How many boat hours per year?

[Horton]

I take about 170 ski rides a year (when not injured). If a ski ride takes 20 minutes on average that is about 57 boat hours per year. 3 skiers who ski together are put on about 150 hours per year? Does that sound right? Is that typical?

[E_T]

ya spot on.

[Razorskier1]

We do about 130-140 year with two and some days three skiers.

[thager]

Less than 50 a year for me.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

Is a ride normally 6 passes? It should take less than a minute for a full pass, but if we round up to a minute then a "ride" would be around 6 minutes. So I assume 20 minutes of boat hours per ride means leaving the boat running the other 14 minutes of the ride while the skier is just floating in the water?

[oldjeep]

We do 50-80hrs a year, go out 1-2 times a week for water sports, cruising and floating on anchor.

[6balls]

50 hours in a good year at the swamp with for the most part 2 skiers and I would guess my total sets to be well less than 1/2 of Horton's...maybe 75 ski rides in a solid year.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

About right. With an 8 month season, 2 kids 3 eventing and 2 slalom only, we are right at 250 hrs/yr.

 

That's why I don't have a new boat:)

[Ilivetoski]

We do about 60-70 I think.

[Jordan]

I do about 100/year....but I'm not on a private ski lake, I have my boat at a cottage. A fair amount of the hours are just cruising around the lake and swimming off the boat etc.

[Fatroll]

We do around 150 a year. Our slalom guys rotate boats, but we also use our boat for other events such as barefooting, wake/kneeboarding, booze cruise, etc (BUT NO TUBING). Plus we add hours putting out of our cove to get to the course.

[LeonL]

My ski partner and I alternate boats and I've got 18 so far this season. So, that's 36 hours of boat use for two skiers. Difficult math, but I cyphered it out. Probably gonna be another 20 total, so 55 or so per year. That's based on our approximately 5 months season. Additionally, I've been videoing most of my sets this season. The driver starts the camera just before the first pull up and stops it when I drop at the dock. Six passes, or parts thereof. My camera usually registers under 12 minutes of record time.

[Than_Bogan]

50 per skier is what I do, but my season is mid-April to Halloween, so I would think most folks on this forum would put more hours on.

[nam1975]

50 hours makes me feel good, but it is challenge on the North Coast!

[Texas6]

100-125

[buoyboy1]

A friend of mine spoke to a promo guy years ago who told him that they did a little research on his boat hrs. His boat read 142 hrs and when they hooked up a computer to his engine it indicated 97 hrs were used while the boat was at 1000 rpm or less (idling). This means that only 45 hrs out of the 142 hrs were actually used pulling a skier. I have been turning off my engine the past 6 years after dropping a skier and I went from about 130 hrs a year to less than 50. I have also yet to buy a new starter but when/if I do I figure the boat hr savings are worth more than the cost of a starter.

 

[bishop8950]

600hrs in 53 wks. Club boat supporting 14 families.

[Chef23]

I do about 50 but we have multiple people whose boats we ski behind.

[DW]

@JTH: ski sets to hours ratio this year = 3.5 so far with less idling than normal so I think your numbers are pretty close for dropping at each end.

[Horton]

Ok @dw if any one can answer this it is you...

 

1000 ski hours on a boat is equivalent to how many typical miles on a car engine?

[boarditup]

Most inboards are typically used for 80-150 hours per year. That is the basis for the depreciation tables.

[DW]

@JTH: That seems to be a very common question and is a challenge to answer. A very rough answer would be ~50,000 as my best guess. An example: I had the head off a 750 hour engine (head gasket) and you could still see the crosshatch and there was no step at the top of the ring travel, compression still good, leak down numbers under 10% for the good cylinders.

 

From some of the RPM history, car engines and boat engines do not operate in the same range, actually it seems that a car engine operates mainly in the range that a tourney ski boat does not operate (mainly between 1,000 - 3,000 rpm) and not at the same throttle positions (other than idle). I would compare a ski boat engine more to a heavy duty truck, as the duty cycle is more idle and then climbing a hill for 16 seconds (a fair amount of cylinder pressure due to high % throttle opening). Car engines seem to wear out where boat engines tend to break something(impeller/exhaust manifolds...) and that leads to a rebuilt need. Also, boat engines are tortured, particularly up north, by operating anywhere from 40 deg F (or less) inlet water temps, to overheating due to system debris or impeller failure. The cold water shocking takes a toll and can lead to piston scuffing. I also see a lot of boat engines getting run hard w/o any real warm up (idle for a minute over to course, shut down, start, hit it). It seems that people have a perception that 1000 hours is a lot, in a car it is only about 40-45K miles. The other issue with boat engines, they sit a lot and in a very humid environment, don't really get hot enough to dry out the engine compartment so internal corrosion can be a problem along with raw water in the water jackets. Sorry for the rambling answer, hope this helps.

[Horton]

@dw awesome insight as always