R8 Surf 1st Captain's Report

[Soonerfan]

Hello everyone. Just got my R8 surf on the 4th of July. Has anyone noticed the boat seems heavier on the port side. It leans port on my lift. I also felt when I turn to the port side, the boat gets abnormally low in the water.

I will concur I have noticed this at times. There have been a couple of times when we are loaded up with a lot of people ice chests, toys, snacks, etc to go out for a day that when I go to drop the lift the port side is lower in the water. The first couple of times I noticed it I was concerned as was thinking that only the port side tank on the lift was dropping. I don't notice it as bad when we are lightly loaded and chocked it up to most all the people, ice chests, head filled with all the girls bags, etc. are on the port side.

[2018R7Surf]

Ty. Maybe I’m not crazy. It seems like the new hull design is less accommodating to unequal loads vs my R7 surf? I could load that thing up anyway I wanted and wouldn’t notice a thing. Do you guys know where the other 2 ballast tanks are? Marketing materials say there is 6 on the R8surf. I can only find 4. One on each side of the engine, one in middle floor and one in bow middle floor. Where are the other 2?

[dsthomas]

The other two takes are, on the starboard side under the cooler and trash can and on the port its under the big seat. You cant see them because they are finished over. If you take the garbage can out on the starboard side you can see it.

[2018R7Surf]

The other two takes are, on the starboard side under the cooler and trash can and on the port its under the big seat. You cant see them because they are finished over. If you take the garbage can out on the starboard side you can see it.

Ty. Going to check tonight!!

[2018R7Surf]

Very strange but it has gotten better. I moved some stuff around. Maybe 100 lbs of junk in the head and it’s much better. Maybe it was just where people were sitting and my lift needs an adjustment.

Boat is doing well. Finally got my stock K5 prop. It’s been running with a K6 so I could use it until the K5 came in. Have another few hours before I can go full speed for break in period. I will post performance to compare the 2 props once I get the K5 on.

[dsthomas]

I'm still waiting for my prop as well... Same issue, they just want to ship the boat, which is better than not recieving it, but they shipped it with the wrong props.

[2018R7Surf]

I'm still waiting for my prop as well... Same issue, they just want to ship the boat, which is better than not recieving it, but they shipped it with the wrong props.

What did they ship it with?

[dsthomas]

I'm still waiting for my prop as well... Same issue, they just want to ship the boat, which is better than not recieving it, but they shipped it with the wrong props.

What did they ship it with?

So they shipped it with a K3... I'm suppose to have a K4 according to cobalt. I have the 380. I'm guessing you must have the 430 if they told you K5? I'm a little miffed that I had to find out from this formum that I had the wrong prop. I understand shortages but maybe a heads up from the dealer/cobalt would have been nice.

I found this article about the R8S from boating magazine and the boat they used in the article for the test had a 380 with K4.

[2018R7Surf]

i am R8 Surf with 430

[Rplong2]

Our R6S has trim tabs. It is a pain not having indicators to use them. I thought we’d use them to further dial in the wave but we don’t, and i don’t think it’s necessary. We do use performance mode though and the boat planes great fully loaded/full ballast. Performance mode will shut off the fill/empty of the ballasts though. It is an either/or situation. Beautiful boat.

[2018R7Surf]

1 mph more w it’s K6 vs K5 prop. No noticeable diff in torque at all. 22 R8S with 430.