When was the last time the impeller was replaced? Or thermostat? Also curious how many hours on the boat. I'd start there for the overheating concern.

Our hulls are similar and when I started out, even running the stock prop, I was running an 1100 in the rear compartment and a 750 in the center basement with 5-6 people. Yes, the engine struggled more with the stock prop but it would still push us and didn't overheat.

What I've learned through trial and error is that this particular hull likes a lot of weight and a lot of lean. Don't forget about weighting the front as well or you'll have a steep, short wave that washes out very easy. I started out with 250lb hard tanks (stock), went to 400lb bags, then pretty quickly made the jump to 1100's. More is better - period.

Yes the platform drags just a little but not enough to really impact the overall wave. Just throws up a rooster tail so the face of the wave may not be perfectly clean.

My "sweet spot" regardless of the amount of ballast seems to be between 10.5-11mph on the regular side.

Also, are you throttling by hand or do you have PerfectPass?