DaveInTahoe

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!

great to hear your beeping is solved! I suspect the cable you installed is the same as the one they are using.... There is a small chance the new cable has internal shielding that the other one doesn't have, but it's unlikely. Probably it's fixed because the new clarion remote cable is not ziptied directly to the audio lines. Thanks for posting your detailed descriptions. I was planning to wrap the existing remote cable, but because you said there are zipties you can't find or reach, I also ordered another 25' remote cable from Crutchfield, and I plan to repeat the same thing you did. All I want is the beeping to stop.

The most likely possibilities here are: (a) the beeping was there in the showroom and you didn't notice (b) it's bluetooth related, and you didn't test this in the showroom. you mentioned it only happens after bluetooth connect. I have not checked this on my boat, but I think it might be the same. In this case, it would be the clarion bluetooth transmit somehow leaking into the RCA pre-amp analog lines. It could be because the clarion bluetooth is getting "picked up" by the clarion control line somehow, and then transferring it into the pre-amp analog lines because of the long proximity. (c) There is a bluetooth antenna line coming out of the clarion black-box. Maybe this is accidentally routed close to some of the wire bundle. I think it's very unlikely the interference is happening entirely inside the clarion unit, as then it wouldn't go away when you disconnected the remote cable... unless you accidentally did this test while bluetooth was not connected and didn't notice. EIther way, I'm confident we will get this solved somehow. I really appreciate that you posted and did some sleuthing. Our boat is stored on a Bouy 400' offshore here in Lake Tahoe, so it's not as easy to hop out and investigate this issue right now, and most of the time we're on the boat we're using it to pull surfers!

If you post a video of your surfing on the wave, we can offer you targetted suggestions... While wave tuning is important, I'm 200lbs and I can stay on the little stock Nautique GS23 wave, so if there is a wave back there you can probably stay on it with the right technique (and an efficient board). (The fastest board i've ever ridden is the Hyperlite Automatic... and it's seriously fast compared to most boards.) I've also taught about 14 brand new wakesurfers in the last two years, from never been on a wakesurf board, to dropping the rope. (and my 8 year old daughter is going to drop the rope any day now) The key lessons I give people are... 1) Move your feet back more. Almost everyone starts with their feet too far forward, which makes them not have enough "brakes" to slow, which makes them scared when they get close to the boat, which makes them ride the wave all wrong. Your back foot should be touching the rear bump-stop, and your front foot should be positioned so that you can stand balanced when somewhat on the wave with the rope slack. You get speed from shifting your weight, not from moving your feet (we will cover this in #3 below). If you are constantly "leaning back" and your back leg is getting sore, then your feet are too far forward. Move them back. 2) Move your front-foot towards the toe-edge. Most people ride with their front foot too far towards the heel side, which makes it hard for them to lean into the wave. This is fine when holding the rope, because the rope helps pull you towards the center (even when slack), but when you let go, riders tend to drift out away from the wave. Once the front foot is reasonably centered, or even a little toe-side, it's very easy to turn by turning your shoulders in the direction you want to rotate. If you find yourself "tip-toeing" to turn into the wave, or falling out the side (not over the back), this is a good sign your foot needs to move towards the toe-side. 3) lean forward and back with your hips, not your shoulders. Most new riders that are falling out of the wave dip their shoulders over forward by bending at the hip. This is not the way to lean forward. You want to straighten your back leg and bend your front leg, doing a sort of "lunge" onto the front of the board. It's a bit like a yoga warrior pose. Another way to think about it is "shifting the board behind you", which is a different way to describe the same motion. If you learn to do this correctly, unless the board is oversize, you should be able to nose-dive before you fall out of the back of the wave. Make sure you practice braking and feel comfortable slowing the board before you try this, because once you learn to put on the gas you will quickly get close to the boat and need to put on the brakes. If you are drifting "up and over" the back of the wave, you are not getting your weight forward enough. Move your hips and entire body forward by doing a lunge on your front foot. 4) Ride in the direction of the wave, not the direction of the boat. Most new riders tend to start out riding down the wave-face and away from the centerline of the boat (to the right if your goofy, left if you're regular), and then using the rope to pull back into the wave. This is not where the energy of riding is. Think about an ocean surfer inside the wave-pipe.. they ride directly in the direction of the wave. When wakesurfing, this direction is towards the centerline of the boat, *not* the direction the boat is traveling. Once you ride in the direction of the wave, you will get much more speed, and then you'll need that hip-lean and brakes to control your speed. I hope those tips help. If you can post a video of you surfing, I can probably see what's going and give you a more focused set of suggestsions or "drills" to try and train your body.

Yes... The fact that they are zip-tied together for 24" makes it very likely this is where the interference is coming from. And the fact that the same analog line runs to-and-from the driver volume knob basically doubles the amount of interference in that signal line. That fact that my beeping is much more prominent on the drop-zone rear speakers suggests that it is really because those specific pre-amp analog lines are squeezed right up against the clarion remote cable, as opposed to the other pre-amp lines in the same bundle. The "insulation solution" would be to unbundle any sections where the wires are zip-tied together, wrap the digital clarion cable in EMI shielding, separately wrap the RCA preamp lines in shielding, and try to secure those wires to the boat as far apart from each other as possible, and see if that does the trick. If not, the EMI shielding might need to be connected to a ground or some large metal part to dissipate the induced current from the digital noise. The other somewhat remote possibility is that these long RCA pre-amp lines are picking up the clarion bluetooth signal.. The above shielding may be enough to fix this as well, or perhaps not. We'll have to test. Yes, those RCA cables are "pre-amp level analog sound"... We call them "pre-amp" because they are before the amplifier. This means they are very low power, which makes them very susceptible to interference. Frankly, it's a bad design to run a long analog pre-amp level audio line around through the boat to do that volume knob under the throttle, because this is always going to be very susceptible to interference. A better design is to have a control cable from those volume knobs which doesn't carry audio, but only the position of the knobs... Then a simple volume control board could be located right near the amplifiers, listening to the control-cable to tell what the volume knobs are set to. This is simple enough we could retrofit this pretty easily if the insulation attempts fail, but it's probably not necessary. ----- Centurion should really integrate the audio into the Centurion main console and ditch the clunky expensive Clarion head unit. This would provide a bunch of feature improvements, including: speed and/or RPM sensitive volume, control over bluetooth device from console screen, song information on main console, control XM/FM radio stations from main console... and those zone volume knobs could be either moved to the touch screen, or turned into signal-only knobs with zero chance for audio noise in the preamp lines. And while this has some design-cost, it would probably add some margin, as an XM tuner module is <$50, bluetooth chip is <$5, and an Si4844-A10 digital radio chip is <$15, and even a dedicated SoC subcomputer to handle real-time audio would be < $50, whereas a Clarion CMS4 plus remotes has to be $400+, and the functionality is worse. If they would open-source the Centurion console software and design, I'd do it myself and donate the improvements back to them.

I got an answer from Skylon, and their adaptors do not fit the PTM edge racks. PTM Edge was able to find out that the Centurion tower bracket part number I want is "C913-1905"... so those are now on order and I'll report if they fit and get my preferred racks on the boat.

I have an Ri257 with a Dropzone tower... and a set of PTM Edge clamp racks I want to put on it.... Centurion has not been very help about an adaptor... Apparently Roswell doesn't want to help anyone put board racks on their tower that are not made by Roswell. You'd think making money off the very expensive tower was enough. I found these Skylon Centurion Drop Zone Adapters... they appear to have a similar mount pattern as on the PTM Edge racks, and I can imagine a world where these are the same because they are matching some other standard somewhere.. but I don't know... Will PTM Edge board racks fit these Skylon Dropzone brackets? Adapter - Centurion Drop Zone (Pair) – Skylon Sports

You are not alone. I have *EXACTLY* the same problem with a brand new 2020 Ri257 with dropzone tower speakers. My beeping is 10x more prominent in the four rear-facing tower speakers.... I'm not sure it's even coming from any other speakers, but it's hard to tell. I'm a computer engineer, and from listening to your sleuthing, it sounds possible it's the Clarion remote control digital signaling cable is broadcasting some noisy radio interference, which is being picked up by the low-power analog amplifier input lines before they get amplified to the speakers. This kind of interference happens when high-frequency digital signal in a cable turns it into an "antenna" and broadcasts some low-power RF interference, which can then be "picked up" by a nearby analog line acting as an antenna. If you've ever heard beep-beep-beep coming out of a stereo or speakers when you set a cellphone too close, that's the effect I'm talking about. If this is the cause, then it should be relatively easy to solve by wrapping a good chunk of the clarion remote-signal-cable with EMI shielding wrap tape to reduce how much interference it transmits (ideally this wrap tape would be grounded, but this often isn't necessary) The metal-foil tape works a little better, but EMI cloth tape is much easier to use on flexible cabling. Amazon.com: 10mm x 20M 65ft Conductive Cloth Fabric Tape for LCD Laptop Cable EMI Shielding: Office Products ----- Another possible source of noise (if the clarion remote cable is already shielded) is that the long shielding in the clarion remote cable is acting as an antenna, and picking up some noise from some electrical system it passes near under the driver-dash, and disturbing the boat's ground loop through the Clarion head unit, which is then causing noise in the amplifiers. This seems much less likely to me, because if this were happening, I would expect the noise to affect all the amplifiers about the same, whereas in my boat it's most prominent in the tower amplifier channels. Yet another possibility is that the Clarion bluetooth output signal is somehow cross-talking onto the clairon-wired-remote cable, which is then being picked up the analog amplifier input lines. I'm pretty sure my beeping is there even if no bluetooth device is connected though. I'll do some testing. If it is the clarion bluetooth output cross-talking, I have some ideas about how to solve that too. Let our sleuthing continue!

It's not easy to capture what the wave looks like from a camera... here is a video of one of my wife's sessions where I moved the camera around enough to see some perspective on the wave (regular side). (the audio is jacked, there must have been water in the mic) 2020 Centurion Ri257 Wakesurfing Lake Tahoe - YouTube And here is one of my better 360 attempts (goofy side).. (have not nailed it yet, but I hope to this summer!) And I was *not* in charge of the playlist here. 2020 wakesurf 360 attempt - YouTube

Nice! I'm boating near sunnyside often as I have friends near there. You might see us wakesurfing off the shore. Our house is east of Tahoe city near dollar point. We got some demo time in an Ri257 through charters with Justin @ Full Throttle. He operates out of Garwood Pier. 775-220-9636. Brandy @ Mellow came up for a surf session with us. As for service, Mello sent someone up to do my "20 hour inspection" and oil change here in Tahoe. You should talk to Sally Mellow. I think they had someone trained in Tahoe for some kinds of service, but for repairs that need to be done in the shop I think it needs to go to Folsom. I have some small new boat things that need warranty service (like the fuel gauge), and I'm trying to get Mellow to store it in the winter so they will trailer it down, do little fixes and store it after. (I've never towed a boat, so I'm a bit shy of my first attempt being down out of the sierras with an Ri257) --- I did a bunch of research that led to our decision, and here is a summary... I'm happy to chat more about it. Over the years, i've had a few dozen surf sessions (and some driving) on our friend's blue and gold 25LSV parked a few houses south of Sunnyside, as well as dozens of days on my friend's Ri257 in Seattle. We also went out one long demo ride on a G25. The Ri257 / Fi25 are all about the wave. In my opinion, Centurion has by far the firmest, longest, and most tunable wave -- with the least regular/goofy asymmetry. In order to get that, you compromise a bit on tech, because it uses a classic separate Clarion audio system, rather than the fully integrated audio and bluetooth controls on Malibu and Nautique. As for the waves... The Nautique-G boats have a shorter steep wave my wife had trouble riding -- but some people swear by it and I can see the appeal. Nautique has some clunky GoPro integration that's not worth bothering with IMO. The speed-sensitive volume is kinda nice. On Tahoe the O2 sensors on the supercharged engines frequently get clogged up. I find the Malibu wave mellow and predictable, but a bit soft. My wife learned on it, and likes it better than the G-wave, but she rides regular and notices the Malibu regular wave is not as steep. The unique thing about the malibu is that the boat runs virtually flat (no lean port/starboard) while surfing. It's also very very easy to setup a wave. The Centurion wave is unmistakably firmer, which we prefer. It also has a notably longer pocket, and I can drop back 15+ feet from the boat and still zip back in. The shape of the regular wave is a little different, but I can get it equally steep. I always run listed a bit, with asymmetric ballast fill... because it's a bigger cleaner wave. It's possible to run completely even ballast, and take out some of the listing, but I only do this to give people a smaller wave. From all reports, the Fi25 offers essentially the same surf wave, in a boat with slightly different design and more sporty styling. The Fi25 is bit lower freeboard / lower to the water... more like a 25LSV. We went with the Ri257 because I wanted the higher freeboard for big Lake Tahoe, I really like how the passenger side front-hold in the Ri257 is gigantic because the batteries are recessed into the floor, and I like some of the classier styling cues and chunky handles on the Ri257. Covering off on the tech compromises... I find the Centurion wave-gismo setup UI a bit less streamlined.. I'm a tech guy, so it's no problem for me to operate it, but I could see some being confused by the way it works. Once you get the wave settings setup, you just choose a named rider profile and push "go", so that part is plenty easy. The quicksurf fins can quick-switch the wave like on malibu, but there is no wireless wristwatch control. We have never been into wave-side-switching. My friend does it on his Ri257 in Seattle. The console tech on the Malibu is much more slick... especially bluetooth. The Centurion is a classic clarion unit, which works fine.. but it is a bit annoying in that the only way I can find to switch to a different bluetooth source is to disable bluetooth on the currently connected phone. We just leave my phone connected and always run the music from it. There is also no built-in speed-or-rpm sensitive volume adjustment on the Clarion stereo Centurion uses (at least not that I'm aware of). This is something that's really nice in the Nautique (and I think Malibu) tech console. I bought an aftermarket "boost box" that plugs into the Clarion as a "remote" and detects the boat fore-aft tilt to auto adjust the volume, though I have not installed it yet. These tech shortcomings were more excusable when Centurion was indepedent and the price was a bit cheaper.. but now that they are owned by Correct Craft, the prices have pretty much equalized.... but what are you going to do... once you ride the Centurion wave it's really hard to go back!

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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