jeff@adelie.UUCP (Jeff Moskow) (03/18/86)
I hope to purchase a boat this summer. The only use of this boat will be
for water skiing. I live by a lake and would not have to worry about
ease of trailering. I am concerned with maintenance, cost and of course
finding a good ski boat. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should
expect to pay, what to look for or what to avoid, I'd appreciate hearing from
you.
--
LIVE: Jeff Moskow, (617) 868-4555
USPS: Adelie Corporation, 288 Walnut St., Newtonville, MA 02160
UUCP: ..!{harvard | decvax!cca!emacs}!adelie!jeff
ARPA: adelie!jeff@harvard.ARPAdsg1@ur-tut.UUCP (Dave Goldberg ) (03/19/86)
There's a great article on waterski boats in the current issue of
WaterSki magazine. They tested several boats, and gave prices and
other spec's. If you can't find the issue, mail me and I'll send
you the specs and a summary of the tester's comments.
It's 60 in Rochester today, summer and waterskiing aren't too far off!!!
Naturally it'll now tomorrow.
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Dave Goldberg
UUCP: ..!{allegra,seismo,decvax}!rochester!ur-tut!dsg1
BITNET: DSG1@UORVM
USMail: PO. Box 30803 River Station, Rochester NY 14267
----------------------------------------------------------jimb@tekcbi.UUCP (Jim Boland) (03/21/86)
In article <595@adelie.UUCP> : > >I hope to purchase a boat this summer. The only use of this boat will be >for water skiing. I live by a lake and would not have to worry about >ease of trailering. I am concerned with maintenance, cost and of course >finding a good ski boat. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should >expect to pay, what to look for or what to avoid, I'd appreciate hearing from >you. > >-- I assume you do not intend to fish with this boat. When you say you intend to use it for waterskiing, you must define what type you intend to do. If you mean general recreational skiing, you could generally use most runabouts with enough horsepower. You must ask yourself if you intend to pull one, two, or three at a time and if they are going to slalom or go mixed (slalom and doubles). There are no boats available that will give you the best for all conditions without going into the boats which are designed only for waterskiing. If you are into serious recreational waterskiing: Stay away from jet drives: they eat gas and do not leave a good wake for various skiing. Stay away from flashy low and long boats with big engines and chrome headers sticking up in the air. They are only for speed, showoff, and making noise. Stay away from boats which use a foot pedal for the gas. These are not easy to maintain a constant speed, particularly when the boat goes over waves, etc. Besides your foot gets tired. Get the kind with the throttle mounted on the side that you use your hands to control. You want an engine which is quiet so that you can have communication between the driver and the skier at the end of the rope. Generally, the length will be determined by how many people you will have in the boat and what kind of performance you want. Personally, I'll ski behind anything except a jet. (too much spray in the face). I just want it to have enough to get me up or at minimum, to get enough speed so that I can jump off a dock and keep going. However, I would recommend a boat somewhere in the 16-19 foot range. Power depends on the size and whether you want an I/O or outboard. Either is fine. You want the boat to be able to go 35-40 mph while pulling one slalom skier. (normally you don't go that fast but it allows you some headroom) If you want to try barefooting and you are a little, ahem, heavy..... You want one that will do between 45-50. If you intend to do some trick skiing or ride a kneeboard, you want a boat that will plane and maintain a constant speed from appx 15 mph - 23 mph. Most boats will not maintain a constant speed until they are planing and that usually occurs above about 18mph. That is about normal trick speed and believe me, you want a constant boat speed. On a 16 ft. boat, I would want an outboard with a minimum of 90 HP and an I/O with a minimum of 140 HP. On a 19 ft boat, I would want an outboard with a minimum of 150 HP and an I/O with a minimum of 200 HP. I currently use two 19 ft boats with I/O's (I prefer them. less hassles, problems, easier to maintain, no adding or mixing of oil). One has 200 HP and the other has 230 HP. The 200 will pull three 180# slalom skiiers if they know how to get up. My rating system says that is minimal. Prices should be available below $12K for the 19ft w/230 HP. (new). A good boat should run you (complete package) between 7-12 K$. (They do here in Portland). Now, if you are a serious skiier and that is all you want to do, then you should consider one of the tournament type boats. These are: Ski Nautique, Ski Supreme, Mastercraft, Supra, Hydrodyne, Ski Centurion, Malibu Skiier, etc. These generally run in the $14-$16 K range. They generally have 250 HP. A little spendy, but I'll guarantee that they give the best skiing of any type of boat. Best control, Best power, and best wake. Note: these are inboards with side fins to keep them going straight when a skiier cuts hard. Truly fine boats. There have been some good articles in WATER SKI magazine describing good boats to use for skiing - in the last couple months. Hope this helps. Jim (H2O-SKI) Boland Our season started March 2. Ya' gotta' love it!
dond@ihu1g.UUCP (Donna M. Hymel) (03/26/86)
> ... > If you are into serious recreational waterskiing: > Stay away from jet drives: they eat gas and do not leave a good > wake for various skiing... I don't know what kind of recreational waterskiing you do, maybe you do lots of tricks, but I slalom behind my 19' jet drive boat with a lot less problems than behind my brother's 19' I/O. He's got a huge wake, and we don't. Most of my friends and relatives prefer skiing behind my boat. It really doesn't eat up more gas than his either, considering the engine's larger than his. It's also much more powerful in pulling the big guys out of the water. Yet its easy to maintain a slow speed for kneel boarding. > ... Personally, I'll ski > behind anything except a jet. (too much spray in the face). We have a control on our jet to angle the spray. We have never sprayed a skier. Also there are longer ropes available especially for jet drive boats, so my skier does not get a spray in the face. Another plus for our jet drive is that most of the lakes we boat on are very shallow (except where we ski). My brother is always repairing his prop because he hit a rock or something in the water. We have run aground by accident (mud bar in the middle of a river) and had no damage. The major drawback to a jet drive is the noise. It is really too noisy. But I like the power and speed of the boat and would not have any other! In the Chicago area I have not seen a new good 19' boat with 230 h/p for under $12K. For a good boat (complete package) with that kind of h/p, you may pay from $14K to $24K. For 140 h/p you can find one between $7-$12K, but I don't think that's enough power. -- Donna M. Hymel ihu1g!dond AT&T Bell Laboratories IH 2C-319 312-979-6870