Wakesurf Nautique Excel?

Hi All - I am wondering if anyone here has been able to successfully wakesurf behind a Nautique Excel? If so, how was the boat weighted and can you provide any tips?

Over the 4th of July we tried really hard but were not very successful. I put one 750lb sack in the passenger rear compartment, another 750lb on the same side between the back bench and front bench (in the middle, parallel to the side of the boat), a 550lb on the back bench and had an 1,100lb bow sack almost filled.

I can't imagine that I don't have enough weight. We were not able to throw the rope back in and there was a large wash hitting our knees. We just couldn't get a clean wave. The wave seemed cleaner on the side without all of the weight.

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

That's just what they do, no push. The only thing that I've never heard anyone try is removing the platform to see if that what causes the issue. There's been Simone on PN working on a home made NSS, that might be a possibility too.

What speed? Dumb as it may sound you may have too much weight, especially in the bow. When we surf the port side on my San the wake is very sensitive to weight placement, amount of weight and boat speed. Way more sensitive than on the starboard side. Leave the sacs empty and fill the boat with people. They are easier to move around in small increments. Play with the weight and speed to see what you can come up with and if you find something that works recreate it with sacs. Sometimes its more about the setup than the actual weight. Start with all of the weight(people) in the rear corner on the surf side . Try to build something that resembles a wave by adjusting speed (9-11 mph?). Then displace some of weight on the surf side foward slowly until you get something rideable. One thing I notice in my boat is that having the driver opposite the surf side makes a huge difference in what you need to do to get the wake dialed. The wake is so much better when all of the weight is on the same side. I have been known to drive from the bow walkway when surfers are portside. With the lanyard on my wrist of course.

Keep in mind that a half mile an hour can change the wave considerably and so can water depth. You need at least 8-10 feet of water to get a decent wave going.

Or perhaps as Tim stated, maybe that hull just doesn't work due to the design . I wouldn't give up on it just yet. Play around alittle. Just don't do it at 6 am when everyone is skiing the course

Mike

ny_nautique wrote: You put over 3000 lbs in a boat designed to carry 1300 - 1500 lbs of passengers,

I'm wondering when the lake cop's are going to get on to this.
I'm guessing that when they start realizing people trying to create surf waves are overloading their boat that they will start pulling over a lot more wave makers.

I have a 92 Excel and have gone through the same problems. We've been in 80 ft of water running anything from 6 MPH to 12 MPH, moved people and sacs around to no avail. I've read forum after forum for the last three years hoping to find someone who figured it out. I suppose one of the surf plates might be our only hope.

Thanks for the information, guys. There aren't many of these boats out there, so its hard to find much. I have also searched site after site and not found very much.

Perhaps I will have to stick to skiing and boarding for now and find a friend with a better boat to surf.

I have a 2000 Air Nautique with perfect pass. After spending considerable time trying many different set ups to be able to surf, we finally have a set that consistently works well.
I have 3 Fly High Pro X Series fat sacs.
One 750 lb sac goes in the trunk pushed all the way to the Port side. We surf port side (regular/left foot forward)
One 370 lb tube sac fills the entire floor ski locker between the driver and observer seats.
One 400 lb sac on the floor port side next to the dog house.
In addition to the fat sacs, I usually want at least 6 people in the boat, in addition to me, the driver.
Two people in the back seat squished in the port side corner
One person sitting on the fat sac on the floor
Two people sitting in the observer seat
One person siting in the bow, port side
Perfect pass set at 10.3 mph
Hyperlite foam core surf board....I think it's a 5'6"?
With this set up, I have guys who weigh 200 lbs able to toss the rope in the boat and surf for days.
The goal is to get the weight and speed right so you minimize the white water on top of the wake.

I just read something about this on wakeworld today. I think the name of the thread was help me buy a boat or something like that on the boats and tow vehicles forum. People there were also talking about it's inability to make a surf wake. It's interesting is like to know why considering people can make a 2001 surf you'd think a vdrive would have no problems.

Tim is right. No customer we have can produce any type of push from a V hull boat. It's all about the flat bottom baby!

That being said, Surf waves sure are pesky during those early morning barefoot runs........

05 210 wrote: What speed? Dumb as it may sound you may have too much weight, especially in the bow. When we surf the port side on my San the wake is very sensitive to weight placement, amount of weight and boat speed. Way more sensitive than on the starboard side. Leave the sacs empty and fill the boat with people. They are easier to move around in small increments. Play with the weight and speed to see what you can come up with and if you find something that works recreate it with sacs. Sometimes its more about the setup than the actual weight. Start with all of the weight(people) in the rear corner on the surf side . Try to build something that resembles a wave by adjusting speed (9-11 mph?). Then displace some of weight on the surf side foward slowly until you get something rideable. One thing I notice in my boat is that having the driver opposite the surf side makes a huge difference in what you need to do to get the wake dialed. The wake is so much better when all of the weight is on the same side. I have been known to drive from the bow walkway when surfers are portside. With the lanyard on my wrist of course. Keep in mind that a half mile an hour can change the wave considerably and so can water depth. You need at least 8-10 feet of water to get a decent wave going. Or perhaps as Tim stated, maybe that hull just doesn't work due to the design . I wouldn't give up on it just yet. Play around alittle. Just don't do it at 6 am when everyone is skiing the course Mike

What he said. Speed, wind, water depth, all adds up. Quarter to half mile an hour makes or breaks it.

I know the hulls are completely different but this is the set up on my '86 Ski Nautique 2001.

http://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34335&title=86-ski-nautique-2001-surf-gate

The DIY surf gate made all the difference on mine... might be worth a shot to make one and try it out... only takes a couple bucks and an hour of your time to build and test...

Oss

Thaddeus

Currently it's just clamped to the swim deck for testing with 2 Huge C-Clamps... No holes to drill or anything.