Life Jackets, Ballast, and a big crew

[dukesofhazzard]

Everyone wears one. Problem solved

[bsreid]

I don’t know about you but I can fit at least 18 vests, paddles, slalom ski, a suck gate and anchor lines all under my bench seats. Tons of towels, cleaners, suits and even a babz under the observer seat. Leaving the bow completely empty for anything else. Really don’t see the issue for storage space.

[SONIC]

What boat are you in?
The seat behind the driver in mine is converted to a cooler, the opposite seat fills with ballast. The one in front of that holds 4 orange jackets. That leaves the lockers (ballast) and the front (ballast and a few jackets).
Under the helm and the passenger helm is a good bit of space but is a bit of a pain to get to.

I don’t know about you but I can fit at least 18 vests, paddles, slalom ski, a suck gate and anchor lines all under my bench seats. Tons of towels, cleaners, suits and even a babz under the observer seat. Leaving the bow completely empty for anything else. Really don’t see the issue for storage space.

[bsreid]

What boat are you in?
The seat behind the driver in mine is converted to a cooler, the opposite seat fills with ballast. The one in front of that holds 4 orange jackets. That leaves the lockers (ballast) and the front (ballast and a few jackets).
Under the helm and the passenger helm is a good bit of space but is a bit of a pain to get to.

I’m in the rzx so the big boy when it comes to storage. Not having to worry about custom bags like the z3 has under the bench is a huge saviour. Oh and the surf locker, love that thing.
Personally I think the orange vests are a waste of space. Over the years I’ve invested in decent ones that are much simair in various sizes to fit everyone.

[crabo227]

Middle TN, a little south of Nashville.
Usually on Normandy or Tim's Ford

I'm in Cookeville. Right in the middle of Dale Hollow and Center Hill lakes. Bought my Tige at Tim's Ford Powersports. Sorry to derail

[Zackdogg]

I’m in the rzx so the big boy when it comes to storage. Not having to worry about custom bags like the z3 has under the bench is a huge saviour. Oh and the surf locker, love that thing.
Personally I think the orange vests are a waste of space. Over the years I’ve invested in decent ones that are much simair in various sizes to fit everyone.

That’s a pretty solid point, that I never even think of. We have 16 orange vests that have been in the storage since we bought the boat, but we probably have 10 wake vests in there, I should probably ditch some of the orange vests since I doubt I’ll ever get to 26 people on board, haha!! Those damn orange vests eat storage for lunch!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Ruger761]

The orange vest keep you nice and legal, but the cheap nylon vests are a lot easier to store and only cost a touch more than the orange ones do. In our old 2150 I could hold 13 life jackets and anchor under the observer locker. Leaving the bow, and helm storage open for other stuff. Never had an issue with the lake patrol long as our throwable was out and easy to get to.

[Jetdriver]

2007 22VE
I’ve got vests for 12 adults and 3 kids in my locker forward of the helm. It also houses a 12” sub enclosure and a heater. It’s packed in there strategically but it all fits. I keep the throwable and a bunch of other gear in the observer forward locker. Echoing what was said above, lose the orange vests, while highly fashionable, they just take up tons of storage and don’t fit anyone as well as a decent full vest.
When I designed my ballast system I found the biggest bags I could use but still keep the vast majority of my underseet storage. 500 lbs of lead make up for what I’m missing in water weight.
I also pulled out the worthless cooler under the observer seat and made it storage for my box anchor, toolbox, spare parts, and assorted other stuff.