FI 23 Surf settings

[Tleeah 33]

We have been playing with the surf settings of our new FI 23.  As you might think, the port wave seems easier to dial in.  We have been able to get a huge wave on the goofy side but cleaning up the crest is a real challenge.  You have to get the attitude of the boat just right.  The more you tend to dig the back, it seems to bring more wash just on the crest.  I have not taken my goofy team out to help tune boat, but will do soon.    

We started with just corner PNP's, ramfill, and front tank full.  No lead or other bags full.  We then started adjustments.

Regular side prefers front tank empty --> half-full.  goofy wave likes a little more bow weight, but not much (front tank half-->full).  

If you want a quick surf setting without any fine tuning,  fill ramfill, PNP full and front tank 25-50%.  We did not get transom bag but use lead.  If you have the transom bag, use full for low peep count and adjust with number of peeps.  If you get too much transom weight it affects the smoothness of wave, from what we have seen.   

Adding lead to the FI 23 is tricky in this boat compared to my FX 22 Enzo.  I found even dispersion of lead throughout boat is best.  So far optimal weight is between 400-500#.  We tried up to 650# but saw no improvement or change.  

We do not have any pictures of surfers yet on the wave, but will come soon as it warms up.  I have not had a camera person when I have been surfing.  

The below pictures are with the following settings:

QS   70 (reg), 80 (goofy),  Stinger 50 (reg), 65-70 (goofy)

Ramfill and corner PNPs full, front tank 60%

Lead-200# in transom, 100# in front of PNP, 100# midship (under driver), 100# in bow.

We do not have CATS, so it is not in the equation.   We still have alot to work on but making progress and wanted to share with group.  We would love to hear any other feedback on FI 23 settings, for we are still a work in progress.  I am an old school ocean surfer, so I want steep walls and curls.  

Word of warning, the goofy wave is large enough to crash over the bow.  We found that out last night.  It was steep and tall, I was amazed for the freeboard of the bow is really high.  Look at last picture.  I had to lighten it due to it being dark.  

The various wave pics do have some variation in the QS settings between 65-75.   

 

 

 

 

 

[lovetosurf 48]

Fantastic, great info, thanks for sharing!

[wheels 151]

Have you tried a slight list? Ram fill  100% surf side 90% non surf side. That really helps on the ri. 

[Tleeah 33]

35 minutes ago, wheels said:

Have you tried a slight list? Ram fill  100% surf side 90% non surf side. That really helps on the ri. 

Yes I have played with the ramfill and PNP lowering the percentage on the non surf side.  PNP did not do much, but the ramfill made a difference.  It seems like it helps on the goofy wave the mostbut not sure.  I did not see a big difference on the regular side.  

[zeej2020 3]

Great info Tleeah. You are not the only one looking to dial in your wave. 

I just took delivery on my Fi23 last Friday and spent the weekend looking to dial it in.  I have all available ballast except the transom locker where i have 400lbs of lead.  I have yet to move the lead anywhere else in the boat besides the transom locker.

I found weighting the boat to the primary side you are surfing using ramfil helps. Also having if you have more than two people skew the weight in the boat to the surf side.

I surf goofy, so most my observations are from that point of view.  I found if you steer the boat slightly to the left, when surfing goofy it cleans up, and really firms up the lip/crest of the wave. It also extends how far you can ride and gives a steeper wave that i found more fun to surf.  If the boat is weighted properly you will still have plenty of push.  

With two to four people in the boat my ideal settings for goofy were:

speed: 11.0 to 11.2

CATS: -6

Center Tab: 45

Ramfill P: 95

Ramfill S: 100

Rear PNP P: 100

Rear PNP S: 100

Center Tank: 40

Bow PNP: 0 

Transom: 400lbs. (I found I liked it when I moved one 50lb bag from the port to starboard side in the locker when surfing goofy)

Quicklaunch and Quicksurf are engaged. Only a couple pics to share, which dont do the wave justice. Will find out more about the wave on this baby next weekend and will share. 



 

[Tleeah 33]

On 3/26/2018 at 6:58 PM, zeej2020 said:

Great info Tleeah. You are not the only one looking to dial in your wave. 

I just took delivery on my Fi23 last Friday and spent the weekend looking to dial it in.  I have all available ballast except the transom locker where i have 400lbs of lead.  I have yet to move the lead anywhere else in the boat besides the transom locker.

I found weighting the boat to the primary side you are surfing using ramfil helps. Also having if you have more than two people skew the weight in the boat to the surf side.

I surf goofy, so most my observations are from that point of view.  I found if you steer the boat slightly to the left, when surfing goofy it cleans up, and really firms up the lip/crest of the wave. It also extends how far you can ride and gives a steeper wave that i found more fun to surf.  If the boat is weighted properly you will still have plenty of push.  

With two to four people in the boat my ideal settings for goofy were:

speed: 11.0 to 11.2

CATS: -6

Center Tab: 45

Ramfill P: 95

Ramfill S: 100

Rear PNP P: 100

Rear PNP S: 100

Center Tank: 40

Bow PNP: 0 

Transom: 400lbs. (I found I liked it when I moved one 50lb bag from the port to starboard side in the locker when surfing goofy)

Quicklaunch and Quicksurf are engaged. Only a couple pics to share, which dont do the wave justice. Will find out more about the wave on this baby next weekend and will share. 



 

Very nice vessel Zeej2020!!!  I love the "battleship gray" especially in the sun on the water and inside the boat.  Along with the purple, I have received many compliments on the gray.  When we surf with a couple to 3 people, we did try out that 400lb in the transom, with ramfill and PNP full and it made a great wave.  Try without water in the front center tank and adjust with more stinger 65-90.  That was a good wave too.  Without the weight in the front center tank you get a  tall wave, with few peeps.   With more people, we can move the lead weight forward (100 mid ship, and 100 in front of PNP, 200 in transom) and keep the attitude of the boat where the wave is just big (see pic).  That goofy wave is steep enough to go over your bow.  

What setting are you using for the quicksurf?  I was told to be careful using the quick launch and quick surf at the same time.  They said it confuses the computer and the tabs could freeze up because of the freezing of the computer.  It did happen to us once.  We had to reboot the system.  Thank you for sharing and send more pics for sure.  

[h20king 794]

On 3/27/2018 at 8:57 PM, Tleeah said:

Very nice vessel Zeej2020!!!  I love the "battleship gray" especially in the sun on the water and inside the boat.  Along with the purple, I have received many compliments on the gray.  When we surf with a couple to 3 people, we did try out that 400lb in the transom, with ramfill and PNP full and it made a great wave.  Try without water in the front center tank and adjust with more stinger 65-90.  That was a good wave too.  Without the weight in the front center tank you get a  tall wave, with few peeps.   With more people, we can move the lead weight forward (100 mid ship, and 100 in front of PNP, 200 in transom) and keep the attitude of the boat where the wave is just big (see pic).  That goofy wave is steep enough to go over your bow.  

What setting are you using for the quicksurf?  I was told to be careful using the quick launch and quick surf at the same time.  They said it confuses the computer and the tabs could freeze up because of the freezing of the computer.  It did happen to us once.  We had to reboot the system.  Thank you for sharing and send more pics for sure.  

I sure hope I can get a cleaner wake than this or I am going to be disappointed. Hurry up and get it figured out so I have a good place to start LOL

[Tleeah 33]

2 hours ago, h20king said:

I sure hope I can get a cleaner wake than this or I am going to be disappointed. Hurry up and get it figured out so I have a good place to start LOL

You will be able to get it cleaned up with the QS and stinger settings.  Still perfecting the goofy side, but this wave is alot of fun.  For pure surfers, this wave is a blast, steep, and long, with a lot of push.  A friend recovered on the wave >20 ft from the boat.  Water is warming, so will have more surfing pics soon.  

[lovetosurf 48]

On 3/20/2018 at 9:51 AM, Tleeah said:

We have been playing with the surf settings of our new FI 23.  As you might think, the port wave seems easier to dial in.  We have been able to get a huge wave on the goofy side but cleaning up the crest is a real challenge.  You have to get the attitude of the boat just right.  The more you tend to dig the back, it seems to bring more wash just on the crest.  I have not taken my goofy team out to help tune boat, but will do soon.    

We started with just corner PNP's, ramfill, and front tank full.  No lead or other bags full.  We then started adjustments.

Regular side prefers front tank empty --> half-full.  goofy wave likes a little more bow weight, but not much (front tank half-->full).  

If you want a quick surf setting without any fine tuning,  fill ramfill, PNP full and front tank 25-50%.  We did not get transom bag but use lead.  If you have the transom bag, use full for low peep count and adjust with number of peeps.  If you get too much transom weight it affects the smoothness of wave, from what we have seen.   

Adding lead to the FI 23 is tricky in this boat compared to my FX 22 Enzo.  I found even dispersion of lead throughout boat is best.  So far optimal weight is between 400-500#.  We tried up to 650# but saw no improvement or change.  

We do not have any pictures of surfers yet on the wave, but will come soon as it warms up.  I have not had a camera person when I have been surfing.  

The below pictures are with the following settings:

QS   70 (reg), 80 (goofy),  Stinger 50 (reg), 65-70 (goofy)

Ramfill and corner PNPs full, front tank 60%

Lead-200# in transom, 100# in front of PNP, 100# midship (under driver), 100# in bow.

We do not have CATS, so it is not in the equation.   We still have alot to work on but making progress and wanted to share with group.  We would love to hear any other feedback on FI 23 settings, for we are still a work in progress.  I am an old school ocean surfer, so I want steep walls and curls.  

Word of warning, the goofy wave is large enough to crash over the bow.  We found that out last night.  It was steep and tall, I was amazed for the freeboard of the bow is really high.  Look at last picture.  I had to lighten it due to it being dark.  

The various wave pics do have some variation in the QS settings between 65-75.   

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, Any updates on your lead placement and surf settings? We are heading out today with 560lbs of lead and hope to spend an hour or 2 dialing it in. Thanks!

[Tleeah 33]

On 5/20/2018 at 6:58 AM, lovetosurf said:

Hi, Any updates on your lead placement and surf settings? We are heading out today with 560lbs of lead and hope to spend an hour or 2 dialing it in. Thanks!

Sorry for delay, 560 seems to be a good target.

Yes we are surfing with 350 of lead in transom and 100lb on each side under side benches about 2 ft forward from corner seat (550).  This works well with various numbers of peeps in boat.

with just a couple of peeps in boat, put 400 in transom and go.

on front center tank, fill more as you add more peeps. With 4-5we fill 20%, 6-8 we fill 60-80%, >10, full.  Use center tank to help adjust your attitude for optimal wave of your liking.

 

[lovetosurf 48]

23 hours ago, Tleeah said:

Sorry for delay, 560 seems to be a good target.

Yes we are surfing with 350 of lead in transom and 100lb on each side under side benches about 2 ft forward from corner seat (550).  This works well with various numbers of peeps in boat.

with just a couple of peeps in boat, put 400 in transom and go.

on front center tank, fill more as you add more peeps. With 4-5we fill 20%, 6-8 we fill 60-80%, >10, full.  Use center tank to help adjust your attitude for optimal wave of your liking.

 

Ok great, thanks for sharing. We haven’t quite figured out if the fi likes bow weight or not. We started with just 400lbs in the transom lockers but felt like the platform was almost 2ft under water and the locker would flood when coming to a stop. Bow seemed to ride high so we kept the center tank full and used more stinger. (60-80)

We then moved all the lead under the seats just infront of the pnp’s which seemed to work better. We’ve since added another 160lbs far forward in the bow and found we can go lower on the stinger (30-50) which makes sense since the higher stinger setting was countering the transom weight before.

How about your surf settings? Still got a lot more playing around to do but so far out best results were achieved with pnp’s full, 80% on the counter Ram, 30-50 on the stinger,  QS@65 reg, 75 goofy and lead weight spread almost evenly throughout the boat.

Cheers & thanks again for sharing.

 

[Tleeah 33]

We have found that added bow weight will mellow wave and extend wave a little.  It takes the steepness out too.  

You do have to use much more stinger, the more transom weight you have.  I believe the stinger is flush at 30, correct???  If so. you would want your minimum to be 30 to have some effect to smooth wave.  

I have not tried to move my lead forward in front of the PNP's but was asking someone else about that.  Their response was to keep weight in transom.  That is interesting, I may give it a try putting lead in front of PNP's.  I believe that works best with the 257 too.    

Oh speaking of water in transom, if you plane out fully ballasted, come off throttle really slow.  That rooster tail is huge and will come over stern of boat.  LOL

[InfinitySurf 302]

Every boat is a little different but I run 800-900lbs of bow weight depending on crew (500 bag and 300-400 of lead). I have plenty of rear weight to counter it since almost 5k total (plus if I put that 400lbs of lead in rear the wave gets so big it will crash over my sundeck). Anyway my point is its worth trying the bow weight to see what happens. Running the bow weight I also use very little center trim plate (0-30% at most depending on how steep we want it) since it tends to knock the wave down some when using center tab.... so the way I run it, the attitude of boat is mostly "natural" the way I have the weight placed. I know all boats are different, just sharing what I have found. I have crawled thru a couple FI's and love the look of those boats, have not surfed one yet tho so all speculation

[LakeWarrior 1]

I've run my Fi23 a few times now, but my wave is pretty underwhelming.  Any ideas what I might need to try?

Current setup:

speed: 11.2

Center Tab: 40

Ramfill P: 95

Ramfill S: 100

Rear PNP P: 100

Rear PNP S: 100

Center Tank: 40

I don't have any lead yet.
 

[joelmjohnson 13]

Where do you have your quick surf tabs set at. Regular side I run :

Speed 11.2

Center tab between 30-50 

Ramfill P: 100

Ramfill S: 80

Rear PNP P: 100

Rear PNP S: 100

Center Tank: 50

300 lbs of wakeballast on surf side transom corner and 200 on the opposite side transom corner and set quick surf to 65 starbord and 0 port

 

[Tleeah 33]

14 hours ago, LakeWarrior said:

I've run my Fi23 a few times now, but my wave is pretty underwhelming.  Any ideas what I might need to try?

Current setup:

speed: 11.2

Center Tab: 40

Ramfill P: 95

Ramfill S: 100

Rear PNP P: 100

Rear PNP S: 100

Center Tank: 40

I don't have any lead yet.
 

Add transom weight, 350#, and will make a huge difference.  If you do not have weight for transom, fill all 100% and keep center tank empty.  It’s a decent wave, but transom needs weight for larger wave

[h20king 794]

Not sure what ballast you got with your boat but here is the set up I got from Gerry Opplinger our centurion regional sales manager.  This set up is for regular.

Quick surf 75 - 0  center trim at 35 ,bow sack at 50 ,center tank at 100 , ramfil  100- 96 ,PNP 100 ,transom  at 100 and speed at 11.4

 

[Fivebar2 176]

Here is the wave that H20king is referring to. The wave was $$

[LakeWarrior 1]

On 5/24/2018 at 11:41 PM, Tleeah said:

Add transom weight, 350#, and will make a huge difference.  If you do not have weight for transom, fill all 100% and keep center tank empty.  It’s a decent wave, but transom needs weight for larger wave

Transom weight made all the difference in the world. Completely different wave. Very happy now.

[h20king 794]

17 hours ago, Fivebar2 said:

Here is the wave that H20king is referring to. The wave was $$

Was that at lacamus? If so what was the water temperature? Thinking about dropping in there Sunday.