DMM

Hello, I’m looking for some advice. Got the 2017 238 with factory ballast. We both surf goofy fairly well with all ballast full and total of 300lbs leadwake spread 100 under each rear bag against the rear wall and 100 starboard midship, trim 50%. I am 190lbs, my wife is 140. It is usually just the two of us. I know that I need more weight for even better wake but I don’t think that I want to keep more lead on the boat all the time, especially that the boat gets on the forklift in dry storage when not in use. I don’t like the wakemakers bag buster upgrade because I don’t want to lose the storage space from under the seats. I already lost half of the starboard with the hot air vent ... I measured the rear lockers: 50x20x20. This is exactly the 750 lbs Fly High bags but I also read that people put in the 1100s (50x24x24) and don’t fill them completely. Is this true? The extra 4 inches in width would put a lot of weight of the water on the panel divider and the extra 4 inches in height would push the lid up. How about the panel dividers? Look at my pictures. I already have some reinforcements. Are they enough? What do people recommend: the 7500s or the 1100s? Do I need more panel divider savers? Where to put it? Thank you. DMM.

Update: On cyber Monday I bought the 1000lbs Sumo bags with the appropriate adaptors to fit the barbed quick release connectors. Since the sumo bags are 2 inches bigger in each direction compared to the locker’s sizes there will be more pressure on the panels so I also bought two sets of panel divider reinforcement kits. Better to be safe than sorry. By my calculations the total theoretical ballast weight that I have now is 3900 lbs: 2 sumo bags each 1000, quick fill 750, bow tank 350, bow PNP 500, lead 300. I will see how it rides with this before getting more lead. Plus a cooler with drinks and friends. No, I never take alcohol on the lake because surfing is too much fun as it is to jeopardize it in any way. The wave was good with 3000lbs all full at 11.1 mph. It has to be great with 3900. I am accumulating older bags: three 155 lbs bricks, a 400lbs one, a center locker 580 lbs and now two 550 lbs... I never liked the hassle of using a pump for these bags as it took too long and there was always a spill or two. On my previous boat it seemed easy to to put the 400lbs in the walkway and just walk on it but one time I overfilled it and it was wet so I slipped on it and my foot got stuck for a few seconds against the wall. It is the same wall where this boat has the stickers.... Now that’s a good idea for another sticker!! Other time I was keeping it on the floor in the back on the starboard side and it rolled on my wife’s foot. I had a hard time rolling it back to get the drain hole up to use the pump to deflate. It stopped being fun at that time... But I guess I could use one just to see how the wave changes. It’s probably the time to be careful and not overload to avoid rollers over the free board. Plus there is probably one point where more weight is not better just harder on the engine and on the gas consumption The boating season here is May through first week of November. Counting the days.

Thank you everyone who answered. These are all great tips and I hope that they are useful to many other happy S238 owners. I found that the quality of the boat is outstanding, the V hull cuts chop great. We got the PCM Crusader and it pulls all the weight like a champ. The only problem that I have is all the warnings and stickers. I understand that this is a California boat but they really went overboard with the stickers. There are stickers that refer to things that this boat doesn’t even have... I am still working on removing all except for the capacity one. When friends came for a ride we had a blast reading them. Still laughing at the “still looking for the sticker with the warning that something is going to give you cancer” and “we need another sticker to warn you not to read all the other stickers while driving due to risks of crashes”. But I guess this is a good problem to have. It’s a work of love to make that whole wall look neat. We had the choice of getting a Supreme, an MB 52, Axis A24, used Malibu and used Mastercraft. To make it short we tried all these boats and we are still glad that we made this choice and the dealer was a great part of this decision.