DaveInTahoe

Here is a picture of the interior (standard white, hex black, hex deep bronze, with canadian blue metalflake on the hard insets)

2020 Ri257 (w/LSX). Canadian Blue Sparkle and White. Interior is standard white, hex black, hex deep bronze. I'm not swooned by the bombshell racks, so I have a set of PTM Edge wide-mouth clamp racks I'm trying to figure out how to get the right brackets to get mounted. Sorry for the kids tubing pic, its' one of the few I have with the interior. Our adults crew is 95% wakesurf.. and we hope to get the kids into it too. (my kids are only 6 and 8 y/o)

I was not able to find the test-knob, but I turned off the boat battery while the pump was running and it kept running, so that confirmed for me that it runs even with the battery off... that gives me the confidence to turn the battery off when I leave the boat out there on the bouy. Thanks @volzalum

I think i found my answer. The bilge is normally automatic as long as the battery is on.. and the switch on the console forces it to run even if the float days isn't triggered... So it looks like all i have to do is leave the battery on.

Does the Ri257 bilge have a water sensor to trigger it, or does it just run forever if turned on? I read some advice that when overnight parking on a bouy, one should leave the battery and bilge on.. but when i turn on the bilge it seems to run and run, and i don't know if it will eventually turn off. Any advice?

Quick followup.. I went with the Ri257 (with the LSX) -- in all honesty because the Ri is more of a known quantity for me. I've spent 30+ hours on two different Ri257s, and I love the boat. It also became obvious from BoardCo answers that having the same hull means the boats are so similar it comes down to preferences. I was able to finally see an Fi23 in person, and overall I like the calmer RI styling and slightly higher freeboard for big Lake Tahoe, so that's the way I went. We took delivery two days ago.. and we couldn't be happier. Picture below. @BoardCo - Thanks so much for all your help answering questions on here, and posting awesome youtube videos of Centurions on the water! They really made a large purchase decision much easier. Your answer above helped me shed the FOMO of not having the Fi ski-pylon. @Duneit - We bought from https://www.mellomarine.com/ in Folsom, CA. Sally and Brandy have been fantastic to work with. Sally (the owner) negotiated the COVID-modified Tahoe boat inspection restrictions for us to get it in the water asap, and has been great.

@mac06gt did you get the cellphone holder mounted in your ri257? Can you post pictures? I don't understand why the Ri257 doesn't come with a cellphone holder and popup ski pylon. I want these two features from the Fi25, but otherwise I want a 257.

PTM Edge says their wide-mouth CBR 200 clamp rack will fit the dropzone tower with their 4-bolt adapter.

I got a response from PTM Edge, and it looks like their wide-mouth CBR 200 clamp racks will fit the dropzone tower with their 4-bolt adapter.

On the tower racks - I talked to Gerry @ Centurion West, and he asked Roswell, and the word is that the Roswell Triton (which is basically a vertical version of the Bombshell) will fit the mounting bracket on the Dropzone tower. They look like this: These meet my criteria of easy in/out without swiveling the rack into the boat. Though I'm not sure I like the vertical boards, as vertical boards will impede driver visibility much more, which is never a good thing. I found a writeup of these Triton racks, benefits, drawbacks, and a discussion and photos of the visibility issue. I still prefer the regular clamp racks, or the newer PTM Edge "wide mouth" clamp racks. Probably I'll have to see how much of an issue this is, and if it is, just have some custom metal made to attach the PTM racks.

I see a number of different Chevy engines labeled LSX. The LSX454 has 7.4L of displacement, but the spec sheet says 627hp/568lb-ft. Is that the engine? Looks solid. I'm very dubious. My #1 priority for racks is being able to easily get boards in and out without swiveling the racks into the boat. Is is even possible to operate that bombshell grab plunger without swiveling the rack into the boat? I don't see how it would be. It certainly doesn't seem easy. We have a "7am club" that gets in about 30-35 days in the summer season. It's 4 regular riders, plus another 4-6 floating guests. So 8-10 highly varied riders (250lb men, 130lb women, kids, etc) doing 2-3 sets each in our 90 minutes of morning calm water (and time away from kids). We load up on the dock, drive 300 feet offshore, and start surfing, chatting, and drinking coffee. Usually we're on a friend's 25LSV. A foil and a fat board are in the bimini, with another 3 boards in the clamp racks. The water is 55-65 degrees most of the summer, so a rider session is pretty short if they end up in the water too much. I'm usually the dedicated instructor, so when I'm not riding, I'm wrangling the equipment, and I have to swap a board about every ~15 minutes. Because we typically have lots of riders, and only 1.5-2hrs of surf time in the morning, we need things to be smooth. With the clamp racks, I stand on the side rail and pop in and out boards in seconds without swiveling the rack or asking anyone in the boat to shift or move. "holding boards better" and being "more reliable" is something that doesn't seem relevant to my usage. We don't ride fast or far or rough with boards in the rack. I normally only use the rear clamp and no board has done more than just shift a tiny bit in hundreds of hours. I've used racks that need to be swiveled, like the Nautique style cord racks, and I hate them. I don't know what is worse, trying to get leverage on the cord to get the boards in and out while the rack is outboard, screwing around with those swivel pins trying to get the rack to turn, or getting people out of the way so there is room in the boat to do it. No thanks. I'm a 100% die-hard clamp rack fan. I'd try the bombshell racks if they were free, but I'd rather spend the money they cost having a metal-machinst or 3d metal-printer make me custom brackets for a clamp rack.

@BoardCo Thanks so much for the super detailed answers! I have yet to find a nearby Fi25 I can even see on a trailer, so this information is super helpful. I do prefer the open walkway on the Fi25 over that tripping hazard box in the Ri257, but overall I love love love the Ri's high bow, high freeboard, and awesome stock wave, and since 90% of what we'll be doing is surfing, I'm leaning back in that direction. I suspect your 100% spot on about the new 2019 Supra SE. The wake9 videos have 1000lbs of lead. ----- Where can I read more about this new LSX engine? Do you know if it's also direct injected like the 450? Is this based on the the GM / Chevy LS family? (looks like the GM LS is GDI). Having a reliable naturally aspirated 550 Direct Injection option would be amazing and make this engine decision easy. The only caveat being finding someone in Tahoe who can service the new engine. MelloMarine (my nearby centurion dealer) mentioned they are soon getting some Tahoe techs trained in Centurion service. Every G23 I know of up here on tahoe runs the 550 XR7, but I have not heard great things. I was out on a friend's G23 a week ago, and while it ran great and pulled like a monster, the engine error dialog kept popping up from clogged O2 sensors, and he said he's going to send in the ECM and PCM is just going to disable those O2 sensors because they are supposedly "redundant". That did not sound good. I doubt anyone re-tunes the superchargers for altitude (if that's even practical on PCM), so maybe they run rich and clog the sensors. Then it probably uses even more gas. Totally different topic.. Do you know if I can mount a clamp-style board rack on the new dropzone tower? (see my other post) ---- As for towing tubes... I've towed tubes using rear-tow-points before, and it wasn't a great experience because of how low those rear tow points are. It tends to pull the tubes down into the water on takeoff, and the rope gets caught and dragged in bigger wakes and waves. That stuff creates fun and challenge for 13 year olds, but for a leisure tube with one 250lb adult and two 6 year old kids it's no bueno. A ski-pylon generally works out much better. I know the Ri is a pretty tall boat, but is it tall enough to make that rear tow point high enough to be immune to these problems (unballasted)? For the chill stuff we do with the little kids we could probably tow tubes from the tower. Come to think of it, a friend sometimes pulls tubes from the tower of a Nautique GS and it's not horrible, and it has a ski pylon. As for skiing, I don't mind skiing on a tower. I've done it before. Originally I had assumed I couldn't ski behind any of these surf boats, because the smallest wake on a friend's 25LSV is so big I don't think I could even cut through it. In fact, it was the not-horrible ski-wake on your boardco Fi23 ski/board/surf video, that made me wonder if I should be considering the Fi25 over the Ri257. My local dealer tells me both 25 footers have a pretty non-ideal ski wake and that the smaller Fis are better. Your input on Fi25 vs Ri257 ski wake seems to agree. Right now we ski the kids behind a friend's 2018 Nautique GS, or one of a dozen 1990s OG Ski Nautiques that hardly gets any action. If and when I want to throw tails I can get behind one of those very easily. (I'm not very good, I just love the challenge and the cardio workout) -- Regarding the tech stuff. I'm aware of smartphone apps which can manage volume for *my* phone, but my crew has lots of tussling over who gets to be the DJ of the day, and they are not all techie enough to be installing that kind of stuff, so I want something that "just works" for everyone. A friend of mine just ordered a Boost Box to try out on his Centurion. If that doesn't end up working very well, we are both software engineers, so I'll probably just create my own solution by plugging an android device into the Clarion's canbus control interface and writing some custom software. This would also give me a device to control auto-start-stop on GoPro cameras, like is available on Nautique's tech package. I like the nicer tech on other boats, but I can fix and workaround the tech, can't workaround the wave.

Is there a clamp mount style board rack that fits the new dropzone tower? Does the mount have a nautique compatible bolt pattern? I would like to use something like the PTM Edge wide-fork rack, and I'd like to know if the dropzone tower can accommodate this. The reason I ask.. is that i'm contemplating the finer points of a new purchase (most likely ri257, maybe fi25). I like that the dropzone tower has side-tow-points. We make use of these on a 25LSV often for new riders, and it takes a whole variable out of the equation for them when they're learning. However, I only see pictures of the dropzone tower with those wacky board new racks. I've used alot of racks, and I can say 100% I only want clamping racks, because they are the only rack that makes it easy to get boards in-and-out without flipping the rack into the boat. Is it possible to get the old maximus tower clamping board racks to fit on the dropzone tower? Are there aftermarket clamping racks that fit the dropzone tower?

Regarding the speed-sensitive volume... I found one Centurion user reporting good results with the aftermarket Boost Box. WSI 1103 - Boost Box Controller for Clarion Marine Stereos. Now compatible with all Clarion marine stereos. Connects to the wired remote control interface for all Clarion stereos. Includes Y adapters for both older 6-pin models and newer 8-pin models and supports all your existing remote controls. http://watersportinnovations.com/buynow.html

We're shopping a boat purchase for next year. We mostly wakesurf, and we run on Lake Tahoe, so the Ri257 has been the top of my list since I surfed a friend's boat in Seattle a few years ago. We love the boat, not only because of the great wave, but also because of how smoothly it cuts through chop. Lake Tahoe is a big lake, and often rough, and I've never been in a sports boat that rides as calmly as an Ri257 through rough water. Our sports use will mostly be surfing, but we plan to use it for plenty of cruising as well. Then Centurion goes and releases the Fi25 to make everything complicated. I don't care much about the bow space, but I do like that it has a ski-pylon, and can throw a small enough wake to waterski (for a surf boat), especially as our young kids will be waterskiing before they surf. Does the Fi25 ride in rough water similarly well to the Ri257? How close is the stock wave to the 257, with ~800lbs less displacement weight) Is there a suitable non-tower tow-point on the Ri257 for tubes and recreational waterski? Like a rear cleat or handle? (I forgot to look when we demoed one earlier this week -- we were only surfing) Can the 257 make a not-horrible casual ski wake? or is that a feat left to the Fi25? --- On another note, is there any easy way to quickly toggle between low and high music volume on Centurion boats? I borrowed a friend's 2015 FS44 Enzo, and as I was driving and teaching, I felt like I spent more mental energy managing the music volume than anything else in the boat -- because to always keep the music playing at a reasonable volume, I had to keep dealing with those irritatingly slow clarion remote panel buttons to move the volume between 20 at idle and ~45 underway. The mute/pause button stopped the music entirely, which is not fun. The 2019 Ri257 owner we chartered didn't seem to know any way to do it. In an era where most of the high-end boats I've looked at do auto-muting at low-rpm, this is a real glaring oversight by Centurion IMO. I know this is Centurion land, but does anyone have experience with the new 2019 Supra SE 550? I've read favorable comparisons of the wave relative to Ri257/Fi25, and it has more of the tech features I like, such as the rear-camera, auto gopro start/stop, and while I have not confirmed rpm-sensitive volume muting, I'll bet it has that too. I wouldn't give up alot to get this stuff, but I might give up 10% of wave/ride quality. Also, our Centurion dealer really prefers the Direct Injection 450 over the Supercharged 550, as they are less finicky, take regular gas, don't need such strict maintenance intervals. We're running at altitude (6000 feet), we typically load the boat up with at least 1100lbs of passengers, and when we cruise the lake, it can be a 15-25 mile ride to lunch.. so I was leaning towards the 550 both for more power and for more top-end. Does someone here with a 550 have any info about reliability one way or the other? Thanks in advance!