which side forms a natural wave

[2500HD]

So i'm just curious as to which side your boat makes a surf wave naturally? My current boat is a 2000 santera and my previous boat was a 1989 saltare both are Lh prop and both form a beautiful wave on the goofy side or starboard. What does your boat do?

[Zim]

So i'm just curious as to which side your boat makes a surf wave naturally? My current boat is a 2000 santera and my previous boat was a 1989 saltare both are Lh prop and both form a beautiful wave on the goofy side or starboard. What does your boat do?

My waves great either way as long as I'm weighted correctly!

[2500HD]

But, the question is which side forms easier? all boats have a preference and it is my understanding that boats with a Lh prop like to form a wave on the starboard or goofy side easier than the regular side.

[michael hunter]

A left spinning prop will favor the port side. A right spinning prop will favor the starboard.

[2500HD]

A left spinning prop will favor the port side. A right spinning prop will favor the starboard.
My left hand props throw the propwash to the port side making a clean wave on the starboard side

[wotan2525]

My Saltare has a LH prop and I can only get a good wave on the port side.

[2500HD]

So I'm trying to understand what makes a boat prefer one side over another. If both of my boats prefer goofy but Michaels,woton and trayson prefer regular. This tells me it's not the prop because all are LH props. So what might be the difference? Could it be something with the skegs?

[wotan2525]

So I'm trying to understand what makes a boat prefer one side over another. If both of my boats prefer goofy but Michaels,woton and trayson prefer regular. This tells me it's not the prop because all are LH props. So what might be the difference? Could it be something with the skegs?

Is it possible that we only spend the set-up time for the side we prefer? How much time have you spent trying to weight your boat for a regular wave?

[2500HD]

I surf goofy and my wife is regular so i work on getting both as good a possible. my friends are a 50/50 mix as well. Even my good friends 06 Moomba xlv favors the goofy side. The goofy side wave forms with no weight needed even if i stand on the port side of the boat where as the regular wave takes a lot of list to dial in including bow weight. Without the bow weight it is just a crappy mess of white wash.

[Ptownkid]

Had this issue today as well...everyone says that LH props through a better port wave but mine is awful. Just a mess of whitewash and the starbord side was really easy to clean up. So why the inconsistency with some of our boats?

[garyholl]

Dang, i gotta check mine now. I don't really care if i surf goofy or normal, i just wanna be where the best wave is.

[2500HD]

Had this issue today as well...everyone says that LH props through a better port wave but mine is awful. Just a mess of whitewash and the starbord side was really easy to clean up. So why the inconsistency with some of our boats?
Glad to here it's not just me. I'm starting to think it is in the tracking fins. Just a little tweek one way or another will cause a delayed convergence in the waves. Basically they can act just like a surfgate.

[Ptownkid]

That would actually make sense...I think one of mine is slightly bent.

[2500HD]

That would actually make sense...I think one of mine is slightly bent.
Ptown Can you tell me which direction it is bent, I think it should be to port.

[Ptownkid]

I believe it is...will verify next saturday.

[2500HD]

So i decided to say screw it and try to adjust my front tracking fin and it worked. I now can form a wave on the port side without to much trouble. I used a very large crescent wrench and tweaked it towards the starboard side. It took quite a bit of force but i got the bottom of the fin to bend ever so slightly and it seemed to help. Just thought i would post my findings.

[SquamInboards]

Interesting thread. I always thought that RH props were preferred on tournament boats (i.e. slalom, barefoot) because the rotation of the prop would tend to rotate the boat the opposite way, which would help offset the driver's weight and balance the boat to level (no spotter). So based on that theory, a boat with a RH prop would tend to press the port side down, making for a more natural surf wave on that side.

I think the short answer is "it varies," even based on minor things like tracking fin alignment, but by FAR the most important factor is weight distribution in the boat. I've surfed behind a 2001 with NO ballast and just two people in the boat leaning hard on the tower and sitting in the stern corner of the boat. And any other boat I've surfed, the wave was pretty much the same either side as long as the weight was setup the same.

[trayson]

Is it possible that we only spend the set-up time for the side we prefer? How much time have you spent trying to weight your boat for a regular wave?

While I will admit that in my Supra I most certainly focused on the regular Port wave, after I put in the surf system I actually had the ability to weight equally AND switch sides quickly, so I was able to have a direct comparison.

I would put 350 straight across the back under the rear seat. And 750's equally on each side of the doghouse. The driver of course is always on the starboard side, but that's offset s little bit by having both batteries and 3 amplifiers under the observer seat.

That said, I would get a better wave port than starboard with equal weighting, using the surf blades at the same level of excursion. So I could only assume that it's my prop rotation that makes for the better regular wave. This seems to follow the companies like Centurion that make special editions called "surf RIGHT" that have a RH prop rotation and are designed with optimizing the goofy wave in mind.

Likewise, I have a buddy that has an 2012 F22 Tomcat and he has full power surfgates retrofitted on his. Again, he has the ability to weight equally and to delay convergence with the surfgates. He is a goofy rider and it's quite obvious on his boat that the boat produces a much better regular wave than goofy. This again supports the RH prop rotation favors regular assumption. It seems logical.

My Supra and my buddy's MB are the only two surf system boats that I've ridden with any regularity. So that's about as far as I can speak to personally.

[2500HD]

With both my saltare and my santera the wave would form on the starboard side first. This is with equal weight on both sides. What got me really thinking about this whole thing is that both my boats and my buddies moomba xlv form a wave on the starboard side while other boats such as trayson's form the wave on the port side. This got me to looking at the tracking fin as the culprit. I believe it has more to do with it than the prop rotation as all of our boats are lh prop.

[SquamInboards]

How about rudder tuning? For example, if you set up your boat to have a very slight pull to one side, would you then see an effect on the natural occurence of the wave? Could you switch it by tuning your rudder to pull the other way?

So I suppose with an RH prop then, the boat would naturally want to turn right with a neutral (un-tuned) rudder, so you'd have to steer a little to the left, which would help force down the port side and help make the natural wave on that side. Thus LH props would favor the starboard side. Even with the rudder "tuned" you are effectively steering a little to that side, just not with the force of your hands on the wheel, so it would have the same effect.

Just a thought. I'm probably way off, but it's fun to think about.

[2500HD]

Hmmmm, i hadn't given the rudder much thought but it is possible that it would have an effect. What i do think is that there are a lot of factors going on with the wave and something very small can change everything. Gotta love hydrodynamics.

[SquamInboards]

What i do think is that there are a lot of factors going on with the wave and something very small can change everything. Gotta love hydrodynamics.

That sums it up well. I mean, look at how little it takes to "tune" a rudder...