have LOVED my limited time on Norman due to how calm it was...  They have done a great job on Norman mandating what is acceptable as far as shoreline - rip rap or natural vs bulkheads.  Makes a huge difference in water quality.

100%.  The bottom part of the lake can get as rough as I have experienced.  I have been able to boat all over the world in some aspects.  I truly believe Lake Norman offers the best of all.  One of the reason we chose to live in CLT!

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19 hours ago, smuurph84 said:

yeah I am on Lanier and its prob very similar to Norman as far as how busy it gets. I guess I should have worded my question a little better. is it better to have a longer less heavy boat like the a24 vs  a shorter but much heavier m220. i am sure a test drive of both would give you an idea, just curious if anyone had some direct experience.  

In a head sea I'd say weight...following sea, take the length....but I think it's beginning to split hairs.

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4 minutes ago, 85 Barefoot said:

In a head sea I'd say weight...following sea, take the length....but I think it's beginning to split hairs.

thats kind of where my head was with it ( splitting hairs) any of them will be a big improvement over my t22. does ok, but for lanier a 23' to 25' boat is almost a must!

 

thanks,

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On 1/14/2021 at 12:07 PM, BigCreek said:

Yes - Bigger boats handle chop better than smaller boats. However, feathering the throttle and manipulating the steering helps enormously too. If you are a snow-skier, I'd tell you to drive your boat like you are skiing a mogul hill. Also, driving behind a boat like your buddy's Ri257 (or just about any wakeboard boat) is asking for terribly rough water. Either stay up closer to him and stay outside of the wake, or drop way back and follow from a great distance after his water has moved out of your path or settled a bit. 

the wife really doesn't get that feathering thing and each bounce her hand is on throttle instead of pulling back she bounces it down,  bent my chillax hardware leaning over center seat while she was doing this, literally had to grab the throttle out of her hands and kick her out of seat 

that technique really works but in my 20 footer its a long slow trip

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12 hours ago, Five Cent Worth said:

We lived in ATL as well.  Our boat back then was a 25' Baja (pre kids :)) and we were putting it in at Vanns Tavern Boat Storage.  One of the best set ups to date for us.  Miss those guys...  That Fish Tails place for Sunday afternoon lunch :thumbup:.  Man, we don't miss that drive from Lanier back down 400 to the city....

My vote would be the heavier boat.  Simply because I know how heavy an X22 is and the M220 is right there.  My dealer said all but the same when we were getting our '21 in that the M220 would do better in the chop.  For us the M220 and X22 weren't even close to budget.

Lanier is ROUGH from my boating experience.  Where I have spent considerable amount of time boating, I would rank it the second roughest only behind Lake Erie (not apples to apples - but it is still boating).  Lake Norman would be third and then all the smaller inland lakes and Ohio River that I grew up on.  Rough on the roughest day on an inland lake in Ohio has no +33' cruisers, lots of surf boat and a plethora of +23' bow riders.

100%.  The bottom part of the lake can get as rough as I have experienced.  I have been able to boat all over the world in some aspects.  I truly believe Lake Norman offers the best of all.  One of the reason we chose to live in CLT!

 We have spent vacation time on Norman the last two summers.  The weekdays are great, the weekends take some driving skill and lots of attention with all the clueless boaters and waves from every direction.  The only thing we see on our stretch of the Ohio River is barges and bass boats, great boating most of the time.

Anyways back to the original post  we do ok crossing choppy lakes using the throttle and natural bow rise but think weight is just as important as length.  I had a wider and heavier I/O that handled better than similar size boats, it just didn’t get tossed around as much.  

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1 hour ago, BigCreek said:

Or you just don't understand it because you are not a snow-skier. 

I used to live at Vail.  I've skied my entire life.  I'm making such progress my group instructor has been giving me a cookie at the end of the day when I properly remove and rack my skis.

Big Creek,  it is absolutely smoother for a following vessel to ride within a lead vessel's wakes.   OP's original question was whether length or weight have a bigger effect on ride in rough seas.  The answer is, in my opinion, it depends.  A head or following sea are 2 different scenarios.  As are rollers.  Given the flat bottom nature of wake boats the perfect formula for each is not a rule for all.  In an ocean scenario, with boats with much steeper entries, you would always want to run bow down into a head sea by trimming in completely and using trim tabs to drive the bow down.  You want to do the opposite in a following sea.  Those rules are not as clear in a wakeboat because filling front ballast in an A24 in a head sea may work great to better use the length of the hull to span crests, but in a VTX that could pound you to death, or even be unsafe.  Getting back to OP's original question, I think all wakeboats have some uniqueness for what elicits the best ride in varying conditions.  To OP, you can always fill all ballast to experiment with whether running heavy, like an M220, provides a better ride for your conditions.

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I have a 07 23 and filling the belly tank to 1/2 or 3/4 makes the rough water ride much much better when it’s horrendous on the lake.  I’ve driven a t23 as well and found that ride to be even worse and added some nose weight to it and helped a bunch.  Getting the steeper v into the water more by adding weight is part of the equation as is adding mass to the boat as well.   And I’ve never seen anyone in my life not try to stay in the wake of a lead boat in rough water. 

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