evandinsmore

I'm racing under PHRF-LO. I believe water ballast is rated on a case by case basis. In the case of mine, which only really replaces 2 people on the rail, and isn't much use in course racing where there's a lot of tacking, there's no rating hit. And yes, electric pump and gravity transfer.

I mostly use it for charts, choosing waypoints, engaging autopilot, and other brief interactions, so it’s easy access from either side by standing up. I have H5000 and 20/20 displays for viewing instruments/other info. Haven’t had a problem so far, and the J version doesn’t fully cover the recess at the sides where there’s more potential for problems. I have accidentally put my foot in the recess and stopped the wheel but that’s user error

Sure, the only tell for the water ballast system are the control lines in the companionway and the vents in the cockpit. This was the original wheel spec shown in the manual, you can see the similarity to the 97 wheel: Here’s my wheel install: And I believe this is the new stock wheel, after several J dealers were asking to replicate the recessed wheel of the two Toronto boats: I still like mine because I have the chartplotter on the pedestal, but this is much better than the original. Also here’s a diagram of the ballast system:

I'm the owner, the ballast pump needed to be below the water line to function properly (wasn't from the factory), and the lines used to open the valves had way too much friction. I believe mine — hull 33 — was only the 2nd with water ballast so I guess they haven't worked out all the kinks yet. The original concept was to have a recessed wheel, but I guess J/boats decided it was too costly/difficult so one of the first wheel-equipped boats came non-recessed, closer to the 97 wheel, which was way too small for such a beamy boat. The owner of that 99 and myself had a larger diameter wheel custom fitted and recessed. J has since changed the option because other dealers were asking how to do the same.