Anyone have experience putting ballast in a boat for wakeboarding?

S

Spic-N-SpaN

Active member
So I got a job recently, and have some money and want to get more fat sacs for my boat. We have Mastercraft Prostar 205 (its direct drive, not V drive), 1994 i think. Anyways currently all we have is one 650lb fat sac that we put were the rear seat would be but could be moved to anywhere else if it needs to.

I was just wondering if i have about $350, possibly more if my parents chip in, what size bags should i be looking at and were should we place them in the boat to get a really nice, large, hittable wake? Also Id like it so if we rearranged them we could use them for wake surfing.

Also, If anyone has the Fat seat ( the one with the arms that wrap around the engine housing) can you some how fold one arm under so only the port side fills for surfing?

I realize that most of you wont be able to answer this but I don't have an account at any wakeboard websites so i thought it Id atleast try here first.
 
Don't be afraid to put weight in your boat. It will most likely be able to handle it, unless you're stacking 10 people in there too. When we go out on my boat we fill up all three of the stock tanks and have two 400 (I think) pounders that we keep in the rear lockers. When we go surfing we fill the port ballast, port locker fat sac, and belly bag and throw the other fat sac on the port seat. I'm not sure what you mean by folding over the fat sac, but I know that they make them in a bunch of different sizes for you to put all over your boat, which will probably work better than using one of those big L shaped ones. If your boat doesn't have stock ballast I'd look into getting at least 1000 pounds and distributing it between the back lockers and the back seat/floor, plus some for the front so you don't have all the weight in the back. I'm not really sure if this helps, but good luck! Big wakes are more fun haha.
 
Ok, I understand what you're saying now, but I don't really think that would work unless you could somehow fold under one of the arms and prevent water from getting in it.
 
ok. ima try to help.

the best bet is to measure your open space on the boat and get an idea of where you can put weight, the idea is to put as much weight as far back as possible without comprimising your boats ability to plane correctly, which will both totally fuck up the wake and also make it hard to go fast enough to actually ride behind your boat. try to keep the weight as far out on the boat as possible and as low down as possible or it will ruin ruin your handling and make things like just running laps or driving double ups alot more difficult. the couch is fucking stupid, dont buy that. i dont think your boat has a ski locker, but if you do, get a ski locker bag and then two smaller bags for the sides of the boat. make sure to check how much weight capacity your boat has - it will be stamped on a metal plate right above the throttle usually. and then try to take into consideration having a few people in the boat on top of that plus gear and shit. you can go over the boats weight limit and still be safe but its gonna drive like SHIT and take forever to get on plane. for wakesurfing ive never really expireinced riding behind a well weighted boat. but usually we fill every bag we can, put them all on one side of the boat, and then after the rider gets up all the people in the boat hang off the tower as far out over the water as possible to really push out a good surf wake at a low speed.

penis.
 
my wakeboard boat died last fall, before i could put ballast tanks in. my 40 ft sportfishing boat throws some gnarly wakes though, which is good for wakesurfing but not wakeboarding cuz it kind of throws a rooster tail and you get battered by tons of water
 
thank!

If you know the sac im talking about it has two arms, and i was wondering if you could fold the starboard arm underneath it so it didn't fill with water for surfing or find some other way to make that side not fill, if that makes sense

Yeah our boat doesn't have stock ballast. So if I have the 650 in the back, then should i put like a 260 bag on either side of the engine (direct drive) and call it good, or what are some other options?

also technically, the boats only rated for 1500lbs but Ive heard you can go over that and still be good to go.
 
Yes, we have a ski locker so ill look into something to go in there. Do you think the 260 on the sides of the engine would be enough? and would i want a little more in the back besides the 650?

We used to have people hang off the tower last year but I got pulled over, so I don't really let people do that anymore.
 
i have no idea why you would get pulled over for something like that. thats just ridiculous. on my lake i would have thrown up a gang sign, dumped the throttle, and then dumped a clip at those pigs. pirate flags flapping in the wind not givin a FUCK.

anyways.

650 in the back is alot. with the 260s you will be way over 1000 with gear and people. which is really alot of weight. you can also try playing with speed and mainline length to get to a really poppy or floaty spot in the wake. but more than a half ton of ballast will give you one solid ass wake.
 
didnt read everything, but for wakesurfing which i do all summer, people almost always go on the left side (looking for the boat its right side) put as much weight in that back corner/the side of theboat your surfin on
 
unless youve already bought the sacs, I have a few suggestions. For 1, dont throw the most weight in the back, while it does make it bigger, the wake becomes soft and easy to cut through. I would suggest putting your biggest fat sac in the nose of the boat, and fill that up full. having it in the nose will allow the wake to be harder, sharper, and have a better feel overall. Secong, go buy a pair of 350 pound launch pas sumo sacs. then put one on each side of your boat. this will just add some sharpness because its the length of the boat, and some hight to the wake. most people pile as much as they can in the back for riding and surfing but that is not what you want to do! weight along the entire length of the boat with a big sac in the nose, will allow your wake to be longer and sharper for both sports. if you want another sac, you could buy another 350 and put it in the back just to add more height if you need.

these are all recommendations for what I've always rode and what I use for a setup for the locations of the sacs.

hope this helped out
 
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