DIY Pipe Booster for improving wake

[Mainah]

Starting a separate thread on this. Will be interesting to see what we can up with that is reasonably DIY. Lets please keep this focused on this DIY project without bashing any other for sale products out there. Testing, comparing, and documenting results against references in a scientific way is however encouraged.

For those trying the DIY booster thing here is my DIY pipe booster protoype with $20 in parts. Perhaps someone can improve upon it. I used a long sweep 3 inch 90 degree pvc electrical conduit from big box home improvement store through bolted and 3m 4200 sealed to some left over hdpe (starboard). I used a trim router to cut the slots for the tie down mount and vise deformed pex and through pin to secure. I had to play with the cut angle on the pipe and placement of the mounting slot. I also quickly rounded off all sharp edges with a dremel.

With only 400lbs of underseat ballast and less than 400 lbs of people ballast I got the below result. With a custom swim deck bag and more people pushing the pipe booster further under the water I bet it would be even better. One big key is that the mounting plate has to be tight to the hull or you get spray. The pin and some thin foam to seal against the hull are the improvements I know I need to make at this point. The black parachute cord is a saftey (in case ripped off the hull don’t want it hitting me) and drop lanyard (it could sink when trying to install if dropped) that I attach to the docking cleat. This setup held surprisingly well and less force on this than one might think.

Don’t know how this stacks up with the other options out there and coming but for a few bucks of plastic and bolts it certainly is cost effective, compact, and most people could do this. I do wonder how booster type devices would work with in conjunction with the TV surf or the Gatlin Wedge. Can’t wait for the water near me to warm up and do some more “testing”.

A few ideas to improve upon this that have been mentioned are doubling up the pipe (@Whisky), reinforcing the tie down (@haknslash), trying one on each side for wakeboarding (@Cambo), and possibly a flap for closing one side off (@Cambo) if used on both sides. @swatski has experimented a great deal with different DIY devices and I am sure many will have more ideas to improve upon this.

A quick note on wakeboarding speeds is that much of this is out of the water at wakeboarding speeds with no balls so doubling the pipe by stacking another pipe and enough ballast in the right spot may be that ticket for that.

 

[MattFX4]

@Mainah nice work! I say the wave looks good for what you’ve done. I would like to see it with more ballast.

 

[Wisefam22]

Guess I'm headed to home depot to make one of these, and already purchased pacific aerial antenna because as mentioned in another un related surf post... being able to unscrew the antenna to store is very nice

 

[Scottie]

So that pic is without a WakeWedge, or other "face cleaning" device? That is awfully impressive if so. Do you believe the PVC 90 is deflecting the jet wash as well as funneling more water into the wave? Just trying to figure out what's cleaning the wave face.

 

[swatski]

Just trying to figure out what's cleaning the wave face.

Water! Fighting water with water, similar concept as Yamaha WaveBooster or Scarab SurfStream(?).

This is just a brilliant application of the concept by using a bent pipe as a diverter.
This thing would be "scuppering" water from the surf side of the stern and shoving it over to the non-surf side effecting:

1. smoother wake wave surface
2. delayed convergence of the wake on the non-surf side (forcing a larger "pocket")
   
3. hull to steer surf-side thus forcing counter steer and jet wash shooting towards the non-surf-side (therefore enhancing 1. and 2.)

F@#$%$ brilliant.

--

 

[Mainah]

So that pic is without a WakeWedge, or other "face cleaning" device? That is awfully impressive if so. Do you believe the PVC 90 is deflecting the jet wash as well as funneling more water into the wave? Just trying to figure out what's cleaning the wave face.

No wedge or other face cleaning device. I do have trim tabs that were not deployed but I think the flatness of the suf side tab being just inside the radius of the pipe booster is helping some. I should have put my go pro on my head or a selfie stick to help show what is going on from behind the boat. The small seperate stream coming from the bottom right of the photo is where water is channeling along the top radius of the pipe where it meets the hdpe plate amd the path of least resistance is somewhat up and out of the water where not fully submerged. That is what I noticed when surfing behind it anyway. So given that stream coming from a very small volume area imagine how much water is being channeled through the pipe and forcing all that jet wash over to the other side. In fact you can see some of the wash being forced over in the photo. The smoothness of the outer under diameter of the pipe is likey helping some too when it is submerged far enough. Add in the counter steer and the displaced convergence (I would not really call it delayed like the devices that force water out).

I really do wonder what a second pipe stager stacked underneath the first with a reinforced tie down would do. Would swim deck ballast even be needed in that case? My boat is on the trailer until at least February with my lake being down 3 feet lower than normal and my slip being too shallow to use. So who is brave enough to give that a shot?

 

[Mustangswan]

I agree, F@&$<>G Brilliant !!!!

That’s pretty slick. I would love to see another couple of angles with a ruler in it and the back of it. I think it’s cheap enough to try different angles and sizes of pipe after the mount plate is made.
I had a custom under seat port side bag made for my 16 212X and use a wake wedge but am still looking for a little better push. I believe I am tapped out on weight (a total of 2200 lbs of ballist), so something like this would be great. I love the wedge but I get people sliding off the back of the boat to swim and hit the thing and same when they put on a wake board. And I think if you ran one on each side it might clean up the wash for wakeboards.

 

[Scottie]

Well my curiosity is certainly peaked. I have all the parts for my ballast install and I'll be starting on that this weekend or next. Maybe I could squeeze this in somewhere. So the only attachment is the pin through the tie-down loop? I guess that's similar to the WakeBooster, but it has a tension screw to keep everything tight. Should something like that be incorporated?

 

[ar240owner]

Pretty cool man !!! Good work !!!

 

[swatski]

No wedge or other face cleaning device. I do have trim tabs that were not deployed but I think the flatness of the suf side tab being just inside the radius of the pipe booster is helping some. I should have put my go pro on my head or a selfie stick to help show what is going on from behind the boat. The small seperate stream coming from the bottom right of the photo is where water is channeling along the top radius of the pipe where it meets the hdpe plate amd the path of least resistance is somewhat up and out of the water where not fully submerged. That is what I noticed when surfing behind it anyway. So given that stream coming from a very small volume area imagine how much water is being channeled through the pipe and forcing all that jet wash over to the other side. In fact you can see some of the wash being forced over in the photo. The smoothness of the outer under diameter of the pipe is likey helping some too when it is submerged far enough. Add in the counter steer and the displaced convergence (I would not really call it delayed like the devices that force water out).

I really do wonder what a second pipe stager stacked underneath the first with a reinforced tie down would do. Would swim deck ballast even be needed in that case? My boat is on the trailer until at least February with my lake being down 3 feet lower than normal and my slip being too shallow to use. So who is brave enough to give that a shot?

The MainahBooster! It could be a fantastic free standing surfing tool - for quick, minimum ballast or no ballast surfing - for smaller riders w/super, super handy setup. And who knows, with more pipes and more tuning etc. it could be a blast!

Based on my experience I would say the Wedge and the swim deck bag (plus other ballast) will beat anything else as a stand alone surf mod for the best wave behind a Yamaha, for now. I don't have any doubt about it.

But - the MainahBooster concept could be a killer stand alone "quick setup" with no, or minimal, ballast - something I would use all the time for example when the kids want to just try riding something.
Or an add-on to make the best wave yet if it could be combined with the gatlin wedge and the swim deck bag etc. might give a superior quality wave. I may be dreaming, and it would take some major tweaking for starters the gatlin wedge's rod and pin would need to double up to also secure the MainahBooster off of the same U-bolt tie down, or something like that. Not sure it would work, but I would definitely consider that. Either way it is a win though!

--

 

[Cambo]

Great job can you post some pictures of it mounted to the boat . What type of fasteners were used to attach to the board.

 

[Mainah]

The fastener to attach the assembly to the boat is the white pice of pex pipe on the photo pushed through the tie down. A hole is drilled in the pex for that pin to push through in case it works it tries to work its way out but so even that has not happened. Honestly this method of attachment to get a tight seal is a pain and was just quick with stuff I had lying around. I have three other designs on the drawing board so to speak that will work much better than the deformed pex. One is a custom push/pull rod with lever cam out of aluminum. The second is aluminum rod drilled and taped for t slot screws amd a tightning knob which of course t slot would be mounted to the board. Lastly a simple rod and two small hand/thumb screws.

As for hardware to attach pipe to board I just recessed 5 small stainless bolts and used lock nuts on the inside of the pipe.

I will take some measurements of the pipe and board later today. Perhaps I will make it down to the boat to try a couple of the mounting options in the next week or so.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Love all the collaboration!

 

[Whisky]

Absolutely amazing, sadly we are doing more ice fishing than boating this time of year so I can’t test any more ideas yet either, but I love the collaboration and ideas.

Amazing work @Mainah

 

[Jgorm]

Nice job

 

[COtoFLsurf]

@Mainah, agreed with the rest, this is an interesting approach, I am optimistic on the theory behind WakeBooster and this may actually be an enhancement by physically piping the flow to where we want it. I plan on doing some testing over the next few weeks and will add this to the plans, including devices on one/both sides, evenly/unevenly weighted, and surf/wakeboard speeds. Will report back, stay tuned, and thanks for sharing your work!

BTW, while we all enjoy tinkering, it would refreshing if the good folks at Yamaha would actually spend an hour on the water doing some real testing with different setups, then tell us what the hell works and doesn't work. And how about a video shoot with a couple real wakesurfers throwing some tricks (skim-style, surf-style)? They would likely have gotten $1K of my money, and saved us all the hassle of reverse-engineering. As it stands we have to DIY, not necessarily because we are all cheap, but rather to answer a bunch of questions.

 

[MidnightRider]

Yeah been following this with great interest. One thing that has me wondering about the difference in strategy between this "pipe booster" and the yamaha's wake booster is the drag produced on the surf side. The question in my head is how beneficial is that drag on the surf side that likely will result in some opposite over-steer directing the pump output away from the surf side. Which leads to the question will the "pipe booster" design be able to produce as much drag as the wake booster design. The pictures of the "pipe booster" wake is impressive especially for a first design prototype. It will be very interesting to see where all this goes.

 

[Mainah]

@Mainah, agreed with the rest, this is an interesting approach, I am optimistic on the theory behind WakeBooster and this may actually be an enhancement by physically piping the flow to where we want it. I plan on doing some testing over the next few weeks and will add this to the plans, including devices on one/both sides, evenly/unevenly weighted, and surf/wakeboard speeds. Will report back, stay tuned, and thanks for sharing your work!

BTW, while we all enjoy tinkering, it would refreshing if the good folks at Yamaha would actually spend an hour on the water doing some real testing with different setups, then tell us what the hell works and doesn't work. And how about a video shoot with a couple real wakesurfers throwing some tricks (skim-style, surf-style)? They would likely have gotten $1K of my money, and saved us all the hassle of reverse-engineering. As it stands we have to DIY, not necessarily because we are all cheap, but rather to answer a bunch of questions.

Can’t wait to see results. Below are some photos with measurements. The pex retention pin is 3/4 nominal pex plumbing with an outside diameter of 1.05 inches. It worked very well once deformed in my bench vise to have a slope. Grinding a slop into some 1 inch aluminum rod would also work but for prototyping the pex is fine. I recommend a thin sheet of self adhesive foam between the plate and the boat for a better seal. The slot I measure I found to be the better position and not that the slot ends have to be widened to fit over the nuts on the tie down on the boat. I have landed on a desing to improve the rentention mechanism. I am going to build a push/pull lever system with 1/10 rc aluminum turn buckles to adjust the tension such that the laver will lock in the closed position with just a puch and the whole thing will be mounted to the board to make install and removal much easier and quicker. I should have photos of that in a week.

Quick edit the HDPE in 1/2 inch.

 

[COtoFLsurf]

@Mainah, very helpful, thank you.

 

[Mainah]

@Mainah, very helpful, thank you. When this is mounted, is the pipe "fore" or "aft" of the tie-down?

The one in the photo is for the port side and i mounted aft of the tie down. My mounting options are more limited than others as I have tabs and I have to work around the top actuator mount. Given the curvature of the hull I don’t know if fore is possible but if it is would be interesting to compare results both ways. If someone else does not do it first I am going to try double stacked with the gap between the two sealed and the tie down reinforced next. My goal there is to see if can get with a ropeless surf wave with no swim deck ballast. As others have said the devil could be in the details so some trial and error of angles and mounting position will be needed. A 12” sliding dual compound miter saw makes quick work of cutting the pvc pipe and hdpe board even after the pipe has been attached to the board. Off the shelf the pipe had female end that I cut off. The hdpe board tgat I used was left over from a different project but at less than 12x12 it does the job and is economical.