Feeling really bad about the Course today...

[ThePantsManCan]

I skied just fine today. Unfortunately, only in open water. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

This afternoon, I as well as my Ski Buddy (Father In Law) helped a Wally who had caught his tube rope in his Sea-Doo Boat impellor. Four of Five Children were in there as well as three adults. We saw them drifting in the late afternoon winds. That was after was saw them tooling around the Slalom course for a half an hour. They were not anchored and looked a little frantic. They were adrift. Motor was off now. The wind was pushing them gently away from the Public Ramp. Which was already a 1/2 mile away.

 

So, after watching and wondering what the problem might be, we just yelled across the lake to ask if they needed assistance. The answer was yes so we pitched in and got them towed back to the public ramp. The dad who had been driving the boat looked a bit humiliated. Kind of sheepish and it struck me as a little odd. I mean who cares. We have all cut a rope at least once. I mean, watersports is exciting and we all screw up a little when we get distracted.

 

Whatever... So we get back to our plans after a few thankyou's from the adorable kids. For an hour we teach a new (16 yr old) skier how to get up on the boom, and then long line. She excelled and we felt all great about ourselves! Just the best kind lake day experience so far.

 

So up next is my wife. She does some open water runs and then a couple of runs through the course. At this point I notice the course guide buoys are not straight at all. Her ride comes to an end. Next up is the Father In Law. Now, when I get back to the course, the guide buoy are BAD. The Pre-Gates are 12 feet to the right and the Gates are 6 feet to the right. The rest of the course is relatively straight. I simply adjusted and gave him the straightest shot I could. I decided that when it was my turn to go, I would stop and pull the anchor a bit to straighten the course up.

 

So, I get suited up and get out there. I get up to the anchor buoy, and get the boat positioned to pull. As I held the anchor line I had my driver pull me away from the course. Now, I only ever had him put the boat into gear in idle. I was pulling very hard and as I watched the course straighten, I also watched the Yellow boat guide buoys at One and Four ball collapse into each other and stay there!! I was mortified. What did I do!?!?!?!?! How did I do that?!!!!!

 

Upon closer inspection, I found the PVC arms had bent and kinked between the boat guide buoys. There was nothing I could do to fix the problem and I felt like I had ruined the fun for everyone as there is a bunch of other skiers making use of this course.

 

Mechanically, none of this makes any sense. I couldn't put near enough pressure on that mainline to crush PVC Pipe!!! What happened??? Then I realized, THE WALLY!!!!!!! Then it hit me. My wife had said that the First Green Intermediate Buoy was missing. CRAP! I just helped the dude who ruined my course! He must have wrapped his tube around the green bouy at One Ball, then yanked the course all out of whack. Now I understand why he was so quiet while we helped him and his family. I still feel bad about my involvement with the bent pipes though.

 

Should I be troubling myself over the bent pipes? It did happen while I was pulling on the anchor, so it feels like my fault, but can One Man collapse a pipe when pulling the course straight?!

 

Stupid Wallies!!!!!

[gregy]

Duct tape! It fixes everything.

[crashman]

They say you haven truly lived until you do something for somebody else they can't possibly repay and I would say giving a tow to the guy who ruined your ski day is about it!

[GOODESkier]

Easy fix........ Either call the maker of your portable course and reorder those pipes......... OR pull them, cut the bent section out and put a cuppler in there. You can find the guide ball dimensions online. Not too hard to get her back up and usable again. Just get the right info on widths, and it will be a piece of cake. Message me if you need info.

[thager]

I folded a boat gate pvc pipe in half pulling my course tight. I had no "Wally" to blame though, I ended up cutting the pipe at the fold point and slipping a slightly larger pvc pipe over it to the correct dimensions.

[GregHind]

@thrpantsmancan. I'm pretty sure you bent it all by yourself. They collapse just as you described if you pull too hard. Greg

[ctsmith]

What size PVC pipe is it? Do you ever have to pull the course? 1.5" schedule 40 would solve the problem in the future.

[ThePantsManCan]

I guess the fact that the Pre_Gates and Gate Buoys were so far off to the right just meant that the Mainline was held up on the bottom of the shallow muddy lakebed? Where the Wally had driven of with the intermediate buoy?

 

I should have just reached down and pulled up on the Mainline to let it settle back straight? Great suggestions on the fix folks. I'm not sure what diameter the pipes are. I am not the one who owns the course either. That's why I feel so bad!

[Andre]

Should be 2'' .

Get a 18'' X 2.5'' pvc schedule 40 pipe,cut the damaged parts and put the 2.5'' as a coupling.Drill 2 holes on each side,insert SS .25'' bolts and tighten.

Try to find out who owns the course,contact him,explain what happened and what you want to do to repair.He will appreciate it(I know i would!) and probably will help you repair it.You'll built a good relation with him,have new ski partners and a course to ski in.

Good luck!

[Andre]

Dave

Yes,the longer coupling would give even more rigidity and would be straighter!

Where's E-Z Ed when you need him? :)

[GOODESkier]

If it isn't yours....... find out whos it is. Buy them the CORRECT replacements from the manufacturer of the course. Just my 2 cents. That is what I would want.

 

2 years ago I had a sailboat trash our course. No help from them at all, even though they are a neighbor just down the street........

 

Do the right thing. Of course you can make-shift it to be able to ski, but get it done right if you are confident you busted it up.

[ThePantsManCan]

I think you guys helped me make sure it was my fault that the buoy arms bent. I didn't see how that was possible, but if it happened to others on this forum...

 

I know the owner quite well and contacted him right away to let him know what happened. I'd like to fix it myself with some extra PVC Reinforcement. If he still wants new arms, I'd gladly pay for them as well.

[GOODESkier]

We broke some trying to put a course in a heavy current area of the river. They really aren't very strong.....

[gator1]

After what seems like two lifetimes doing battle with floating courses, rivers, Wally's (, and one dead body) I'd strongly recommend a sleeve patch almost the whole length of the gate pipe. Much stronger than original.

[skier2788]

I have bent the 55 arms on my course a couple of times trying to pull the course tight. It happens don't swear it. Fix replace whatever and go back to having fun. One trip to home Depot and an hour of work.

[6balls]

I had the entrance gate arm fold up when straightening the course with an inboard in gear once. We put a heavier guage sleeve over the defect.

 

Not that everyone has one...but great way to straighten a portable is with an outboard in reverse with anchor line clipped to the nose. Steady pressure without overpowering, infinite ability to position oneself and your vantage point is staring straight down the gates so you can make small adjustments left or right until perfect. Let off the throttle and and the anchor drops back down as the boat moves forward...unclip and done. My rig for this is a 12 foot alumacraft I bought for $100 with a 1977 9.8 merc I bought for $400.

[ThePantsManCan]

Well, I got the the lake today around 2:15. The boys had already removed the damaged pipe. Repairs had also already been done. They were happy I called them right away last night. It was definitely me that did the damage.

 

Now I know that with the extra section of Pre-Gates, the Mainline gets a little heavy. That extra line proceeds to sink down Into our muddy lake bottom. When I tried to pull the course straight I didn't account for that. I was pulling a mainline that went under the mud and would not pull straight no matter how much tension I put on it.

 

It was still the Wally who gobbled the Green Intermediate buoy, and pulled the course out of whack. It was me (the Semi-Wally) that decided it was best try too hard to fix it. I'm an A$$. Lesson learned.

[gregy]

Seriously same think happen to me tightening a course years ago and duck tape and a piece of drift wood got us by until we could replaced the pvc.