Fun weekend, surfed a lot of boats - Centurion review

[maniacmikes]

That XT 23 wave does look sick as others have mentioned. Having been behind a couple other boats, Centurion, Supra (both older) and a newer Moomba, all good waves in their own right, my experience has been similar. Hoping to get a chance behind a G23 this week. One thing I have noticed is how all the MC waves look very similar in shape across the model line (classic surf wave look) very clean with a nice curl, easy to spot in a picture without seeing the boat throwing it.

I agree, and part of me thinks maybe I am biased towards the wave shape because that is what I am used to, so I automatically like the MC waves.

This is probably somewhat true since it is hard to remove all biased, but I know it, so I can try and be aware and leave the shape out of the equation - strictly focusing on the amount of power, length and height of the wave.

The G23 wave is good - even more impressive that they do it with only 2,850 pounds of ballast. That, in my mind, is what makes a good surf boat - you don't need to slam the thing to throw a decent wave. However, I did feel like the G23 wave had a shorter pocket which lacked power out the back making it more difficult to ride.

[maniacmikes]

More sweet xt23 action from this morning



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[LDA6339]

More sweet xt23 action from this morning



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Thats a swell and a half, stock weight/settings?

[mastercraftka]

Xt23


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So do you remember what settings were on the XT23?

[mastercraftka]

Still need to clean mine up and take a better angle pic but mine aint so bad.

I bring the center tab all the way up and star tab up to 50 ish %.

[moleson10]

Good to hear MC has game compared to those other boats. But the Fi is not the top of the line Centurion so the comparison isn't 100%. A fully loaded Ri257 would be a better comp to an Xstar.

[maniacmikes]

Good to hear MC has game compared to those other boats. But the Fi is not the top of the line Centurion so the comparison isn't 100%. A fully loaded Ri257 would be a better comp to an Xstar.

True, and I was supposed to get to ride the ri237, but things changed morning of and the boat was not available. One day- hope to see how it compares.


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[maniacmikes]

Fun weekend, surfed a lot of boats - Centurion review

So do you remember what settings were on the XT23?

So we had 150 pounds of lead in each rear locker, 200 under coffin seat and 100 in the bow.

Speed depends on the rider, I like to go 11.4.

We do 50-60% surf tab and 0-30% center tab depending on the day and how people in the boat etc.

The trick is to make sure you are slightly listed to surf side. That’s what the lead under the coffin seat does, that plus a person or two.

Shot from this morning


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[mastercraftka]

So we had 150 pounds of lead in each rear locker, 200 under coffin seat and 100 in the bow.

Speed depends on the rider, I like to go 11.4.

We do 50-60% surf tab and 0-30% center tab depending on the day and how people in the boat etc.

The trick is to make sure you are slightly listed to surf side. That’s what the lead under the coffin seat does, that plus a person or two.

Shot from this morning


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Ya having extra weight seems to be a theme with all boats! My pic was stock ballast no extra weight with 3 adults in the boat. If have her loaded down I can go back to the stock left setting no issues but with no extra weight I have to bring those tabs up. I usually cruise about 10.5 mph.

[Infinitysurf]

All the newer boats/brands have the potential for a great wave when setup correctly. One thing I learned pretty quick about Centurion is that many of the newer dealers don't know how to properly set up the wave so that could have been part of the issue. I went out on a new RI237 early last year and the dealer didnt have a clue how to set it up right and my first surf set was disappointing. After that set, I took over the helm, changed the settings and the wave got badass.
FI boats don't like as much bow weight and if you over deploy the surf tab, the wave degrades. The center trim plate setting also makes a difference. I have been behind FI21 & FI23, both were great. The RI257 can get monstrous, had a buddy that was body surfing inside the wave curl at Norris last summer.
Have not been behind a new Mastercraft yet, the surf wave pics look great!

[maniacmikes]

All the newer boats/brands have the potential for a great wave when setup correctly. One thing I learned pretty quick about Centurion is that many of the newer dealers don't know how to properly set up the wave so that could have been part of the issue. I went out on a new RI237 early last year and the dealer didnt have a clue how to set it up right and my first surf set was disappointing. After that set, I took over the helm, changed the settings and the wave got badass.
FI boats don't like as much bow weight and if you over deploy the surf tab, the wave degrades. The center trim plate setting also makes a difference. I have been behind FI21 & FI23, both were great. The RI257 can get monstrous, had a buddy that was body surfing inside the wave curl at Norris last summer.
Have not been behind a new Mastercraft yet, the surf wave pics look great!

It was the dealers first time really going out and messing with the settings on the centurion- since they are a new dealer: which is why I get the call, as I like to go out and play around with stuff. I did some research before going to get a good starting point...most of the settings I found included lead in the rear lockers and not a lot, if any weight in the bow. Slightly listed to surf side by only filling ram fill to 80%, but plug and play full.

From there we did belly tank at 0%, 50%, 75%, 100%...then bow sack at 50% and 100% just to see - knowing that it wouldn’t be good.

Surf tab from 50-100% with most time spent at 70%. Center tab from 0-100%, most time at 30%-50%.

Overall I feel like we gave it a pretty fair assessment, other than we did not add lead in the rear lockers. I’m not against adding lead, we just didn’t have any handy.

Kind of a shame to have so much ballast and not be able to fill it all for surfing. To me, that is a design issue or a marketing gimmick to get the ballast numbers up.

Still is a great wave for a stock boat, but in my mind I had centurion as some mythical wave that was going to blow my mind- which I did not find to be the case.


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[Infinitysurf]

Wasn't bashing your review at all, hope you didn't take it that way. Looking at above details, looks like you gave it every chance at producing a good wave and what you listed does follow most of the settings I have seen for the FI, most common being 25% in bow, 50% in belly and the rears/Ramfill full.
You are right, most of the people I know and ride with run extra lead to get the surf wave to the next level, on every brand (the RI257 I was on had 1000lbs of lead). I also keep 500lbs on my boat, my SV244 likes bow weight and I enjoy a long wave with plenty of real estate to play on. I have 4400lbs of hidden ballast plus the 500lbs of lead. 800lbs of that goes in the bow with 300 of it being the lead bags that I place under the bow filler cushion.
Again tho, nice review and props to you for taking the time to mess with different settings