2010 X25 Wake Shaper

[darrylwie]

Does anyone use a wake shaper on an X25? I have tried a couple on my 2010, but they do not work because of the shape of the hull - I can't get the wake shaper down into the water low enough for it to work. The "ridges" in the hull at the water line make it impossible to use a wakeshaper with suction cups. I have considered using the Ronix one with velcro, as I believe you can add shims for the different shape of the hull, but I also know they can be a pain to take off, they stick too well!

[robadele]

On a lot of Mastercraft, you need to use a shaper that needs less height. I don't have an X25, but a swell slim works well on my 210.

[jpwhit]

From what I've read, the Swell Wakesurf Creator Slim H3X Plus is the best choice for fitting the stepped hull. I've never tried one on my boat. I posted a while back if anyone had tried one on an X25 along with Gen 2. Didn't get any responses from anyone that had actually tried it. I'm skeptical that it'll make that much of an improvement on top of Gen 2, so I haven't been willing to spend the money to try it. With all the other mods I've made to my X25, the wave on both sides is quite good. And I don't really want to deal with suction cup attached shaper unless it were a game changer.

One thing I will say about the X25 hull, and I think it's pretty well known if you read everything on the forum about X25s, is it's very sensitive to even small changes in setup with regards to the surf wave. So, in addition to all my modifications, a lot of the improvements in my surf wave is just the time I've spent figuring out how to tune it. One thing I learned pretty quickly is I had to actually get in and surf the wave to judge any changes made in tuning. Looking at the wave did not provide good feedback in what actually surfed well.

Another thing I learned, and this isn't X25 specific, it applies to all the Gen 2 surf system boats up until the new Surf Star systems that just came out. Without feedback on the tab actuators, accurate tab positioning makes a lot of difference and takes a lot of diligence on the part of the driver. To finally get reasonably accurate tab positioning I had to come up with a very specific procedure in addition to replacing all my actuators with new ones to get consistent travel speed on the actuators. Here are the steps in my setup procedure. And I developed this by actually getting in the water and accurately measuring tab positions while doing a lot of experimentation. This applies to the boats with the Murphy 7" screen and some of the many quirks in that system. A key one being that the manual center tab up switch raises all 3 tabs when pressed in the right pattern.

1. Always start with the engine running
2. Turn off autolaunch before activating the profile
3. Push the manual up switch for the center tab in the following pattern - push 1 sec, release for half a second, push for 5 sec - this resets all 3 actuators accurately to full up position
4. Activate the profile
5. Do not put the boat in reverse - if you do the tab positions reset and does not go back to the right spot consistently. It takes some practice to pick up surfers well w/o using reverse.

I also found that the default profiles were nowhere near optimal. The profiles I use now have much less tab deployment angle than the stock profiles. A lot of things on turning the X25 surf wave are a little counter intuitive. The typical more is better mentality often does not hold true. There are noticeable points on the X25 in my experience where more is not better. More tab angle is good up until a point and then more deteriorate the wave significantly. More rear weight is good up until a point and then adding more again deteriorates the wave. Too much rear weight w/o corresponding front weight isn't good.

I can certainly understand why some people give up on the X25 for a much less finicky newer model from a surf wave perspective, but I like a challenge, I love the size of the X25, and I really love the wakeboard wake.

[Alberta_Dan]

I can vouch for the Swell Slim on a stepped hull. Works great on my X9 and it floats so you don't have to tie it to the boat.

[drballenbc]

I couldn't fit my home made suck gate on my X25 but the WakeMate one fit on fine and stayed on well. It had smaller suction cups. Worked great too.

[NYMC]

I'm able to get a Mission Delta on my X25 hull, with enough ballast it gets deep enough while underway. It can be finicky at times staying on (and my son has the scar to prove it) but once it sticks in a good position it generally stays. Be careful with the tether as it can really snap back towards the boat when it dislodges.

[Footin]

I wrote up a review for the Swell H3X on my 2011 X25 with Gen 1: Swell Wakesurf Slim H3X Plus - My Review - TeamTalk (mastercraft.com)

My surf port current set up is:
-Full stock rear along with about 600 pounds in the sacs
-Half full KGB
-Starboard tab fully deployed and center tab at 40%
-Speed at 10.6