Originally Posted by
Littlemrnofear
Hmmm I got the sunsport because I thought it was a great hull for surfing with lots of freeboard ? I'm going to put 800lb up front under the open bow and two 400lb under the back seat and locker and I guess put one on the floor on the side I am surfing and stick on the suction wake wedge deal? Does that sound right ? I have been reading what everyone else has done and that is the config I think will work?
you are right, for an older boat it has high freeboard. instead of the wakemakers system i did malibu-style surfgates which works really well on my '88. all-in i have about $200 into it, with manual deployment on both sides. over the winter i'm going to automate it with lenco actuators and some software to deploy at 6mph and retract at 13mph. that's more expensive--i'm into about $500 in parts on that, but will be worth it for the automation. there is a guy on the malibu forums (martinarcher) who sells an automation package that a lot of people use very successfully, and i think it's around $1200. add your own surf gates and actuators and you can have a great system for less than half of the wavecontrol system.
for weight, i run 650 up front, an 800 on the surf side plus ~500lbs of people or additional weight on top of it, and ~600 non-surf side (with the surfgate deployed). works great and the boat is still easy to drive compared to just weighing one side heavily. in my opinion you might dunk the nose a bit with the 800 up front--with my 650 i have to take it easy if someone is also sitting up there.
'88 Sunsport, 2250lbs ballast, automated surf system, home made surf exhaust, surf flap, ACME 913, Krypt 6.5 HLCD's, Perfect Pass Stargazer
2007 Centurion Typhoon to be upgraded this winter!