Surf Set Up Scarab 195

[lewatkins007]

Hello!

New to this forum and glad to have found a spot to talk shop about jet boats! I just bought a 2017 Scarab 195. It’s been awesome so far but trying to get a surf system setup going. We don’t need anything super fancy, just enough to get us up to play around. Right now I have a 400 IB fat sac that seems to help when put on the side of the boat surfer is on, but trying to get us a little more from the wake. Has anyone had any luck using a wake shaper? If you have and don’t mind sharing, what brand? I’m a pretty avid wakeboarder, but would love to have the setup for mellow surfing too.

Any other jet boat surf setup tips are most welcome! Thank you!

 

[Ribs77]

I don't know Scarab boats at all, but my guess is that you're going to want a lot more weight than 400lbs. I'm putting about 1,250 pounds of ballast in my Yamaha 195. Big 650 bag on the swim platform, 300-375 over or inside the ski locker, 200lbs of lead in the surf side locker, 50lbs in the anchor locker up front.

 

[vwDavid]

New 2016 195 owner here! My boat is a bit unusual must have been the end of the year as it got a 2017 style tower. It is not a WAKE model. previous owner included four dry bags holding 50L / 50 kg each. out scrawny teens and friends were able surf a bit w/o any ballast. When we added 4 x 50 kg water (220 lbs only) they noted a big improvement.

I have two 315 kg (800 lbs) sacs and I have devised my own full/empty pump system to install. I too would like to know about using a wake shaper. I plan to buy one from marketplace to experiment.

 

[Northern wake]

I'm currently experimenting with various setups, and so far lots of ballast has given the best results. I have a 2019 Scarab 215id wake edition with roughly 1000lbs of factory ballast. I also use a 750lbs fat sac on the surf side swim platform and another 300lbs of small fatsac megafill bags distributed in the boat. I have purchased a wake shaper to put on the non-surf side, it has provided mixed results. It does assist with creating a wake however, with it in the water it creates drag (obviously). This causes me to counter steer to keep the boat heading straight, which points the jets directly into the surf pocket. This causes the wake to get washed out, I haven't had the wake shaper for long so I'm still trying to see if i can find the sweet spot. I'm using a Swells SLIM H3X Plus, but I believe any wake shaper will have the same effect with the counter steer.