SG settings

[Horton]

Hey Darwin,

Do you understand the 1 ball and 3 ball settings in SG. I know that you have tweaked them. My question is what do they really do?

[Director Darwin]

I have a pretty good idea.  The numbers reflect a value that is used to balance the 1st and 2nd segments.  Where as in the past, we had a SSB to balance the 1st and 2nd segments.  Now we have (for lack of a better term) First Segment Balance.  But it's broken down into two separate parameters.  This was all a result of trying to keep the soft gate PP was noted for and still get your segment times actual.

You work the numbers up one digit at a time (from the #'s we suggested) until you get your mid and end times to balance.

We found that the heavier the skier, the slower the mid course time (7.18's).  By upping the 1st and 2nd segment numbers, we were able to get good times regardless of the weight of the skier.

Don't know if I answered your question.  If not, hit me again. 

[Director Darwin]

Correction:  Should have stated 1 Ball and 3 Ball instead of 1st and 2nd segments.

[Horton]

So if bringing up both numbers give consistant times is this what is needed for a boat that is used for a wide range of skiers? I do not really want a custom ride that I can only get at home.

[Director Darwin]

Yes.  The issue we had w/ Mike's boat was with lighter skiers >180, the times were dead on.  But skiers in the 200-220 range got a slow 1st segment and actual overall.  That meant that the boat was smoking the skier in the 2nd segment.  By bringing up the 1 and 3 ball numbers, we were able to get good times for the heavier skiers w/o sacrificing the lighter ones.  Now were running 7.15 / 16.95 for me and 7.13 / 16.95 for Mike.  Still not perfect but were getting close.  Like you, I don't want to customize my pull only to find something different at tournaments.  The 1 and 3 ball settings I referred to on Kent's site will be used in all Malibu's in this region.  There were 4 Malibu's that were used in the beta testing.  Chad's, Lucky's, Drew's and one other I can't remember.  This is where the settings came from.

[skibug]

jdarwin,

 I was having some of the same problems with a slow first half and then fast 2nd half.  Tonight before I skied, I adjusted the 1 ball (24 to 26) and the 3 ball (17 to 19) and that seemed to cure the splits and end.  I have a 2003 Malibu Response LX 335 Monsoon.  I was just curious how much you had to adjust yours.  I am assuming the boats were all 08's?

[Director Darwin]

For 34mph, we started with the following:

.80 pregate

17 Ball 1

15 Ball 3

We raised the Ball 1 to 20 and the Ball 3 to 17.  Times good.  This was an 08 Response LXI. 

[skibug]

The factory preset on my pregate was a .70, did you adjust this or was it just a different preset due to the TBW vs. TBC?

[Director Darwin]

The .80 was arrived at thru trial and error on the DBW version.  The mechanical boats will be different as will different hull configurations.  Not every boat will be exactly the same but the numbers we arrived at for the DBW Malibu's were starting points.  Minimal tuning was required from there to balance out the times.