water sports how many horses do I need?

[Princ40]

I have a 1976 starcraft supersport with a 1974 johnson 70hp. I was wondering if a 50 or 60 hp would be powerful enough to pull a skier or tube?? I am thinking about an upgrade.

 

[Lion hunter]

Re: water sports how many horses do I need?

Plenty. Ski boats started out as little tinnys with 35hp motors! And if it's anything like my old johnson 60hp, it has a hole shot that will snap your neck. Not much after that (30mph tops) but it will get 2 skiers out of the water.

 

[merc20076]

Re: water sports how many horses do I need?

I have a 1966 40HP Evinrude on a fiberglass 14 footer boat and it did pull me in a tube! And apparetly, it's enough to ski to. Ok it's slower to take off (then a larger O/B) but still reach 30MPH with the good prop.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: water sports how many horses do I need?



I started skiing behind a 15 foot fibeglass boat with a 55 horse engine. As i got better and started to slalom, the 55 became a bit small--Oh, I could still get up and ski, but I could outrun the boat on hard cuts. Now, for wakeboarding it probably would have been fine. Here are a couple of photos with a 75 and a 105 on the back.

 

[paultjohnson]

Re: water sports how many horses do I need?

IDK 50-60 hp would probably drag my fat arse half way 'round the lake before I got up...Maybe if it was propped for power and nothing else. It would pull me OK once I got up, but gettn up ???