Wakebooster setup, position, and brief review

[buckbuck]

I was reaching for the throttles to back off a bit to see if she could catch up.

 

[langstonkw]

We have a 2019 212x and with the Wakebooster. My son surfs goofy foot so we setup the boat with 100% ballast on surf side, 35% locker, and 25% non-surf side. We also have 700lbs of steel shot we distribute 150lbs bow, 100lbs surf side under seat, 250lb surfside upper swim deck, and 200lbs lower swim deck, with the WakeBooster, and 3 passengers in the boat. The whole family can go ropeless. It did take a short period to get things positioned around for the optimal wake, but the wake booster pushes a huge amount of water to clean up the jet wash. It is by no means equal to a Tige' or MasterCraft but it is a great wake to surf on, for a lot less money..

 

[Ken Sherlaw]

Anyone have trouble getting speed above 10? I have 242x with port side full, ski locker bag varied between full and 1/2 full, starboard side varied between full and empty and 850 pound custom bag on transom surf side. Two adults and on child Pax's on boat with 2 in front (225 pounds) and one on port side (130 pounds). I can get a close to surf able wave with FATsac, port side full, ski locker bag 1/2 full. But no matter what configuration I am trying for a good wave, the boat will not go faster that 10 with full power? I think I could get a good ropeless wave if I could get my speed up to the commonly recommended 11.2 speed. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

 

[Brian B]

Are you using the E-throttle with the speed set? I have to set the speed at 12.8 to 13mph in order to get the boat to 11mph and stay there. It also helps using the "medium" acceleration setting instead of "slow".

 

[Ken Sherlaw]

Using medium acceleration. Set speed at 15.0 but doesn’t matter since never goes above 10 with full power. Only 35 hours on boat and impellers are smooth. When I wasn’t using ski locker ballast someone suggested cavitation because not enough weight in front. But still can’t accelerate beyond 10 utilizing ski locker? Maybe still not enough weight in front? Or too much in back or ? Don’t want to believe boat doesn’t have enough power? Too many people have success so I feel I must be doing something wrong since I haven’t read of lack of power being a problem.

 

[Brian B]

Can you manually throttle faster with ballasts full? My set up is full port side bag, 400 sand in port wet storage, locker full and starboard full and wakebooster on port. Gets up to speed with speed set at 12 up to 12.8 depending on passengers. Maybe have passengers up front and move back once at speed for you.

 

[J-RAD]

@Ken Kershaw, try filling the custom bag full and 75% in your ski locker to start and see what kind of wave and speed you can get. If you can reach speeds 11+ with that, then you can additional to the under seat and other ballast to tweak things. I think you may just be a bit over loaded.

I'm running at higher elevation and I was experiencing similar issues the first time I tried to run with the custom transom bag. We found running less in the other rear bags helped. Eventually I swapped impellers to a pair of 6CW impellers. These are the OEM impellers used on the 190 model boats. They have the most blade overlap of any 155mm aftermarket or OEM options. They reduced the amount of cavitation I was experiencing. They improved a lot of things in my circumstance otherwise, but they allow me to run up to 2,250lbs ballast and still manage up to 13+mph. Others closer to sea level here have also made the swap.

 

[Loserkid83]

I have a 2019 212X and I put two 540 lb fat sacks on the back, one on the lower and one on the upper seat. Then I utilize the rear factory ballast to tune the wake a bit. I usually run the ski locker at 100% but it depends on how many people are in the boat. It usually just my wife, three young kids, and me. But if we have some friends or family in the boat I will not fill the fat sacks to full capacity.

I am 250 lbs and I can surf ropeless no problem. I do use a Hyperlite Landlock board most of the time to surfing stability, but I can surf the slingshot ropeless too, its just more squirly than the longer board.

I do run into issues everyone once in a while where the speed will cap out at about 10-12 mph but that is because the boat wont plane out. either have to dump some of the weight on the back or add more weight on on the bow.

Getting that weight on the lower swim deck was the key to easily surfing ropeless. I tried the sacks on the upper seat and one in boat in the back corner, but that didn't seem to give the push that getting all the way did. I will try to grab some pictures next time I am out.

 

[Ken Sherlaw]

Will make some of these changes today and see how it works out. Thanks for the input.

 

[Bogus]

Will make some of these changes today and see how it works out. Thanks for the input.

I have the same issue on my 242x e. Cant get speed above 10. Did you fixed it somehow?

 

[Ken Sherlaw]

Yes. Key is ballast in the front. Or lots of people to move up there. I bought 35 pound and 50 pound ballast bags from Lead Wake online. Really well made and easy to move around. I put four 35 pound bags in the anchor locker so they are out of the way. Then I have a fifty under each front corner cushion. Then I move another two fifty pound bags around as I “feel” the boat during setup depending on passengers etc. This all works really well and allows speeds up to 13-14 so you need to pull it back a little actually! On top of that I am getting those speeds at 6000-6500 rpms versus before I was at top end 7500+ which I was really uncomfortable with. Plus I hate how loud the boat is, especially at those rpms. Amazingly quieter at 1500 rpms less, although still too loud. I was just installing soundproofing today. Hoping that helps as well. I have some videos of wakesurfing over past several weeks with Yamaha wakebooster as well as the wake wedge. I prefer wake wedge but either will produce a rope less wake to surf. I will post some comparison videos when I get a chance. Any other questions, let me know. Not an expert by any means but I’m learning. Also, check out Wake9 on YouTube. A wealth of knowledge if you are trying to wakesurf behind any boat. Teaches about using an in inclinometer to set your boat up for a consistent wake for surfing. I’m working on trying that next so it is more consistent. We will see.

 

[Bogus]

7

Yes. Key is ballast in the front. Or lots of people to move up there. I bought 35 pound and 50 pound ballast bags from Lead Wake online. Really well made and easy to move around. I put four 35 pound bags in the anchor locker so they are out of the way. Then I have a fifty under each front corner cushion. Then I move another two fifty pound bags around as I “feel” the boat during setup depending on passengers etc. This all works really well and allows speeds up to 13-14 so you need to pull it back a little actually! On top of that I am getting those speeds at 6000-6500 rpms versus before I was at top end 7500+ which I was really uncomfortable with. Plus I hate how loud the boat is, especially at those rpms. Amazingly quieter at 1500 rpms less, although still too loud. I was just installing soundproofing today. Hoping that helps as well. I have some videos of wakesurfing over past several weeks with Yamaha wakebooster as well as the wake wedge. I prefer wake wedge but either will produce a rope less wake to surf. I will post some comparison videos when I get a chance. Any other questions, let me know. Not an expert by any means but I’m learning. Also, check out Wake9 on YouTube. A wealth of knowledge if you are trying to wakesurf behind any boat. Teaches about using an in inclinometer to set your boat up for a consistent wake for surfing. I’m working on trying that next so it is more consistent. We will see.

Thank you for the reply. I will put more ballast at the front. Good idea with anchor locker. I have wakebooster but Im thinking to by wake Wedge, waiting for your compare videos and foto of soundproofing.

 

[Shady28]

This video did a nice job capturing the overall size of the pocket we've created with the Wakebooster and extra ballast, I'm 6'3", 180 lbs. Not bad for a second year surfer in MN and we're getting great versatility out of the 242x for all our boating fun, including a good wake.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Scottintexas]

This video did a nice job capturing the overall size of the pocket we've created with the Wakebooster and extra ballast, I'm 6'3", 180 lbs. Not bad for a second year surfer in MN and we're getting great versatility out of the 242x for all our boating fun, including a good wake.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That looks like a very clean wave and plenty big enough to have fun with !

how much ballast are you running ? You should add to your signature line what your set up is so people can always see it,


.

 

[anmut]

Yes. Key is ballast in the front. Or lots of people to move up there. I bought 35 pound and 50 pound ballast bags from Lead Wake online. Really well made and easy to move around. I put four 35 pound bags in the anchor locker so they are out of the way. Then I have a fifty under each front corner cushion. Then I move another two fifty pound bags around as I “feel” the boat during setup depending on passengers etc. This all works really well and allows speeds up to 13-14 so you need to pull it back a little actually! On top of that I am getting those speeds at 6000-6500 rpms versus before I was at top end 7500+ which I was really uncomfortable with. Plus I hate how loud the boat is, especially at those rpms. Amazingly quieter at 1500 rpms less, although still too loud. I was just installing soundproofing today. Hoping that helps as well. I have some videos of wakesurfing over past several weeks with Yamaha wakebooster as well as the wake wedge. I prefer wake wedge but either will produce a rope less wake to surf. I will post some comparison videos when I get a chance. Any other questions, let me know. Not an expert by any means but I’m learning. Also, check out Wake9 on YouTube. A wealth of knowledge if you are trying to wakesurf behind any boat. Teaches about using an in inclinometer to set your boat up for a consistent wake for surfing. I’m working on trying that next so it is more consistent. We will see.

Interesting idea with the lead in the anchor locker! My setup was the 700lbs in the ski locker, 500lbs on the floor, and the 725 on the platform. I was thinking about moving that 500 up to the front though and not filling it all the way but the season ended before I could test.

Here's what that setup looks like on a 21'. That girl is ~ 5'6", so that's about 3' of wave.

 

[SCP1]

Because I don’t want to be trying to tie a knot with Yamahas short, low quality rope. That’s a pain to do.... extra climbing carabiner... duh. View attachment 123337

Can you post a link to a similar one off Amazon (correct size). Thanks.

 

[Shady28]

That looks like a very clean wave and plenty big enough to have fun with !

how much ballast are you running ? You should add to your signature line what your set up is so people can always see it,


.

Thanks for the suggestion. Surf setup added to signature.

Surf setup for regular: 100% port side ballast, 50% center and 0% starboard. 100 lbs steel under portside seat (just outside the battery compartment), 100 lbs steel port side wet-locker and 300 lbs steel in a dry bag on the port side swim deck.

 

[Shady28]

Can you post a link to a similar one off Amazon (correct size). Thanks.

You can also just use any size carbineer and just snap it to the thin cable that connects the booster and the lock pin. That's we we do and it's much easier to attach and detach because of the flex of the cable and size of the cable vs. carbineer opening vs. the thicker grab bar on the booster. Just a thought.