Quote Originally Posted by russellsmojo View Post
Thanks for clarifying. If I fill ballast 100% then hit autowake. What order would it start adjusting? And is there no way to see ballast levels when autowake is on???


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Hey guys, this is another question that gets asked a lot and I will try and add clarity....

First AutoWake is a completely REACTIVE based system. It actually has a lot of logic, look up tables, and other programming that makes it work (as well as many patents....), but it really doesn't have a fixed logic as to how it operates. It is constantly monitoring the actual pitch and roll of the boat and adjusts as it needs. So, to answer this question, IF you were to fill ballast to 100%, then hit AutoWake, it will adjust in this order....It will first try and correct the roll of the boat. If you have 100% full ballast, then it can not fill MORE than 100%, so in this case, it can only drain the side it needs to correct roll. And the side it needs to drain depends on where passengers are located. If the system actually drains down to 80% on one side, then it will actually give you a pop up recommending you move passengers so that it can re-fill some of the ballast that it drained. At the same time, it will also adjust ballast in the front to achieve pitch. Again, if you start with 100% ballast, then all it can do is drain ballast since it can not fill more than 100%. If the pitch settings are lower than actual and it has already 100% full ballast in the front, then it will again give you a pop up telling you it can not achieve pitch and it will recommend you add weight to the front.

For many users, it might be best to start by manually filling all ballast to 100% and then turn on AutoWake. But keep in mind that is NOT always best case. Especially if you don't have much displacement in terms of passengers. Let me explain.

In most cases, surf wakes are generally best created when the pitch of the boat is close to 9 degrees or better. In fact, on most boats, if you have a true pitch of 7.5 or less, you might not be able to get a clean wave at all. If you are in a longer boat (such as Mojo), and you only have a few passengers, and they are all sitting toward the dash or even in the bow of the boat, then if you fill all the ballast (in Mojo that is 1800lbs in the rear and 1200lbs in the front) then turn on Autowake, it is very likely that based on the LACK of additional rear weight or passengers, the AutoWake will probably have to drain at least 50% and maybe up to 75% of the front ballast to achieve the 9 degree pitch. That may sound like a huge negative to the system, but remember the system is doing what the boat NEEDS to achieve the wave and passenger location is very critical in that. In this example, if you turned on Autowake and jumped behind the boat, you would actually have a BAD experience, because it might take 3-4 minutes for Autowake to drain enough water to achieve the pitch you need. Again, in this example, if you would have actually started with Zero ballast then the system would actually achieve pitch and roll quicker with predictive state because it would only have filled enough front ballast as needed as it REACTED to exactly where passengers were sitting. Then when you started, you would have a clean wave and typically a smaller clean wave "looks" better than a wave that is not shaped correctly. As you ride, you would notice that the wave would not have much "push", but then as you look at your ballast % (which you can do anytime by manually turning ballast on then off, then turning AutoWake back on), you will realize that by moving passengers to the rear of the boat will allow you to put more ballast in the front on the boat, creating more overall displacement and that is when the "push" will improve.

Hopefully that makes sense. Again, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters in surfing is what is the boat actually doing as it moves through the water. The pitch and roll of the boat (each might be different based on brand and type of surf system) will ALWAYS define the shape of the wave. The displacement (overall weight of boat, ballast, passengers) will ALWAYS define the size of the wave.

Ok, more information to come later....