Another surf thread 242 Launch

[wotan2525]

GREAT job on fabbing up that seat support! What is your profession where you have access to those neat tools (and the skills to use them? and the money to buy a 2012 Supra?) I'm impressed!

[Kma4444]

Thanks Wotan, it came out pretty well. I have a shop at the house with a few tools, lathe, mill, TIG, MIG, vertical bandsaw yadda yadda yadda. I can make most anything I decide to. I also do composite fabrication, carbon fiber etc. Have done things from little airbox adapters to entire car bodies. I also designed and built my own race car. Sold one to a customer and then the economy completely killed that market. Would like to have those three years of work/money back!!!!!

I currently do some fabrication work, the last one was converting a zero turn mower into a three head concrete polishing machine. Also am in the process of retooling my molds for carbon fiber race car wings. I also distribute a hydration drink in GA that a friend of mine developed. Oh yeah and I occasionally travel with some race teams doing setup/engineering work.

All that being said, it's been a tough couple years but we have no car payments and little debt. The boat is the thing we love to do so we discussed it for some time and shopped a lot before deciding to get the new 242. Couldn't be happier with our decision so far, it is an amazing boat.

Anyone need any fab work???????

[Kma4444]

Pic of the car I built. I am finishing up probably the last one I will do, as an open wheel version.

[wotan2525]

Very cool! You're a talented guy!! What series did that car race in and what powered it? I'm guessing an I4 of some kind?

[Kma4444]

Thanks Wotan, sorry for the slow response. Yeah, in the pic above both cars have Suzuki GSXR 1000 engines, we use a chain drive to a sprocket mounted on a housing that is a torsen style differential. They make about 190hp at the wheels and weigh about 1000 pounds with driver. The red car is mine and it is the test mule. It ended up with a Hayabusa that makes about 220 at the wheels and has to weigh 1175 pounds with driver. The extra displacement really maes the car fun, like a big electric motor, power all the time you want it.

Been doing a lot of surfing with the new ride and it just keeps getting better. We run with the new bag full, the stock left side full and the bow we change around. It surfs very well with no bow weight, it has a steep aggressive wake that is still plenty long. The Smart Plate then gives you quite a lot of control over the height of the wake. My wife immediately notices if I sneak around and change the plate when she's riding.

We also tried it with the bow about 80% full, it o does lengthen the wake and the plate still changes the wave considerably. I think it is better with the weight up front as it is longer and I ride a surf style board. It allows me to get way back and come forward to try tricks, I can't really do any, but I feel for just a second like I'm going to when I'm zooming up to the boat.

We've got around 60 hours on it now and just couldn't be happier. The vast majority of that time has been surfing. CHEERS!!!!!

[Kma4444]

OK, so just to liven up the Surf category a bit. Here's a video of us out last weekend, 14th of October if I'm not mistaken. We have to take a couple weeks off because of work conflicts but hopefully we'll get a few more in before it will require a wetsuit to be tolerable out there.

[GRAY]

Nice wave! Looks like you have alot of play room from the deck to the back break. Can't wait to see what it look's like when you get your custom sac's. When the Wife and I had our 24 launch I put 750 in port rear locker a 400 as far up as I could on the port side bench and had the 1100 in center locker and stacked the kids in the bow. Our wave was the same height you have in your video and had a lot of length to it. Awesome boat by the way!!

[ckracing]

Are any of those race cars on track anywhere? They look like an early Stohr at the front. I used to run Sports2000.
image.jpg

[Amateurhour]

When you say bow 80% full, how much weight does your bow hold? I have no stock bags or tanks in my bow and am trying to figure this thing out.

[Kma4444]

Guess I've been pretty slack at looking at my own thread. The cars are sitting at the moment. The red one is my car and it is waiting for another upgrade, probably to Turbo Subaru power and a re-body with a new design. Thinking about going around and running LMP2 times just to show it can be done for WAY less than something approaching seven figures. The blue one is sitting nearly new still in Orlando as the owner went to Helicopter driving school and hasn't gotten back to racing it.

Our 2012 Launch has an under floor hard tank and the bag that fills the area that would be the walk through to the bow. I don't recall the exact weight of the stock setup but I'm thinking it is around 1100lbs. That said, we have been running this year with the bow empty or very close to it most of the time. I find that with less weight up front I can control the wake more with the plate. I started with a lot of front weight as all the "experts" said the Supra hull needs a lot of front weight. Maybe they do but mine doesn't.

I thought they all had the underfloor tank up front but I'm no "expert" either. If you say yours doesn't then there you go, just proves that I'm not all that informed.

Let me know if I can offer any assistance.