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The tigé

Overall Note

The primary (#1, first-and-foremost) purpose of this boat is to put at the perfect wave and let people ride behind it. It can be used for other things such as boat rides, but is not designed with some of the features that a cruiser would have. It does have a cooler and ample cup-holders. No boat would deny users a cold beverage.

New Tower and Bimini Roof

In 2022 we got a new tower (it is a Monster Tower) and bimini roof (“MTK Bimini”). (1) There are a lot of bolts holding down the tower. If you need to tighten with an allen wrench, there is a large allen wrench in the tool bag in the glove compartment. (2) If you want full sun or you are trailering, you may fold up the bimini roof and put the boot (sleeve) over it. This video shows how.  The sleeve/boot is under the seat with the other cover.

Mick’s Tips and Tricks

Mick (OK, the Steiners) were the first to drive the tigé. They learned numerous useful things to know. He typed up the notes: CLICK HERE for notes-by-MickSteiner

Batteries and Ballasts

JimsBoatNotes – notes on the batteries and the ballasts.

Prep Early

If you are surfing, you’ll need to fill ballasts. Start doing this at the dock after you are out of the lift. It takes about 10 minutes. (See Profiles below.) You can drive slowly and fill the ballasts.

If you have been surfing and are headed in, start emptying the ballasts right away. It takes 5 minutes or more to empty the ballasts.

Holding a speed

A big key is that you can’t just put the throttle at a position and have it hold a constant speed (it doesn’t work like the Ark did).

You use the speed control, which in effect, is a cruise control. Press the STAR button to access this. Set desired speed, push the throttle forward, and away you go.  The boat speeds up and then levels out to the ‘desired speed.’  See next point.

(Remembering the Overall Note) Using the speed control, when you put the throttle (hammer) down, it thinks you have someone behind hanging on a rope (and they might be 220 pounds on one ski), so it’s not going to mess around–it’s going to pull with power to get them up. It initially pulls to a speed faster than the ‘desired speed’ and then reduces back to the desired speed. See next point.

If you have a 110 pound 14-year-old on a wake-board back there, you do not need all that power (and the 14-year-old doesn’t need the thrill of that much speed), so what you do NOT put the throttle (hammer) down all the way. You can ease them out of the water (like we used to do on the Ark). The speed control will then get you to the desired speed (and the newbie on the back won’t be a deer-in-the-headlights).

Profiles

Profiles are pre-sets. On the touchscreen, touch tigé-You to access the profiles. This is saved settings (up to 20 named settings) for a rider. Included is the amount in the ballasts, tabs, and the speed. One touch gives you ‘everything.’ In the first summer (according to Cole’s recommendation), the setting we used (for a few people in the boat) was 100% on each of the ballasts on the side of the rider and 25% in the other rear ballast.

Water Over the Front

As Mick mentioned above (and another application of the Overall Note) water can come over the front of the boat if you hit a wake at slow speed straight on–especially after a surfer drops off and you are going around to pick them up (you put out a big wake). Cole recommended (when a rider drops off) to turn the boat, put it in neutral, let the wave pass (on an angle) and then go get them.

Turning with Ballast

According to http://www.howtowakesurf.com/Ballast.jsp you should always turn toward the low (weighted) side. If your rider is on the right, turn to the right.

Overall Note 2

There’s no substitute for getting a feel for it. Knowledge from written text is nice, but actually doing it is invaluable. The notes on these pages might help reduce the learning curve and a few mistakes, but ultimately we learn by doing. Overall note 2a: There may be more than one way to skin a cat. Not everyone will dock the boat, pick up a skier, etc. the same way. Find a good way that feels right and works for you.