Ri217 vs Fi23

[mxvet 0]

bow rise. had to stand straight up to see anything (and I'm 6'2)...

[wheels 151]

Something definitely not set up right. I drive my ri237 sitting in the seat, no bolster with only 50% in centre tank and nothing in bow. Full ram and rear pnp plus 500lbs lead and I can see fine 

[Jake707 171]

Ya but that 2' difference between your 237 and the 217 he tested might make all the difference when it comes to bow rise, or at least be a contributing factor.

[mrnate450r 6]

I've been in a 217 several times. Bow rise was never an issue. With just an okay wave, and bow rise I say it wasn't set up right. The 217 should have blown away any other boat with a surf system, with the exception of a select few. 

[Korgae 11]

1 hour ago, mxvet said:

I'm not new to surf boats, been around for ~8 years.  the dealer felt that adding bow weight scars the shape of the wake on 217, so I did not push further. How much weight do you use in the bow?  I have a 23' competitor boat with similar surf system and I use 250# bow weight in it. 

Besides that, they do not have 2017 Ri217 that I like color wise, but do have a couple Ri237's that I like that they are willing to deal on.

Either am I.. considering I have had 6 surf boats in the last 10 years..  ( tiges and Bu's) with the RI being by far the best. My in laws also have an RI ( there's is a 2016, That i loved so much much I ordered a 2017) and another family member has a G so we have lots of knowledge and exp to offer. The 217 ( see my setup thread) likes all the bow weight you put into it. Where the 237 doesn't seem to respond the same way. I'm full on both centre and front p/p and even will stuff a bit of extra weight up there if we have a small crew. My centre tab is anywhere from 35-80 depending on what we want for a wave. All I was saying is that if you got an "okay" wave and had the bow to the moon, you were doing something wrong and that's why you saw the results you did. I know it's hard to get a feel on a demo- low fuel no gear and sometimes a sales guy that doesn't have direct setup knowledge of that particular model.. the 237 is a beast and if they are willing to deal on it, go that way.. like wheels said you won't be sorry

[BoardCo 110]

217 has some bow rise but I am 5'7" and I can see over the front no problem sitting on the bolster with no bow weight at all in the boat. It depends a lot on the settings but the wave should be awesome and not a ton of bow rise on the boat.

As to the bigger question on the 2018 237 vs. 2017 237 vs. 2017 217 (wow that's a lot of numbers...) I would recommend getting the boat with the best bang for your buck. The 2018 237 hull is amazing if you are big into wakeboarding and the surf wave is superior but not night and day different compared to a 2017. If it was 10k more to get a 2018 optioned and with the colors I would want I would fork out the money to do it but if I could save 15+k on a 2017 one with options and colors that I liked I would have no problem taking one (and I would consider myself and most of my crew in the advanced wakeboard category).

There are improvements on the 2018 237 but there are always improvements year over year. The question is are they worth the additional cost of a year newer boat for what you get if you are looking this time of year.

The 217 is awesome and it can be argued that the 237 has a longer wave but I have spent A LOT of time in BOTH models and I would have a hard time telling you which boat I was surfing behind if I was blindfolded. They really are pretty close. The reasons to go with a 237 vs. the 217 would be everything that happens from the swim platform forward and not what happens behind the boat.

One thing for certain - if you were underwhelmed with the wave on a 217, 237, etc. then it wasn't dialed right (or maybe not dialed right for how you like to surf). The wave is unreal behind all of them. Sometimes it does take some getting used to as the wave is different than other boats out there but once you get a hang of it you can't go back to a sloppy, mushy wave like you get behind a lot of other boats.

One of the biggest issues we run into when doing demos is people are used to surfing on boats that have a shorter or softer wave and it takes them a bit to get used to riding on the caliber of wave that a Ri can produce. We spend most of our time at events toning the wave WAAAY down.

[Sparkycollier 32]

30 minutes ago, Korgae said:

Either am I.. considering I have had 6 surf boats in the last 10 years..  ( tiges and Bu's) with the RI being by far the best. My in laws also have an RI ( there's is a 2016, That i loved so much much I ordered a 2017) and another family member has a G so we have lots of knowledge and exp to offer. The 217 ( see my setup thread) likes all the bow weight you put into it. Where the 237 doesn't seem to respond the same way. I'm full on both centre and front p/p and even will stuff a bit of extra weight up there if we have a small crew. My centre tab is anywhere from 35-80 depending on what we want for a wave. All I was saying is that if you got an "okay" wave and had the bow to the moon, you were doing something wrong and that's why you saw the results you did. I know it's hard to get a feel on a demo- low fuel no gear and sometimes a sales guy that doesn't have direct setup knowledge of that particular model.. the 237 is a beast and if they are willing to deal on it, go that way.. like wheels said you won't be sorry

One thing that comes to mind is that they say in the Fi 23 video that the new hull like bow weight... and Boardco has said the 217 hull is fairly similar to the 257 and thus the "new direction" towards what they're now branding opti-v... so it seems to me that maybe that's the reason it likes more than the 237.

It also might explain why a 21' boat (217) can produce such an amazing wave, since you're using more of the hull displacing water if you're adding bow weight, right? Which bodes well for the Fi 23. 

Just some random musings... 

[Darkside 248]

36 minutes ago, BoardCo said:

One of the biggest issues we run into when doing demos is people are used to surfing on boats that have a shorter or softer wave and it takes them a bit to get used to riding on the caliber of wave that a Ri can produce. We spend most of our time at events toning the wave WAAAY down.

This is amusing, I have had 3 complaints about my wave. 

1.  Too big, it is intimidating

2.  Too Firm

3. Too steep... (skim rider used to super flat BU wave)

Which is amusing to me as those are the attributes i was looking for

 

[mrnate450r 6]

13 minutes ago, Darkside said:

This is amusing, I have had 3 complaints about my wave. 

1.  Too big, it is intimidating

2.  Too Firm

3. Too steep... (skim rider used to super flat BU wave)

Which is amusing to me as those are the attributes i was looking for

 

That's what she said....

[Korgae 11]

1 hour ago, Darkside said:

This is amusing, I have had 3 complaints about my wave. 

1.  Too big, it is intimidating

2.  Too Firm

3. Too steep... (skim rider used to super flat BU wave)

Which is amusing to me as those are the attributes i was looking for

 

It's true, like I said the wave is so good, I feel I can hurt myself, it's that firm!!  it's all good but I have never felt that way about any of my other waves in the last 10 years of wake surfing.. the RI series is amazing.

[mxvet 0]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.. going to demo the 237 this week as well.

[BoardCo 110]

When you test out the Ri237 just make sure they run it with the correct settings for what you want. The magic of that boat (and all of the Centurion boats for that matter) is that they can be used to create just about anything - just make sure it is tailored to what you want out of the boat. There are a lot of threads here about settings on one but if you want any help at all just let me know.

Good luck and have fun!

[mxvet 0]

thanks, any baseline settings you would run, please pass them to me to try. also this boat has the 450, I'm at 5000 FT - will that be enough torque?

[BoardCo 110]

Yep the 450 does awesome as long as it has the right prop (16x13 is ideal).

11.2mph
Both rear PNP ballast full
Ramfill 100 on surf side
Ramfill 85-90 on off side
No bow / center ballast
Quicksurf set to 65 (more if you want more mellow wave)
Center plate adjust up / down as needed
CATS at 0 (you can mess with it but this would be the last thing you change)

[mxvet 0]

thanks!