49faith

I have and I was really impressed. I actually couldn't believe how big the wave was once I was on it. We had it set up to be very steep and it reminded me a little of the G23 wave with a bit of a 'step' in it. It was super fun, but I still prefer the Ri wave and aesthetics. 

I'm looking at 4x4 trucks right now because it's sketchy launching/pulling out with my 2x4 Armada. It's been a great SUV but I never intended on needing it to tow. I think you'll regret not getting the 4x4 when you pull up to a new ramp and notice it's a little steeper than you're used to.

12 hours ago, Jetter said:

While I seem to be on a role learning....  a couple more questions please.

1 - Is the center ballast what some call the bow ballast?  The factory options say an available 228 lb  bow ballast.  Anybody know how much the center ballast can hold?  Do people install a front under seat ballast bag as well?

2 - if the center ballast fills and drains from the underside of the boat and there is no gauge, how do you know when it's empty?

Thanks

 

I think it's a center tank not bow, but I'm not 100% on that since I have neither on my S21. Not sure how you know it's empty, but like the quickfill for me it's just a guessing game. Jabsco pumps and 1 inch lines are supposed to be 80 water pounds per minute as a general rule of thumb. As I understand, there is 1000 lb of hard tank. 375 port QF, 375 starboard QF and 250 center. There is an optional bow pnp but you would see that bag if it's there. The boat likely has 3 ballast pumps. 1 each rear pnp and then the center tank.

What I'd do to start, much like H said above:

Fill both quicksurf tanks and center. Fill surf side pnp bag. Regular 10-20% trim tab, goofy 90-100% trim tab. Use quicksurf tab on the opposite side to clean up the wave. Just click it down a little and you should see the difference. You can also drain off some opposite side quickfill tank while underway to see if that cleans up the wave.

I'd tell him to change the pnp bags though if they're the stock 550's. These Sumo 1000's fit the best I think: https://www.wakemakers.com/straight-line-sumo-max-1000-rear-ballast-bag.html  I went with Flyhigh  fatsac 1100's but they don't fill all of the way. He'll need 2 of the quick disconnect plugs per bag: https://www.wakemakers.com/fly-high-pro-x-series-fitting-w743.html Get engine divider reinforcements too.

13 hours ago, Jetter said:

49faith firstly thanks for your help and sorry for my ignorance.  I believe we just had a eureka moment!  I think I have this straight now.  Does this seem right?  Boat has:

1 hard ballast tank in center of boat that is filled/emptied via pump.  Switch in center of the three.
2 pnp bags - one in each locker.  Switches on either side of center ballast switch above.
2 quick fill hard tanks located port and starboard below the lockers controlled by the open/closed switches??

For crying out loud!! - I didn't even see the bottom row of switches!  We were trying to surf with only 550 lb pnp bags and center ballast.  God now I feel like an idiot.  Thank god for forums!  I guess we are out for another test run this weekend.
 

 

That's it!

The hard tanks switches are an open and close operation versus fill and drain. While you're filling the pnp bags, 'open' the quickfill valves and water will flood in to the tanks, then 'close' them after the pnp's are full. You can see the valve handles move if they're valterras. I dont remember what the drain masters look like. To empty them, go 15+ MPH and open them again. The movement will drain/empty them out. Just close again before stopping. 

12 hours ago, Jetter said:

No he definitely has one center quickfill ballast in the center of the boat and a factory pnp bag in each locker.  No bow ballast and the quickfill only has a single toggle switch so I assume there is not separate port and starboard sides to it.  Another big feature lacking in this boat is the lack of gauges for ballast levels and more importantly tab position.

@Jetter OK, just making sure here but the center, left and right switches for bags are on the top of this picture. The rear quickfill are on the bottom. https://imgur.com/tNhTqYy

If you open the rear lockers and engine cover, you would be able to see fill/drain valves for the hard tanks. Either Drain Masters, which are factory. Or Valterra's which were factory replacements after Drain Masters failed. Here: https://imgur.com/apJ7hQC

@Jetter  I thought all the S226's had the quickfill hardtanks in the rear. Do you not see those on his boat? The switches are on the bottom right panel, usually. That will make a pretty big difference in push, height and overall wave. My brother is 240 and can surf my S21 just fine. The 226 should be even better.

Just a thought, are you checking ramfill by the screen or the gates? maybe your fill gate is popped open. Happened to us last weekend.

I'm with @strev in thinking the S211 is a newer style boat so I'm guessing more popular for the dealers to stock. I'm not completely sure but I'd guess the S21 and S226 weren't at far off in price as the 211 and 238, so more people went with the larger 226. It's true that there isn't much info out there on them. I wonder how many were actually built compared to the other models.

Either way, I love mine but I too would have gone for a 226 if I could do it over again. Really for the extra space and longer hull for the surf wave. The 238 never thrilled me visually so if I get a new boat anytime soon (doubtful, but who knows) I'd probably go right to the Fi.

Sample of my wave. https://gfycat.com/SnoopyBrightFox

For what it's worth, my S21 with the Clarion head unit also does this with my Pixel 2 XL. Same with my wife's Pixel 1 XL. I got to the point where I took an old beat up Galaxy S6 and made it my 'boat phone' just for bluetooth.

13 hours ago, jeepfrk9 said:

 Talked to a 226’er the other day who thinks it actually hurts wave hight more than it helps by causing too much rear lift. 

I just figured that you could overcome that by adding more weight. My back end is so low to surf side, the water passing by the swim deck usually hits it and sprays. We'll see how the new plate works out. I might need another couple hundred pounds of lead though.

12 minutes ago, Mrwick said:

I tried several shapers and every one destroyed my wave......a lot of my friends use them and couldn’t believe that the shaper wave sucked compared to my listed wave....the listed wave it pretty awesome if you can displace enough water!

My listed regular wave is amazing. Goofy, not so much. I technically list and use the shaper, so to me it's just like I was using quicksurf. I tried to evenly weight the boat and just use the shaper and it was trash.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I run 11.2-11.4. So the speed definitely does help the goofy side for me.

14 hours ago, Mrwick said:

My 226 likes a ton of weight/list to get the goofy wave cleaned up.  I shove 400 lbs of lead in the locker with a 1000lb sumo.... 200lbs under the side seat and all factory tanks full.......slowly draining off counter weight to clean up wave.......my boat really likes when one of my fat friends lays on the sundeck surfside.......it pushes up a nice wave!  Also I run my stinger at about 75%. Speed 10.8 to 11.2

I have a '15 S21 but I have a similar setup these days. My wife and I are both goofy so it's a big deal for us. 1100lb fly high filled starboard, port bag empty. Both hard tanks full and bleed off port until I like the wave. I only have 200 lbs of lead in the star locker. I don't have QS though so I actually use a shaper in it's place. I still get wash on the lip but there is a ton of push. I have a stinger plate coming to try out to see if it helps with the wash, but for now this is what it generally looks like: https://imgur.com/a/LKnO7Ov 

I mount a gopro on my tower as low as I can. This is a clip of me wiping out on my brother's Ri257 which has to have a mount a little higher up than my S21. I run a plugged in cable to the rear locker 12v so I don't have to worry about battery life and just leave my tablet on a window mount ready to start/stop record.

17 hours ago, Darkside said:

A few pics from today.  Temps are still in the 80's and water in the 70's.  

Nice. Just want I wanted to hear. Trying to get out Sunday.

Looking good! I'd love to see some wave pics before/after.

Would the hexa with a little wax be an option? I know viskus is inexpensive, but it doesn't seem like it's worth applying new sheets every time it loses its grip versus just using wax.

16 minutes ago, builtforspeed said:

i have been using it since the end of last season and this season. The stuff is actually non abrasive , i don't understand the sand paper comments. i have been surfing for almost 42 years now and have a dislike for any front foot traction but this stuff works.

i have  a friend who is a rider for channel islands and he rode behind my boat over the weekend and loved it as well.

i also don't understand why some of the wakesurf board builders send out there boards with the traction already installed. how do they know how you surf or how your stance is .  

i could go on about it, but if you do order a kit it will be enough for 2 boards (wake surf) for front with traditional rear pad.

on a side note about it being abrasive, i have no problems laying it deck down on my upholstery and i am as anal about my boat as anal can be.

Great, thanks for the info. I'm ordering some now.

On 7/19/2017 at 10:52 PM, builtforspeed said:

I made the jump to hexa and it works great, easy to adjust feet but grips great, all my surfing buddies were sceptical as well but love it . 

Light weight,graphics show thru . Good stuff

I"m going to try this out. Viskus loses it's grip pretty quickly and I've been applying sticky bumps on top of it. Don't prefer that route but i'm not getting any grip on (attempted) airs otherwise. How long has the hexa grip lasted for you?

7 hours ago, InfinitySurf said:

49Faith...you can make a bow filler cushion pretty easy and for $200 or less that looks great. I made one for my SV244 after hearing Fineline wanted $600. Came out beautiful.

Bought HDPE marine board online from Interstate Plastics....made a template using cardboard till it was perfect and left an 1/8" of play around perimeter (so it would be tight after vinyl added...you gotta leave a little room so don't make template too tight). Then traced the cardboard template onto HDPE using sharpie. Then I paid upholster shop to install the foam and vinyl. Cost me $150 total ($60 for 17X31 piece of HDPE....and $90 at upholster shop they gave me smoking deal cause they had leftover vinyl that perfectly matched my boat). Anyway, just an option...and that is exactly where I hide my lead. I can fit 400+lbs under the filler cushion using leadwake bags.

 

Nice. Thanks for the heads up. I was debating this but wasn't sure I'd be able to find a match for my vinyl. I guess it's easier than I thought. I'll probably go this route then.

6 hours ago, BrandinS21 said:

Yeah I find the coolers useless too. Will have to try the bags. Seems like just 1-200lbs is all that you need. Anymore than that gets sketchy! Had 2 big boys sitting up there once and the bow really sinks! Warning label says 370lbs max in the bow so will want to stay under that! 

That's my concern as well. I keep 400 pounds in the boat now and 150 generally stays up front. If I'm running a full crew, I've had as much as 300 up there. It's fine while surfing but when you come to a stop it gets a little sketch. I priced out a bow filler cushion because I figured I could line up the lead bags under there and have them be out of sight. Fineline wants 650 for one though, so that's going to have to wait.

1 hour ago, viking said:

POP bags.  I use the coolers under the bow seats for them 80lbs each side and still have room for other snacks or small items.  Thats about all those coolers are good for imo.  You might need more lead tho since you don't have center ballast.  I run center tank full plus lead fyi.  

I do the same on my 21, but our coolers might be a little smaller because I throw a 50# bag in each side and dont have much space left. What is the total surf weight ballast of your 226? I'm not really sure what the threshold for weight is on my boat and don't want to push it past the breaking point.

On 6/14/2017 at 7:29 AM, BrandinS21 said:

No did not try listed. As I'm trying to get away from listing. But I could try it again and let you know the results.

Im almost ready to pull out my extra bags and pumps because stock ballast and a few people is all I need now! 

Much appreciated. 

I'm sure there is a breaking point with safety, but did you let any air out of the trailer tires to see if you could move it in and out with enough clearance? 

1 minute ago, strev said:

I have the stinger plate in my S21, here is a picture of the listed wave. This was on a windy day....

Wow, is it that clean on the lip the whole time? Do you have quick surf? Looks like I'm going to have to go this route.