What can I do for more power to ski?

[WhereBob]

I'm looking at a boat with 140 hp mercruiser inboard, I was wondering what I can do to the boat, motor or prop to able me to ski slalom?

Thanks

 

[Geo2008]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

I'm looking at a boat with 140 hp mercruiser inboard, I was wondering what I can do to the boat, motor or prop to able me to ski slalom?

Thanks

Depending on how much you weigh, how much the boat weighs, what pitch prop you have, you are likely ready to go.

..

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

I'm looking at a boat with 140 hp mercruiser inboard, I was wondering what I can do to the boat, motor or prop to able me to ski slalom?

Thanks

Well it's not a question of top speed for any kind of skiing. You should have the power to do it but there are important consideratons to make.
Loading of people and equipment in the boat. Trimming correctly. Prop selection. Lower pitch will give you more hole shot but you will suffer at top speed in most cases. 25mph is way enough for skiing so you can prop down a fair bit for your hole shot pulling power. Just make sure you are not over revving at WOT.

 

[cmcpherson]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

Prop down and go to a four blade prop. I weigh 250 and when I had my 18' Sea Ray with the 4 cylinder, I had no problem getting pulled out of the water. The engine really has a surprising amount of power when set up right.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

Need more info...it totally depends on the boat that motor is in. I've never heard of a Mercruiser inboard...so I assume you're talking about an I/O and just used the wrong term. My neighbor has a 23 foot Bayliner cuddy cabin equipped with a 3.0 I/O, and there's no way that thing will pull a skiier...it can barely plane out and tops at about 20 mph when it does.

But my friends and I have slalomed behind my 1992 18 foot Rinker open bow, with 115 HP 3.0L mercruiser 4 cyl on a weekly basis for the past 5 years. And it pulls my 200 pound butt out of a deepwater start on a narrow competition slalom ski with no problem at all and will get to 35 mph while doing so if the skiier so chooses...which is fast enough for even competition skiing through a course. Frankly my 115 hp boat gets me up notably quicker than my buddies 20 foot Rinker open bow equipped with a 190 HP 5.0 L V8, but we're expermenting with props to try to improve that.

With 4 or 5 people on board I certainly drag longer behind mine, but even then it still gets the job done just fine. If I had the 140 hp version of the 3 liter I think I'd be very pleased (I have been exploring this possibility as a winter conversion project)...but my 115 hp version is perfectly adequate as it sits, with a 3 blade aluminum prop. Of course when we're really pulling hard and doing a course it yanks the back of my boat around like a ragdoll, and it's a real challenge to keep it centered through the boat gates...but that just adds to the excitement for the driver and passengers! Certainly doesn't detract from the fun. A true inboard ski boat it certainly is NOT, but it does have adequate horsepower if that is your only concern, and in my case it was about $20,000 to $50,000 cheaper, which is nice. Not to mention that 4 of us can ski until we're exhausted on less than 10 gallons of gas.

As already said, setup is everything. Above all make sure the boat is tuned right, not waterlogged, and has good compression. Beyond that you might need to change props for better holeshot depending on what's on it now, and you might want to consider installing a set of Smart Tabs. Those Smart Tabs really helped mine out a LOT...the very best holeshot-improvement-for-the-buck you can possibly buy IMO.

 

[cmcpherson]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

^^^^^^^^^^^^

I agree, plus that 3.0 is maybe the longest lasting motor ever put in a boat, had over 2000 hours on my boat when I got rid of it, no major work ever done on the engine!

 

[Sondar]

Re: What can I do for more power to ski?

As a fairly direct comparison, I've just started slalom skiing behind my 135hp Bayliner 175 (weighs about 1900lb) without any problems with a full tank of fuel & 2 adults, a small child and a 65lb dog on board. I'm fairly light at 155lb, but it was also fine with another guy at 175lb. It's propped slightly down with a 14/20 four blade (standard is a 14.25/21 three blade) & was pulling 35mph at 4,000 rpm with the heavier guy on the slalom.

It probably would have worked better still if I could have had one of the adults up in the bow, but we had the kid to look after so that wasn't possible; still, it worked well enough with all of them in the main seating area, so I've no complaints.