Portable course, crazy idea?

[jwroblew]

So a friend of mine lives on a public lake, he has to take his course out every time he skis, the course sits out in front of his house in about 20 feet of water. If he took off the buoy arms so he only had the gate balls and boat guides do you think if he installed a winch with a cable going to the main line he would be able to pull the course down, assuming his anchors did not move? I'm sure both ends of the course would sink but I'm not sure the middle would.

[gregy]

Don't think so. You might need several winches along the length. You seen a wally sinker?

http://www.wallyskier.com/wallysinker.aspx

[oldjeep]

My father in law used to have a portable and when we would rent a place for a week in the summer we would pull all the balls except the one closest to the cabin and let the rest of the course drop. Then we would just use the one remaining ball to grab the pipe and walk the pipes and main line back up (one guy in the water dealing with the course and one in the boat tossing balls) Only real issues were if the course got stuck in weeds it made it tough to get back up and once the ball let loose or someone chopped it and we had to drag the lake bottom with a hook to find the course and pull it back up.

[A_B]

We have a fixed anchor at one end running through a screw eye and to a winch at the other. It is good for adjusting tension for level changes, but it would take a lot of strain to sink the whole course.

 

I would look at hanging some weights on sections of the course, with some sub buoy or something attached, so you could easily pull them up and remove each time.

[Wish]

thinking out loud. Leave the arms on. Water fill all the buoys (use buoys for guides) so the float rate is significantly less. Use 10 (assuming pre gates) massive weights or 10 anchor screws directly under each arm. Run a main cable down the center of the course along the bottom running through large climbing beaners on the anchor screws or fashioned on the weights. Attach a Y cable to PVC (find balancing attachment points for an even pull down) and run that line down to cable that runs the length of the course. Make sure the attachment point is already run through that beaner towards the pull direction. As you pull on one end with winch, Y's get pulled straight down to weights/screw anchors pulling PVC and buoys under. The anchor at the other end needs to the the strongest. Probably expensive and lots of work but I think it would work.

 

This was actually done on my home lake couple decades ago. Difference is when the lake (dammed lake) was drained, screw anchors were placed at each buoy point (vs a float PVC course) and lines were run accordingly. Worked pretty well but hard to winch. Would have worked great with water filled buoys. The course was in a horrible location next to a public beach and ultimately abandoned.

[LeonL]

Look into the wally sinker. There are maintenance problems with them, but they do work.

[Skoot1123]

I'm working on the same thing with our lake - but ours is dry. We have one main cable the runs the length of one side of the boat guides and then smaller cables running out to the other buoys. We'll have a towing winch set up to pull the thing down. Will let you know how it works when it is all done.

[jwroblew]

thanks for all the ideas. I was thinking about the individual anchors but was trying to be lazy and short cut the idea buy using the portable course.

[skier2788]

I have pulled my portable so tight I crushed the pvc pipes at the 55 meter bouys. Bouys never went under the water

[BraceMaker]

Wally sinker way better than the old Accusink stuff.

 

The flexible bladders and weights below the arms on "drops" is a big difference.

 

I think you'd be best off to have something heavier for the main arms, maybe 1" galvanized pipe.

 

Then you'd have two anchors, one on each end of the main arms, and each individual arm both lines would go straight to shore to a single winch. You'd need some form of pulley/block at each anchor for the tension. And you wouldn't want to run every line back to a central point for cost as the angular length ball to ball would be huge. Downside -you'd need to have access to every arm of the course.

[gsm_peter]

Im am not sure if this helps or not???

 

We have steel pipes standing in the mud.

One for each boie.

Type 5 feet under surface level.

Then 2 feet of plastic chain with a small fender on top.

We then dive down and hook on the boie wit a bungy cord at the right level.

It is permanent in over the summer.

Takes type an hour to put all in.

 

Pipes are scaffeling 20 feet pipes.

Plenty of mud to put them in.

Has not moved in 30 years.

 

Best luck

Peter

[mwetskier]

@jwroblew -sent you a pm.

[wtrskior]

Go permanent and just take the buoys off the sub's.

[rq0013]

Im thinking of putting a wally sinker in. How far have people put the course from the air fill up hose end. I was wondering if its possible to put my course out in the middle of the lake where its deeper and run the hose back to my dock (400-500ft distance). Is this too far away? Would I need to move the course closer. How do others do it?

[LeonL]

Talk to Wally. Email is best way. Wally@wallyskier.com. See posting on here for a Wally sinker for sale.

[mwetskier]

i have a friend who has built a few easy and very low cost solutions to sinking and retrieving a floating course. if @jwroblew or @rq0013 contact me by personal message i will be glad to hook you up with him.

[A_B]

You could take a road trip up to Minnesota and check out a "special" course up there to see how to effect buoy movement! :)

 

When we sink our course for winter, we leave the mini-course buoys on and it sinks to the bottom with them. I have wondered if we could leave like every other set of buoys on, but we want to get our buoys out to scrub up and clean. You may have him try that, or some combo of mini course buoys and one gate ball farthest away. There is probably some in between solution to removing all buoys.

[mbabiash]

I have a full wall sinker course for sale right now on ski it again . As @LeonL‌ stated earlier. See Wally sinker course for sale thread. I'm willing to separate parts.

Matt

[Wish]

@AB I gotta defend the homeland of Southern Canada and call you out. The "moving" course you speak of is in Michigan not Minn. :-)

[klindy]

@wish @ab not positive what you are talking about the the "moveable" course was Wisconsin.

[Wish]

Wooops, @klindy .....you are correct sir... Lake Lynn Louise in Dousman Wisconsin to be exact. Sorry to those in Michigan.

[thager]

Missed it by that much! ; )