Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

[doodle]

I have a 16 ft "Ski Barge" it's the type of boat for fishing on rivers etc. It needs to go "on plane" in order for the boat to go faster. However, when I wake-board using a pylon pole it doesn't plane and goes at a slower speed and I am unable to get up at all even though I only need to go at a speed of 18-20 mph. The motor is a 70 hp.

Why does this occur? Is it because my pylon pole is in the center of the boat?? Do I need to move the pylon pole further out near the head? Or should I just get a tow harness?? Would that work better?

What do you guys think? Are ski Barge just not capable of using it for wake-boarding???

 

[JCMINIS]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

The motor is a 70 hp.

QUOTE]

If your a grown adult I would say power is your problem,is your problem with you and a driver or you and a boat load of friends ?

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

The motor is a 70 hp.

QUOTE]

If your a grown adult I would say power is your problem,is your problem with you and a driver or you and a boat load of friends ?

There's 3 grown adult. But the weird thing is that when we're all in the boat it still planes and is on top of the water and going quite fast. However, when we tried wake-boarding yesterday it never plane and went quite slow. Is a wakeboarder a lot heavier to pull? The boat says a maximum weight of 900lbs.

 

[Alumarine]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Pulling a wakeboard, tubes or a skier is similar to pulling your boat on the trailer with a car or truck.

You probably need more power. Or smaller/fewer friends.

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Pulling a wakeboard, tubes or a skier is similar to pulling your boat on the trailer with a car or truck.

You probably need more power. Or smaller/fewer friends.

hmmm... I read on these forums before that people have been able to wakeboard on 40 hp motors... Is it because of the shape of our boat? Also we weight around 140-160 lbs. If that helps.

 

[Doug N.]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

would a different prop help?

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Leverage. The tower or pylon is a big lever, and the drag of the boarder is trying to pull the bow of the boat up, and the stern down. Your engine isn't powerful enough to overcome that leverage and rotate onto plane.

It's simple physics.

 

[srimes]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

did you try having the passengers sit up front?

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

did you try having the passengers sit up front?

The person steering the motor needs to be in the middle so I can't go around with that but we did have the "spotter" go up front and it didn't help much.

Leverage. The tower or pylon is a big lever, and the drag of the boarder is trying to pull the bow of the boat up, and the stern down. Your engine isn't powerful enough to overcome that leverage and rotate onto plane.

It's simple physics.

You think if we put the pylon pole up front it would help??? Would a tow harness work better?

There are plenty of people on this forum with success with wakeboarding with a lower HP motor so I don't know if it's because of my outboard motor as well or shape of the boat since it has a flatter bottom (Can actually go in 6 inch water when i change the lower unit to jet prop).

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Drop the prop pitch for more low end power but be aware yo will lose top end speed and can over rev the engine if you are not paying attention.

What would recommendation be for dropping the prop pitch??? I'm new to boating stuff... sorry.

 

[Nasbinator]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

I've never even seen anyone else have a skibarge... I got mine from my dads yrs ago but havent used it in about 5 yrs. I believe with that boat only being 16', you should be able to wakeboard no problem. My boat was really rigged but I pulled a buddy wakeboarding with a 25hp and 9.5hp running at the same time mounted on the boat. Yeah it was funny looking. My ski barge was also a 20'. So if I could do it with smaller motors, dont know why you couldnt. I didnt use a pylon though. Maybe you should try hooking to the back of your boat and see how that does. Also I agree with other post about your prop pitch. I dont know what you have now but a lower pitch will pull the wakeboarder out of the water quicker and hopefully plane. How are your rpms running?

 

[JCMINIS]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Pulling a wakeboard, tubes or a skier is similar to pulling your boat on the trailer with a car or truck.

You probably need more power. Or smaller/fewer friends.

Agreed, with my 4.3 190hp I can cut real hard on a wakeboard and from the end of the ski rope can hear the motor change tune from the different load.I would bet "if" you got up it would pull you as long as you didnt turn in hard and strain the boat.However pulling a wakeboard or salom ski up is quite a strain on the motor.

I also would imagine thats why all the "wakeboard" specific boats are usually big inch,big hp boats.

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Agreed, with my 4.3 190hp I can cut real hard on a wakeboard and from the end of the ski rope can hear the motor change tune from the different load.I would bet "if" you got up it would pull you as long as you didnt turn in hard and strain the boat.However pulling a wakeboard or salom ski up is quite a strain on the motor.

I also would imagine thats why all the "wakeboard" specific boats are usually big inch,big hp boats.

Thanks for the insight. Wakeboarding is only something that I just thought would be cool to learn/try. I'm more of a fisherman so if it doesn't work it's no biggy. I just want to try all my options without purchasing a new motor. I'm on a "student" budget so getting another boat is kind of out of the question for now. haha.

 

[doodle]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

I've never even seen anyone else have a skibarge... I got mine from my dads yrs ago but havent used it in about 5 yrs. I believe with that boat only being 16', you should be able to wakeboard no problem. My boat was really rigged but I pulled a buddy wakeboarding with a 25hp and 9.5hp running at the same time mounted on the boat. Yeah it was funny looking. My ski barge was also a 20'. So if I could do it with smaller motors, dont know why you couldnt. I didnt use a pylon though. Maybe you should try hooking to the back of your boat and see how that does. Also I agree with other post about your prop pitch. I dont know what you have now but a lower pitch will pull the wakeboarder out of the water quicker and hopefully plane. How are your rpms running?

Thanks Nasbinator! That really gives me hope. Haha! I have a 70 hp with a kicker that is 15 hp (I haven't tried turning both on maybe I can try that option as well). Like I've said before I don't really know a lot about boats but here's the number on my prop and I have no idea what it means... I tried searching but there wasn't a clear answer... it's 13-1/4 X 17 on my propeller. So I kind of have no idea... if that is anything.

I will try the harness tomorrow when the sun is out.

 

[Nasbinator]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

I went to miwheel.com and entered the info about your motor size and boat. The size of prop you are using is one of the recomended ones, so I guess you should be ok there. The first no. on your prop is the diameter and the 2nd is the pitch. Also for my ski barge to plane I had to get everyone in the front.

 

[Lrider]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Leverage. The tower or pylon is a big lever, and the drag of the boarder is trying to pull the bow of the boat up, and the stern down. Your engine isn't powerful enough to overcome that leverage and rotate onto plane.

It's simple physics.

Try moving the rope towards the stern

Like the man says it's physics, you are pulling the front of the boat up with the wake boarder you need to move the rope behind the center of gravity to allow the front of the boat to drop into plane

also look where your motor tilt is you may have to adjust that too - don't take my word for it but I think the closer to the boat the prop is the more your nose wants to drop

 

[roscoe]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Attach harness to transom.

Trim the motor down.

Find a 14 pitch or 15 pitch prop.

 

[Stachi]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Attach harness to transom.

Trim the motor down.

Find a 14 pitch or 15 pitch prop.

++++

 

[Subliminal]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

Part of it could be technique, too. When I wakeboard I can almost get up from a small tug....sometimes when I watch other people they apply the snowplow technique, and it takes a lot longer and requires a lot more tug. I just let the water give me a little tension and kind of flip the board right up with me on top of it.

Don't know if that helps, but there it is.

 

[hostage]

Re: Wakeboarding... Why does my boat not have power when I wakeboard?!?!?!

You are saying it planes when your friends are in the boat, but when wake boarding it doesn't plane? You are not only pulling the same amount of weight, but you do have added water resistance with a wake board. An airplane still weighs the same amount of with the flaps or airbrake up or down. When the flaps or airbrake are down it adds resistance slowing the airplane.

Hope this helps.

-Hostage