scottb

We had around 1200 port, 500 star, and 200 center. The boat seemed to ride level with the gate out. The nose of the boat was up higher then I like but the angle on the gate seemed to add some downward force to the starboard side of the boat. Moving some weight up front brought the nose back down along with some of the wave height. If we moved a couple of people on the back lockers the boat could not get up over 11MPH at full throttle. The memory card on the camera was full by this time but the wave was the bigest and longest I've seen on this boat. The angle of the boat put both of the rub rails under the waterline in the back. Only try this on calm water if you like your boat...

Testing with additional weight in the boat. The wave gets impressive when both the rub rails are in the water. Turning the boat to the port side not so good with the gate out. 100%

One way to look at how it works is the boat wants to turn in the directing that the gate is out on. To counter this force the rudder needs to push an equal amount of water in the other direction. This extra water ends up in the surf wave increasing the length and push.

Mine is mounted to the swim platform only with a couple of screws through the bracket. It did help when we moved some weight over to the starboard side. It is hard to tell from the video but the boat needs to be in a turn to the port side to get the wave to cleanup without the gate. The wave is also a lot steeper without the gate out. I would say it almost doubled the surfable area on the wave having it out! The trim tab has a fin mounted to the bottom. The FAE kicks up some extra spray if the speed gets up over 10.5 mph. We were getting the best wave around 9.5 on the gps.

Video of wave. 750 rear port 250 center 400 in port storage. 100%

Tried out a cutting board surfgate on my 01 Elite V. It made a huge improvement to the wave. Video coming soon. Here are some pictures of my setup. Took about two hours to put it together. Had to add a 2x4 spacer to the swim platform for extra clearance.

I filled in the pocket once to see if it would help the surf wave and it took about 6 inches off the hight of the wave using the same ballest. Havin the corner cutouts seems to get the boat to layover with less weight. With the surfgate this may not be a problem.

For the Elite V would you go with an 8x12 tab mounted in the corner pocket or something longer?

The surfgate looks like it just helps clean up the wave by shifting the back of the boat over to get the prop wash off the surf side. Kind of like turning the boat to the side you are surfing to get a clean wave.

We have a 63 FT. houseboat with a few crew spots open in August it interested. We push off from Bullfrog and like to head up the San Juan for the week.