Quote Originally Posted by korey View Post
Coming from a background of running wake boats "manually" for most of my life, and now that I've got about 30 hours on Autowake (45 hours on the boat) I'm feeling pretty good about using AW as a tool, but have some reservations - which may actually be ideas for improvement... Actually I think my reservations are about the rest of the controls, not Autowake. Of course this is coming from the mind of a Mechanical engineer in the industrial machinery industry who now spends most of his time developing the controls architecture for some pretty advanced machinery. I'm probably a little tainted by getting to do whatever I want in our one-off machinery...

The discussions here about MAXIMIZING displacement have sparked ideas about how to better use the tools the boat has to keep as much weight in the boat as possible. Surfing (mostly starboard surfing on my boat) I've gotten happy that has me running more surf plate than most as a way to induce roll without sacrificing as much displacement. Last weekend I was running 70% surf plate and letting autowake manage the ballast, which ended up at like 80% on the non-surf side and we had a monster behind the boat - I wish i had pictures... Applying a similar theory to the smart plate, my boat is always imbalanced to the rear - I don't usually take my lead and/or external ballast with me because of the way we use the boat - I'm running 35-40% smart plate to keep pitch under control but keep as much weight as possible in the boat. I'm targeting 3.5 degrees roll and 10 degrees pitch at the moment.

That leads me to my "wish list". Maybe these things are included with the Supra's rider profiles that we don't get in "cheap boat" land... Number 1 is saving the smart plate and amplitude settings with the different modes (surf Stbd, surf port, and wakeboard). I've gotten burned several times now by hopping in the water to surf after switching from wakeboard and the AMP setting staying at what I had it set for wakeboarding (typically 60% for me, whereas I want 100% for surf) and the boat dumps ballast on me... Same thing with the smart plate, but this happens even more often since we switch back and forth between AW off and AW surf Stbd much more often. I typically use the smart plate while cruising to do what I can to optimize the running surface for fuel efficiency versus ride/water conditions. It happens to me frequently after ripping that glassy "last ride in" on the way home on a Sunday evening on a wakeboard, then getting the boat back out on Friday night for an evening surf as soon as we get back to the lake. Then there I am fighting it because I forgot what I did 5 days ago...

My second thought is about including the smart and surf plate settings in AW. If my theory is valid (and I'm still learning a lot there), it's just as useful to manipulate the plates as it is to move ballast around. Any plans to add the control of the plates to the AW arcetecture? I'm sure you can;t say, but I'm certainly excited to start hearing about what's new for 2019 - if the used market stays as wacky as it has been, I COULD be shopping again!
Korey,

Thanks for the suggestions and questions. Glad to hear you are understanding AW better and we are always wanting to hear how we can make the systems better for our consumers. As an engineer, I am sure you can relate, but we have an understanding and knowledge of our system that no one else has. Because of that, what we might think is easy or self explanatory is NOT always the same as someone that is not as involved in the design process as we are. So that is why your feedback is so valuable.

You are correct that some of those differences are available in the Supra "Profiles". You can save plate locations, amplitudes, etc per profile. As a company with 2 brands sometimes we just have to make differences in some areas, but I can also tell you that with more complication also comes confusion. While some consumers LIKE the ability to make all those changes and selections, some consumers find it intimidating. In my personal use, IF you are likely to forget to change amplitude before you jump in the lake, you might be just as likely to forget to change the profiles. I have done the EXACT same thing as you and many times I have pulled my younger boys wakeboarding at a 50% or less amplitude, hit the surf switch WITHOUT changing amplitude and then once the boat got to speed, I instantly realized I forgot to change amplitude. Now, I always think to first pick discipline, second pick amplitude, third pick speed. If you do that, then that is all you really need. We did make a few small changes for 2019 and I can't really get into that yet, but it might help a little. But I do like your feedback. We will continue to try and figure out what is the right balance for Moomba. We do want to make it as easy as possible to operate, but we also want to keep it simple and non-intimidating for the people that are not as familiar with all the controls that can be adjusted.

As to your plates, it looks like I need to give another explanation on that. We are right in the middle of model change right now but I will try and give a better explanation on that soon.... Stay tuned...