So I bought a wake tower from makeawakemarine.com, not a bad price honestly, it was $1200 for both the wake tower and bimini which is awesome. I'm a little saddened to get rid of the no bimini look, but in North Carolina that sun is killer and if I'm going to get a bimini I'd rather get a wake tower as well for some board /surf fun as well. My boat is in the upholstery shop currently but will add pics when I get her back, but my question is:

How did you guys install your wake tower? Where exactly on the boat did you choose your mount locations? What material did you use for your backing plate and what marine caulk did you use as well?

When looking for mount locations, I saw something completely different than what I saw on some general youtube videos looking at mounting wake towers. There is bubbly yellow insulation (from what my mechanic tells me) behind the gelcoat / fiberglass. Ex: If you look up towards the fiberglass from inside your observer seat (towards the forward port side), you should see it. Mechanic says I'll need to cut out a portion of it in order to get to the fiberglass to put the mounting plate behind the bolts. Have any of you done this before? Any advice?

Thanks as always,

Alex

You need metal backing plates under the gunnel. When you drill the holes, first place tape of top of the fiberglass. Start by running the drill backwards first this keeps the gel from chipping when you start drilling the proper direction.  You might have too do some upside down fiberglass work to get a good level flat place for the backing plates. 

I have seen the reverse drilling trick, but what do you mean about upside down fiberglass work?

Alex

The backing plate will be under the top of the deck.  You will be laying on your back and you will be looking up. If you need to add glass to where that plate will be placed, you will be doing upside down fiberglass work. Hard to explain. Gravity can be a bitch when doing Fiberglass work. 

Next picture is a pic of the port gunnel cupholder to give you a better picture of the glass:

Does anybody have any opinions on this? The wake tower guy said he put this exact wake tower on this year boat with no problems, and I sent him a pic of the hole and he was sure it was the floatation foam. 

Also, does anybody have any wake tower installers in the Charlotte area they would like to share? Would be much appreciated!

Yes, that's the flotation foam your mechanis is concerned about. It get removed in the area and then extra glass is typically laid up to reinforce the mounting area.

Awesome that makes me feel a whole lot better. Mechanic definitely scared the crap outta me by drilling holes and then saying there's no hope! Maybe I'll just take it from here. As far as the fiberglass work, do you guys recommend a certain type of glass and resin? I also hear chamfering the drill holes can ease the stress on the gel coat. Does anybody have a video of what that entails? Never seen or heard of that technique before.

So, I guess to just be painfully clear, the topology of the wake tower (from outside to inside) would be the mount and bolt, the gel coat, the fiber glass, (remove the floatation foam), two or three layers of fiberglass with resin, 1/2" pressure treated wood (as large as the mounting area allows), another layer of glass, and then the lock nut?

Anyway you do it, it will be a mess. Also it's a tight area to get into. See if you can get a wire wheel on a 4" right angle grinder up in there. If the right angle won't fit, then try a wire cup brush on the end of a drill.

Epoxy resin would be my choice. Any cloth would work but biaxial would be best.

You don’t have to glass wood blocks in, the tower should have come with metal plates to go under the tower legs. Just make sure the surface is fairly level where the metal supports go. If not you can make it level by using tiger hair body filler that can be purchased at most Autoparts stores.

This takes two people, person A inside the boat under the gunnel and person B outside to put the nuts on the bolts while person A holds the plate in place.

After drilling the holes, wrap your metal under support with plastic wrap stick  bolts through the plate put a blob of tiger hair on the plate and stick it to the underside of the gunnel while person B puts the nuts on and snug down the bolts (not super tight just snug) After the tiger hair dries you can remove the bolts and put the tower on.