Hey guys. Someone basically gave me a 89 supra saltare direct drive 23ft and I also have a 97 us marine (bayliner) wake challenger 22ft v drive with an intragraded swim platform. Trying to decide what to keep. We are mainly wakesurfers and sometimes extreme tubers. Haha.
I've got my wake challenger slammed with about 3500 lbs of ballast with johnson reversables. The surf wake is amazing (waist high) and the wakeboard wake is very good too. I've got fresh air exhaust on it. I have owned several sunsports and love them (it was my first boat too)
I've never came across a virgin saltare and for some reason I am kind of ready for a new project (I think something is wrong with me) and want to go bananas on this thing. The floor is good on this saltare but it needs to be repainted or wrapped (I can do both or maybe I will build a sleeper haha) and the upholstery needs to be redone (I have my sources). I'm thinking of throwing weight in the back ski locker, rebuild the back seat to accept a big bag, put 2 v drive sacs in the front under the playpen and have a couple bricks for when there isn't enough people. I also don't see any reason to put a tower on it cause I rarely use a rope and half the time I start off the swim platform anyway. I could always add one later. I think the saltare will handle rougher water (torch/Burt/mullet/Hamlin lakes in michigan) better than my wake challeger and a couple lakes we go in are shallow and I think the saltare will draft less water. Also the sunspots are way more fun to drive and better for tubing than my wake challenger. I don't think I'm worried about having too many people on board or people tripping over ppl due to the direct drive cause we don't go out with much over 4-5. I love wake boarding but my ankle dosent. So I don't need a wakeboard boat anymore and like the idea of selling the big dollar v drive and putting some money in the bank and building the ultimate budget wake surfing boat that we might use 50-100 hrs per year. I'm pretty savey with these old boats and I don't think I will have much more than a few grand into paint, upholestry, fae and ballast.
Do you think I can get the surf wake to match up?
I'm nervous about going from a recently rebuilt black scorpion 350 with efi to a 1989 454 with 780 hours. I'm not a carb or engine expert but know a lot of people who are and this 454 purrs like a kitten. I'm also nervous about replacing the floor/stringers down the road but like I said no soft spots and this thing is clean.
Let me know if you think I need to go to "wakesurf boat repairers anonymous" or if you think the project would be fun and worth it.
Oh if u have no clue what a wake challenger is look at this link:
http://www.xairwakeboarding.com/boats/27/