Wave deflector placement?

Hey Guys,
I have a Swordfish S. I love it, but notice that the bow does not shed water very well which results in a sheet of water hammering you when you bury the nose.

I picked up a Nelo wave deflector to help with this issue. My question is, how far from the nose have you found the deflector to be most effective? I figure you should place it as far forward as makes sense, to shed the water as early as possible while not being so far forward that the sheet goes over it?

To anyone who is happy with their deflector, about how far from the nose is it? or how did you determine where to best place it? Im sure I can experiment and find the perfect spot but just want to shorten the learning curve

Thanks

i think that the more important measurement is how far ahead of the cockpit it has to be to re-route the water over the side.  i just eye-balled my V5 and where i stuck it is where it's stayed.  of course matching deck shape with the bottom contour of the deflector might be a consideration in your case.  pete

The farther forward it is placed the drier the ride, but the trade off is that it will slow you down more. Every time a sheet of water hits the deflector it slows the boat down. It does not slow the boat down as much as a full bucket of water though. Basically you want to deflect water that is destined to end up in the bucket, but not deflect water that is going to fall off the side of the ski before it reaches the bucket. Ideal placement will depend on the ski design, the width of the deflector, and i suppose how fast you are going and how deep you burry the bow. 1 to 3 feet in front of the bucket seems typical. The removable foreskin on the original v12 keeps the bucket pretty dry with no loss of speed, but it gets in the way on and off the water,  so I leave the boat circumcised and use a deflector instead. 

Excellent description Zach. I taped it on about 18" in front of the cockpit last night but was unable to test it due to very flat conditions. Sunday is forecast to have 20kt winds though.

Similar to the v12 foreskin, has anyone ever made a custom carbon shroud that covers from the front of the cockpit to around the footstrap? As a weekend project I was thinking of taking plastic sheeting, matching the profile of the deck-to-cockpit transition area and using it as a mold to glass over with carbon. basically like the picture but in single layer carbon and shorter height and length wise (maybe half the size of the one pictured). The SF does not get much water over the sides when a wave crest passes underneath you, but some gets in and it happens at the front of the bucket by my feet. I figure a small shroud would prevent 50% of the water from entering and make the SF an extremely dry ride on steep days

 

I taped it on about 18" in front of the cockpit

Me too.  I've had my Nelo wave deflector on my Swordfish S for a year and it works perfectly right there, preventing most of the water from coming over the nose into the cockpit, but not slowing the boat down too much.

It also makes for really cool photos...!

Hey Guys,

I have been doing downwind paddle lately and I'm getting better . As a result I am catching better runs and sometimes copping a spray. I have seen in the Vids that most paddlers seem to use wave deflectors.

Has anyone fitted a Wave Deflector to the Stellar SR? I have not seen any available from Stellar. Any advice on the best option?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I have been doing downwind paddle lately and I'm getting better

Awesome!

Has anyone fitted a Wave Deflector to the Stellar SR? I have not seen any available from Stellar. Any advice on the best option?

I don't know the Stellar SR that well, but I'm pretty sure you'd be able to use any of the available deflectors on it.  The Nelo deflector is very light and flexible and, I think, has a great shape and efficacy at shedding water.

I found that I didn't need the deflector on my Evo II, but it had much more volume in the nose that the Swordfish S.  On the Swordie, I try hard to stay on the crest of the waves, and to lean back on the runs, not to nose-dive, but given that it's shorter and has less volume, it's inevitable that the nose dips sometimes, and then the deflector really works well.

I use it on my Epic V10 Double, too, where it also helps keep the boat drier.