Teakgate

One of the original and best implementations of DIY gates to date.  Shows you what old school boats are capable of and shows off some pretty frickin' slick engineering on your part.   I remember when you were going through the process.   Thanks for sharing the results.   

Fantastic.  Have you updated your Wake Logic controller?  I don't know that it needs anything but just curious how it has evolved.   

The biggest change to the system has been the wireless controller.  I have eliminated the need to use a wrist strap to protect the remote from the water.  It is now simply a keyfob sized remote with a wrist strap that floats the remote of it is ever dropped.  It allows you to keep the remote in your hand and easily feel the buttons with your thumb so you don't have to look down at the remote which makes throwing those transfer tricks a little easier while keeping your eyes up.

That. Is. Awesome. 

Hello Martin,

Its been a while since I’ve spoken with you about boat-stuff.  I just looked at your write-up on your boat from a few years ago.  It inspired me to start thinking about improving my wake and automated surf system.  I have my same 1999 Sport Nautique direct drive.  I may be running more ballast since I last chatted with you.  I’m running about 850 lbs in my single rear trunk.  It’s evenly weighting the trunk.  I’ve added about 450 in my ski locker, in front of my motor.  The difference is recognizable, but not profound.  I run my Mission Delta device, and the “surf side” is definitely cleaned-up.  Currently, there’s not a chance of surfing in the traditional sense (surfboard). My wake is nowhere big enough for that, particularly without the rope.   That’s actually ok since we foilsurf.  I’ve had the opportunity to foil behind a few other boats that produce noticeably bigger wakes.  Guilty confession; I prefer the bigger wake to my smaller one.  I’m curious if in your progressions, you have any advice that may aid me in my quest.  By hook or by crook, I’m going to come-up with an automated surf system, run by your controller.  I just can’t stop the over analysis-paralysis on which path to take.  The consensus on Wakegarage is that vertical deployed tabs need more ballast than I’m able to give.  I don’t want sacks on the floor or back seat of my already cozy boat.  Maybe lead under my trunk ballast would help.  I like the idea of NSS, but Max on Wakegarage says I don’t have the space I need for his NSS kit.  My Mission Delta does as advertised, which should tell me to just build automated gates.  Your boat seems to have worked well with gates.  Would you have anything that would help me break the cycle of habitually reading about the various approaches to automated surf systems, and moving forward?

I am fully aware of the limited ballast I can run, and the limited size of wake I’m going to be able to safely achieve.  Wakegarage seems mostly comprised of V-drive owners who have an advantage with ballast and where their motors already live and throw weight in the back of their boats.  I’ve read a handful of dd owners who’ve gone with gates, due to the ease of building and probability of success.

Thanks in advance, should you indulge me.

I would guess our boats weight similar weights without ballast and both ski very well which makes generating the wave you see above a challenge and one you have to make a few sacrifices to get.  As you can see, I am running ballast on the floor of the boat.  If I were to try and keep it all out of sight we would have to sell the boat and buy a V-drive to surf.  I love to slalom ski and also enjoy foil surfing a lot so I want a boat that can "do it all" and know the v-drive wakes will really disappoint when I put the slalom ski on.  For you info, I'm running a 750 on the surf side of the engine, a 500 on the goofy side, and a 300 in the locker.  It sounds like I'm not really running too much more weight than you are but we normally run a crew of at least 4 which helps a lot.  You figure that's at least another 600lbs.  The bummer is you can't cheat physics and like the hot rod guys say, "there's no replacement for displacement" and displacement happens with more weight.  I think a true gate will give you a bit better results than you are seeing with you mission delta.  My buddy has one on his Nautique V-drive and it works as advertised but I feel a bit bigger gate positioned at the transom would do a bit better.  We all enjoy a ride behind a bigger boat with a bigger wave but at the end of the day, if you want to keep the boat your in the best thing to do is to make it what you want.  After chatting with you, I think foiling would be a blast with an automated gate system on your boat and maybe a few more people in the boat or another way to add a few more hundred pounds.

EHello Martin,

Its been a while since I’ve spoken with you about boat-stuff.  I just looked at your write-up on your boat from a few years ago.  It inspired me to start thinking about improving my wake and automated surf system.  I have my same 1999 Sport Nautique direct drive.  I may be running more ballast since I last chatted with you.  I’m running about 850 lbs in my single rear trunk.  It’s evenly weighting the trunk.  I’ve added about 450 in my ski locker, in front of my motor.  The difference is recognizable, but not profound.  I run my Mission Delta device, and the “surf side” is definitely cleaned-up.  Currently, there’s not a chance of surfing in the traditional sense (surfboard). My wake is nowhere big enough for that, particularly without the rope.   That’s actually ok since we foilsurf.  I’ve had the opportunity to foil behind a few other boats that produce noticeably bigger wakes.  Guilty confession; I prefer the bigger wake to my smaller one.  I’m curious if in your progressions, you have any advice that may aid me in my quest.  By hook or by crook, I’m going to come-up with an automated surf system, run by your controller.  I just can’t stop the over analysis-paralysis on which path to take.  The consensus on Wakegarage is that vertical deployed tabs need more ballast than I’m able to give.  I don’t want sacks on the floor or back seat of my already cozy boat.  Maybe lead under my trunk ballast would help.  I like the idea of NSS, but Max on Wakegarage says I don’t have the space I need for his NSS kit.  My Mission Delta does as advertised, which should tell me to just build automated gates.  Your boat seems to have worked well with gates.  Would you have anything that would help me break the cycle of habitually reading about the various approaches to automated surf systems, and moving forward?

I am fully aware of the limited ballast I can run, and the limited size of wake I’m going to be able to safely achieve.  Wakegarage seems mostly comprised of V-drive owners who have an advantage with ballast and where their motors already live and throw weight in the back of their boats.  I’ve read a handful of dd owners who’ve gone with gates, due to the ease of building and probability of success.

Thanks in advance, should you indulge me.

I’m stoked to hear you’re foiling!  I can’t get enough of it.  Boating season is still off in the distance.  I’d like to get my solution going before the season is upon us.  I mocked-up an NSS type of device.  I didn’t have it secure when I tested it last season.  It pivoted out of position when I attempted a test run.  I got a little disenchanted, and haven’t tried again with it.  If that proves to be fruitless, I’ll try a surfgate.  I was hoping that maybe I didn’t need too much more ballast, but that’s probably wishful thinking.  I noticed you do have a lot of sacs in your boat.  I’m likely not wanting to give up floor and rear seat for building more wake size.  I could wrap my head around lead in the trunk.

Maybe my wife will green light our next boat before I have to do undesirable things to our current one...

Thanks for your wisdom,

Russ