Tower on old boat?

[ridefst]

I'm thinking that I'd like to get away from using the lift rings + bridle to tow the wakeboard and skies, so of course I'm thinking about towers and/or pylons.

The problem is, nothing seems to be quite right. I can't find a tower that I think would look appropriate on this old boat, and I'm not sure that I would be happy with all the cables running around for an Insanity pylon or similar (there's not that much room on the boat to begin with).

Anybody got any suggestions? This is apparently a fairly rare boat, at least I can't find much info or pics of other boats like it, so I don't know if anybody has figured this out already.
(sorry for the cell phone pics)

 

[bigpoppakdog]

Re: Tower on old boat?

that's a nice boat. I first was going to suggest a ski pylon. They are smaller and mount to the back cleats also, but again, are smaller and only extend a couple feet up. Problem is, looking at your motor, because it is such a high motor, the pylon might not be high enough to clear it.

I think your best bet is a wakeboard pylon. They don't take up much room. You aren't getting up and moving around in that boat anyway, the cables won't get in your way.

Not sure what else you could do. I don't know if a tower could be mounted to this style of boat either????

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Tower on old boat?

I think a Monster Tower would look good. To get an idea, go to their website and look through the jet boat gallery. There are a couple of jet boats that look like yours (minus the outboard).

Who makes that boat?

 

[ridefst]

Re: Tower on old boat?

Hmmm, I wasn't really thinking about mounting options just yet, but I see that may be an issue.
I guess most (all?) towers mount to the sides above the rub rail, which isn't an option here. The brown stripe around the sides is about 3" wide or so, could possibly mount on top of that, but is the top of the boat as strong as the hull?

I did think about the three point ski pylon, but as mentioned, the motor sticks up quite high. Additionally, I think the braces would make it very difficult to open the rear hinged lid for battery access/storage/etc.

I may have to just go with the insanity pylon or similar. It's true, there's no walking around the boat when it's moving anyways, so perhaps the cables wouldn't be an issue. I do really like the "no drilling" aspect, not too keen to put extra holes in the boat.

Oh, it's a 1984 Centurion. That's about all I know. I think they were somehow related to the current Ski Centurion, but not the same company.

 

[sickwilly]

Re: Tower on old boat?

That is interesting. I was thinking it was a 84 Malibu, the precursor to the Malibu skier. They had 16 and 18 foot bubble deck outboards and IOs before dropping them for the inboard competition ski boat. they then brought the outboard back on their flight craft. That boat looks amazingly similar.

I think the monster would mount right on top of the deck. You would put some blacking plates or support pieces of marine plywood under the deck where it bolts through to disperse the support. Same way you would install it on my 2004 Stingray.

Email monster and see that they say about it fitting on your boat?

 

[salty87]

Re: Tower on old boat?

are you thinking of a pole with the cable that loops around the bow? i've used one of those on an open bow boat. it was kinda in the way but was also a handrail at times. on a closed bow boat, i could see it being handy.

you can put a tower on that. the flat mounting spots would be easier than what alot of boats have to use...heim joints or something like that.