skiing with tower

[bayliner12]

Has anyone tried waterskiing using a wakeboard tower and if so how was it. My boat is kind of on the low side of power, it has a 120, to pull up an adult slalom skier, Ive been thinking about building a tower so I pull up and not through the water.

 

[salty87]

Re: skiing with tower

i've had people slalom behind my boat w/tower. they said it was fine, line pulls at a slightly different angle so you might end up with some sore muscles where you wouldn't normally. but, like you said, that would help pop them out of the water.

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: skiing with tower

It's not bad ... pulls out easier ....

 

[jack7771]

Re: skiing with tower

Perhaps a lower pitch prop would be a simpler remedy.

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: skiing with tower

Also remember when skiing you don't really want to break at the waist if you can help it. It doesn't matter where the rope pulls from if you are a little lacking in power thats what you are stuck with. In fact with the rope up so high it will want to pull the bow up and push the stern down making it that much tougher to plane quickly. I would try the prop idea as advised above if your only looking for better skiing performance. To "pop" a skier up you need that ski to get on top of the water quickly which can only be had by adequate boat power. I am assuming your 120 is an outboard? I have heard of a method you could try where you drill three hole in your prop in a very specific place and size hole, thus allowing some of the exaust gasses to bleed onto the prop blades and allowing it to rev much quicker to make power out of the hole faster. Outboards like to run fast and dont have the low end torque needed to be optimal for pulling out quick. This is a proven thing even suggested in manuels and some of the newer s.s. outboard props are factory drilled. Plus it doesn't affect top speed at all kind of the best of both worlds. I don't think the $$$ of a tower would be worth it for skiing alone. Just my .02

 

[Trevor9751]

Re: skiing with tower

I disagree with the previous comment you will definatly pull the skier out easier with a tower pulling up on them but you do not really need to go that far just a ski pole makes a huge difference and I dont know if a tower would help much more but pulling skiers from the transum definatly takes alot of extra power plus is alot harder on the skier by the time you get out you are already tired out.

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: skiing with tower

Has anyone ever seen a ski boat with a tower??? Not a wake board boat or an IO that you ski behind but a true ski boat. The reason for that is you don't want lift when skiing. Small wake, level constant pull.(thats why all the new ski boats have perfect pass) If you are underpowered, a tower(and its added weight) isn't going to make the boat yank you out of the water. Try a different prop or more power.

 

[hgmatt]

Re: skiing with tower

What year/size boat do you have? I have an 89 17' capri with an 85 hp Force on the back. This boat will pull me out of the water (slowly, but I'm not an acomplished skier), with 3 people on board and I weight 250 lbs. I would imagine that you might need a different prop, but you might check in at the Force Forum to see if your motor is running, right. At wide open throttle, how many RPMs are you getting? The running range should be from 5000 to 5500. If you're getting less than that, you have a problem and the guys at that forum should be able to help you out.

 

[Trevor9751]

Re: skiing with tower

Has anyone ever seen a ski boat with a tower??? Not a wake board boat or an IO that you ski behind but a true ski boat. The reason for that is you don't want lift when skiing. Small wake, level constant pull.(thats why all the new ski boats have perfect pass) If you are underpowered, a tower(and its added weight) isn't going to make the boat yank you out of the water. Try a different prop or more power.

Have you ever seen a ski boat that pulled the skier out from the transom of the boat this is because you have to drag the skier through way more water and waste power and energy to get up when the rope is low on the boat I agree level is the place to be but higher is definatly better than lower for the boat and skier and most towers wieght is not enough to make any difference on your boat. I have seen personally a ski pole on a boat with a smaller motor make the difference on if it would lift out a heavy slalom skier or not there is alot les drag when the rope is pulling up on the skier out of the water and not pulling him straight against the water.

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: skiing with tower

By all means go ahead and drop the $600.00 to $1,000.00 for the tower. I'm sure all of your low power problems will be solved....

 

[OldMercsRule]

Re: skiing with tower

I have not seen any answer as to wether the 120 is an IO or an OB. Why make us guess since yer asking fer some advice here?

A wakeboard tower is expensive and does add weight as OhWell has stated.
That said: maybe ya like ta throw money at yer toys fer sport regardless of whether it solves any problem.

I would first decide what I wanted to do: ski or wakeboard? It makes a difference in the end configuration. If both: ya must have the minimum acceptable characteristics fer a ski boat.

Wakeboarding does not have the hole shot power requirement that a deep water start of an old 200 lb + f*rt slalom skier requires to get his old arse outa the water on an agressive ski. Wakeboarders usually do their deal at 25 MPH + or -. Does yer boat do 35 MPH with a skiier on? That would also be a minimum requirement IMHO.

If ya wanna ski: they make relatively inexpensive light weight tripods for skiiers that work great, (I use 'em).

If ya have an OB try a smaller prop to get the RPMs up quicker outa the hole as long as ya can go 35 MPH withour over reving yer engine, and if ya still lack power try a "whale tale" (for lack of a better word), as that will help ya plane quicker. If ya can't get the hole shot fer yer planned use and sufficient speed fer yer planned use, ya got a bigger problem. Different boat with more power or more power fer yer existing boat if it is designed to take the additional power. (Not gonna be easy if that's yer situation).

Ya need to be more specific to get the proper advice here. My $.02 JR

 

[OhWellcraft]

Re: skiing with tower

Thanks Oldmercsrule. Thats what I think as well, by adding a tower your problems aren't going to go away as far as getting skiers up. If you like the boat and want to keep it, I would think a different prop or spend the tower money on a powerhead freshen up would do wonders.

 

[UTgws]

Re: skiing with tower

Been slalom skiing for quite some time. And on my boat, 140hp i/o, back about 1985, I added a ski pylon. The key to them for skiing is to have the pylon mounted in front of the engine and the top about 8 to 12 inches above the engine. My pylon was configured so that it could reach over an outboard if the boat was so equipped, or cut off about 18 inches where a score line was in the aluminum tube for an i/o. I first installed it full length and after about 1/2 a season I shortened it. It was by far more effective at pulling a skier out being shorter.

 

[jack7771]

Re: skiing with tower

>after about 1/2 a season I shortened it. It was by far more effective at pulling a skier out being shorter.<

That's right -- because the higher pole made it easier for the submerged skier to pull down the back of the boat!

 

[OldMercsRule]

Re: skiing with tower

>after about 1/2 a season I shortened it. It was by far more effective at pulling a skier out being shorter.<

That's right -- because the higher pole made it easier for the submerged skier to pull down the back of the boat!

Wow, I would have thought just the opposite due to the leverage involved. My boats that I ski behind are over powered, (if anything), so I have 4 - 5 foot tripods on all of 'em, and they pull me out or real big guys approaching 300 lbs or more right out if they can hang on.

Respectfully, JR

 

[jack7771]

Re: skiing with tower

>due to the leverage involved<

Yeah, think of it this way:

Imangine you build an 8-foot by 4-foot "L" out of 2x4's and lay the L on its long side so the bottom of the L is sticking strraght up. Then secure a rope at the top of the piece that's sticking 4 feet straight up.

Now pull the rope away and at an angle down to the ground, and measure the difficulty it is to lift the long side of the L off the ground. Then, untie the rop from the top and re-tie it at in the middle of the board that's sticking up (at the 2-foot mark). Now pull the rope away and at an angle down to the ground, and again measure the difficulty it is to lift the long side of the L off the ground.

You can now envision that the higher the rope is tied to the up-right, the easier it is to lift the long part of the L off of the ground. Same with that pole and the front of the boat.

Of course, if you are "overopowered," you may not realize any shortcoming.
But also, note that true wakeboard boats, in addition to being deeper boats (then water ski boats), have their tower constructed relatively well forward on the boat in order to mitigate the leverage problem.

 

[OldMercsRule]

Re: skiing with tower

>due to the leverage involved<

Yeah, think of it this way:

Imangine you build an 8-foot by 4-foot "L" out of 2x4's and lay the L on its long side so the bottom of the L is sticking strraght up. Then secure a rope at the top of the piece that's sticking 4 feet straight up.

Now pull the rope away and at an angle down to the ground, and measure the difficulty it is to lift the long side of the L off the ground. Then, untie the rop from the top and re-tie it at in the middle of the board that's sticking up (at the 2-foot mark). Now pull the rope away and at an angle down to the ground, and again measure the difficulty it is to lift the long side of the L off the ground.

You can now envision that the higher the rope is tied to the up-right, the easier it is to lift the long part of the L off of the ground. Same with that pole and the front of the boat.

Of course, if you are "overopowered," you may not realize any shortcoming.
But also, note that true wakeboard boats, in addition to being deeper boats (then water ski boats), have their tower constructed relatively well forward on the boat in order to mitigate the leverage problem.

I do see yer point. I jus' never gave it a much thought, (previous to this discussion).

My o/b ski boats are either fully powered, (or overpowered), so the pull, which is far in excess of any single skier's need, (even a real big feller with his foot in a rear boot), has never been an issue, (at all), and the low powered boats I skied behind prior to owning my own were pulled from one or split between two eyes on the transom, (never had tri pods on 'em). Pulling from the transom did mean the entire ski rope was dragging water until the skier is up, where a mid boat tripod keeps that drag down as the ski rope is dry.

My tri pods are also all located inboard (near the center of the boats) so that aspect of the geometry would also help to throw the center of gravity forward to offset the height to water leverage you refer too. (Might be a "push" off the top of me head without experiments to prove the point one way or another).

In fact if ya ponder further: I bet yer right about the initial pull bein' more difficult from 5' off the water vs 6"-12" off the water at the stearn, (the screamin' ol' Towers I run have the maximum advantage in acceleration initially vs other [usually four stroke powered boats] that need to get the ol' engines rollin' ta generate their torque which is up the RPM curve a bit). I also think the pull angle (up) verses (through or level with) the water could also have some impact, if ya think a bit more. The bows on my boats don't really come up, (or so little ya can't really notice it at all) when ya put 'er to the wall, (they are more like a sling shot.) That said: if the bow did come up the advantage of leverage would rest with the tri pod once enough power was generated to bring the bow down as that would really generate a pull at the pivot point.

Interesting Corncept n' I would experiment with it if I had an under power issue, but since I don't, I will file it in the ol' brain cell fer further reference. Thanks fer the reply. JR

 

[paulie0735]

Re: skiing with tower

the bottom line is simple enough; yes you can ski with a wakeboard tower but fitting one is not likely to solve your problem. The ideal setup is a ski pole which is fitted in the boat and is just high enough to clear the top of the motor. Pulling from the transom does make it harder to pull a heavy skier on a hi performance ski but the same skier being pulled from a tower will seriously upset the handling of the boat as they turn and cut.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: skiing with tower

Ditto to all the no tower advocates. A tower on an underpowered boat will cause issues not solve them.