My experience with installation and use
Hello boat colleagues I drive a beautiful Hellwig Marathon V485, which was built in August 2018. With a Yamaha F100 at the stern (Bodenseezulassung) the boat is very well motorized. The boat is 1.98m wide and 5.05m long. Weight ready to drive equipped estimated 800kg. The only disturbing thing was that the boat with cast with only the driver had always looked to starboard. In addition, such a glider with deep V hull gushes massive at Verdrängergeschwindigkeiten back and forth. But most of all, the boat was very nervous when it hit the waves and was also harshly back into the water. It was almost impossible to take the thumb off the Powertrimm switch. These are all physically related side effects of a heavy engine at the rear. To make it short The Zipwake system has virtually eliminated all these problems! At slow speed, the boat now runs wonderfully straight ahead. At least from 15kmh the list page is corrected and the Auto Pitch function ensures that the angle of attack remains in the range of about 3 in relation to the water level at a standstill. It is also impressive how much calmer the boat is in gliding! Feels like the change corresponds to a length increase of the boat of over one and a half meters. The automatic control is also very busy at work and responds to changes in the roll angle (weight distribution changes due to people walking, waves, crosswinds) within a few seconds. The sensitivity is adjustable. For installation An installation instruction is included. It relies more on graphics than words. In addition, well-made drilling templates are made of a surprisingly high-quality material. Not included are the two hole saws for the 19mm cable entry through the mirror and the 3 "hole for the control panel.This should be considered before going on a Saturday afternoon to work!) Also not included is a fuse holder for the power supply. If you do not have a great deal of inhibitions about drilling holes in your boat, the installation should not be a challenge for you, but it is recommended to work very accurately when positioning the drilling templates correctly - for example, if the interceptors are 3mm too deep (too tight) at the trailing edge), they are still in the water flow despite the fully retracted leaves and slow down the boat.At the next time I would prefer to put the grommet even higher than now, because as soon as the boat is standing, and persons on the seating group in the rear stop, then the bushings are quickly under water permanently He also remains with plenty of use of Sikaflex always a bad feeling. Why did I pull off a star everywhere? Value for money The system is great and meets all my expectations. But in terms of price performance, I think it is a bit too expensive. Quality and workmanship About the durability I can say now after a good month (but nearly 1000 kilometers driven on the water) not much. But I think it's a pity, for example, that the white print on the buttons on the control panel turned out to be unstable. Sun oil on the fingers dissolves the color well. Also, I would like the interceptors here and there less sharp corners and ridges. Average Satisfaction One thing that bothers me most of all is the system, which hopefully will be fixed by a software update. If, for example, you drive against the current on the Rhine, then between the actual driving speed through water and the GPS tempo over the ground, sometimes 7 - 10 km difference. As a result, the automatic control naturally calculates with completely wrong values and reacts accordingly unintentionally. The only remedy is to deactivate the automatic function or to drive so fast that only the roll function is relevant. A connection to the NMEA2000 electrical system is available. However, this is probably only used for the import of GPS data. If, instead of GPS, one could alternatively use the data of the dynamic pressure gauge as a basis for calculation, then the system would be perfect. SVB as a supplier worked flawlessly and even delivered the package one day faster than the package tracking had actually announced)