Very frothy wake behind 2004 Centurion Elite Air Warrior

[Treehouse 0]

I just purchased some Fly High fat sac's for my boat. The pair of sac's are about 400 lbs each and I put them in the storage areas on either side of the engine. In addition, I borrowed a friends sac that I put on the port side seat (about another 400+ lbs) and filled up the factory hard ballast and runs down the centre of the boat.

 

While I have a huge wake, it is very frothy...so much so that it makes it difficult or impossible to wake surf. It does clean up slightly if I take a port side turn but I would just be going around in a tight circle if that was the case.

 

I've attached a picture of the wake.

 

A friend suggested that I might need to replace the prop as he felt the was having to rev too high to get to a surfing speed (approx 2000 rpm for 8 mph and 3000 for 12 mph). I tried the higher speed to see if the wake would clean up but it didn not.

 

Any suggestions? Thanks, Steve in Victoria, BC

[hurricane sean 6]

You need to put all the weight on the surf side. Try stacking the two 400's in the port locker with the speed somewhere between 10-11.5 mph. This should make a big difference.

[DarksideR 1,679]

Yep, what hurricane said. You just don't have enough weight on the port side. It takes quite a bit to get a clean wave. And those rpm's are pretty normal.

Edited August 26, 2012 by DarksideR

[Holzy22 0]

I have the same boat. As mentioned, all the weight needs to be on the port side, including guy sitting on the back and any other sac you are filling, trim tabs all the way up, slight turn to the left, looks like you may need to go a little faster as well. Make sure there is no weight on the star side. I get a very nice wave with only the factory center and port side facotry ballast filled. When I add a couple people, I can surf 10-15 feet behind the boat. My son some times hangs off the tower on the port side which really pops up the wave. This is a seneistive boat for a good wave.

[Kevin Baugh 78]

To me it looks like you are not going close to the right speed

use a gps and check your speed

 

plus what they said about the ballast

[superdtf 68]

What they all said^^ And the turn to one side thing is less than ideal. Like Holzy said, sometimes that will help to kick the wake over and get it to curl, but if you do, less is more. A tighter turn will leak all the push out. Hopefully you can get enough weight to the surf side to be able to go straight (or mostly straight).

[mancho 85]

Yeah. Agreed w all they say. We saw a poor late model MC on the lake Friday doing ttight circles for the rider to try to surf. It was really sad, here we are in a 1998 centurion surfing all up and down our wake poking along a straight line and we keep passing the circular 2008/2009 MC. Lol

[superdtf 68]

Yeah. Agreed w all they say. We saw a poor late model MC on the lake Friday doing ttight circles for the rider to try to surf. It was really sad, here we are in a 1998 centurion surfing all up and down our wake poking along a straight line and we keep passing the circular 2008/2009 MC. Lol

Nice. We have friends with a later model MC. It surfs nicely once they get a TON (technically more than a ton) of ballast in it. There are a couple of X80's that come to our lake occasionally. They don't do anything well. My suspicion is that to get those to surf you'd have to get at least 3000 lbs of ballast per side.

But even once they get it going, our friend's boat doesn't present a wave like our Enzo. It gets good push, but it's messy and doesn't quite curl like you'd want. I suspect that's because the hull shape is engineered for wakeboarding. It's almost like an oversized boat & deck set on an undersized hull. But when your surfing, more than just the hull is still down in the water; the step chine out to the deck is still in play.

[knoxcenturion 9]

Ive got a 99 eclipse and i cant seem to get the sweey spot. I weighted the rear pass. Side all the way to the rub rail.

[poosie 7]

tree i think that hull is pretty close to my lightning. i need 1000 port locker, 200 under port bench seat, 200 in bow and 400-600 in passenger weight to get a really good wake. these older boats are very touchy when it comes to surfin but it can be done. I wiegh 195 and usually sit on the back port sundeck to keep the rub rail at water level. good luck

[RhuntIII 555]

Very Frothy Beer.

[Rcrawler 0]

2003 Air Warrior( eclipse) 800 port side 1300 down the center and my fat 250 lb butt. 800 on the port plus the hard tank threw a good wave but were big boys on a small stick and need a little more to get us moving @ 11-12 mph.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Rcrawler

[RhuntIII 555]

Hey crawler, the wave looks good you might be right about the board. Inland surfer has a size chart on their web sit for sizing boards, check it out. It might be a good starting point.

 

http://www.inlandsurfer.com/default.htm

[Rcrawler 0]

Thanks. On it, the Red Rocket is in my future.

[Treehouse 0]

Thanks everyone. I re-tried it this weekend with both 400lb fat sacks in the port side locker. At about 2000 RPM's and 10-11 MPH the wake started to clean up. With a slight port side turn, it was quite clean. I only had my two (light) boys in the boat so assume that with more people, it would have been quite good (and/or I could have eliminated the turn).

 

Great recommendations from everyone.

[superdtf 68]

Thanks everyone. I re-tried it this weekend with both 400lb fat sacks in the port side locker. At about 2000 RPM's and 10-11 MPH the wake started to clean up. With a slight port side turn, it was quite clean. I only had my two (light) boys in the boat so assume that with more people, it would have been quite good (and/or I could have eliminated the turn).

 

Great recommendations from everyone.

Nice, glad to see you're getting the groove.

[harlobra 24]

I'm not sure if our hulls are similar ( I have a 2010 Falcon V) but you have to het to a point to where you are comfortable - or you can convince your wife it's safe - to add enough weight. The more you add the bigger the wave. Once you can surf it without the rope then you can clean it up and dial it in. It's kind of part of the fun.

[boardjnky4 8]

I have an 06 elite V. If all you have is 2 400's then do this. 1 in the rear locker, then 1 under the observer seat (yes it's awkward to fill it in there). Also fill the stock center if you have it. Then load up some friends on the surf side.