Tips on driving through wake
 

About as basic of a question you’ve probably all seen :) I recently picked up a 27’ Fountain and trying to get comfortable with the boat. This is the first boat I’ve ever owned, so have been reading quite a bit.

I recently realized I’ve been running tabs in a positive trim because I don’t have a limiter on my tabs, so that may help some as I lower them slightly. I understand if you see a wake, drive into it in a 90* and you’ll typically sail right over. My question is more around those waves that happen to be coming from both directions. Sometimes for me, even at 60-65, it’s hard to see a wave coming in until you’re about to hit it. Sometimes it really feels like the boat is riding multiple waves and you don’t have the same feel and control as your normally would. These don’t even have to be big waves necessarily just hit at the right time.

looking for some advice on how others handle these waves or is it just part of boating and roll through them?

Thanks,
Todd

Wave crossing
 

In my experience if you can’t see the waves well enough to read what angle you’re going to enter it is best to slow down.I boat mostly in the south and this type of wave experience is prevalent in passes or inlets going from bays into the gulf. Others might know the high speed techniques but at my experience level I think it’s better safe than sorry when you think about hitting waves almost parallel at high speeds.

When in doubt throttle out!! 😅 just kidding. Your boat should feel like it’s wobbling and unstable when you go over some boat wakes. Unless you hit them head on… i do a lot of these local fun runs in the south. And this happens all time. The water gets very turbulent when there’s 50+ boats all trying to start the run at the same time. If the boat wake is too big, like from a sport fisherman or these pretty fast yachts. Just slow down and go over them slow. It’s always better to be safe than sorry!

Take the Tres Martin course or get somebody with real experience to go for a ride with you.
You're going to get a lot of "experts" responding on here. As somebody new to the high performance world It may be hard to decipher what's BS and what's not. One of the problems of the interweb.
Seat time will be your best friend. Boats arent like cars, most need constant wheel input to keep them level and straight. You'll get the feel of it.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...811d36f0d3.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...1b328a5e13.jpg
Only ONE way is to attack them:evilb:

I saw someone mention his course and was looking around on his website the other day. Would definitely be nice to go through it. $2500 bucks is a 'cheap' lesson!

I think you're right, more seat time and i'll start to figure it out a little more. I'm almost 40 so I error on the side of caution now until I get comfortable. Just looking for some things to try next time I'm out. Sounds like I need a helicopter following and some big wake :)

This is what I'm referring to. Not huge wake by any means, but those little ones coming in from all directions and you can sort of feel the boat skating around. Not sure if that's just part of boating and/or if there is a good way to handle it to keep the boat feeling more stable.

Thanks,
Todd

Heres a tip. Dont throttle like this....

He's going to need some new controls (bent them over) and a clean pair of shorts. Yes, a video like this is precisely why I'd like to figure this out :)

I was waiting to see how long before that video was going to be posted lol.