What is the smallest HP boat you have ever skied behind?

[gregy]

Skied in the river when I was a kid with a 14' flat bottom aluminum boat and a 25hp Johnson. It wouldn't pull me up on slalom, had to kick off a ski. I would pull my cousin through rapids in the river, I never had the courage to try it.

[skiinxs]

When I was a kid I skied behind a 9 1/2 hp outboard on a fishing boat. The boat had to get a little bit of a run at it and I had to do a dock start, but it would keep me up and hold speed. (I was a LOT smaller then:)

[dchristman]

I rode tricks behind a sailboat once... I'm not sure how you calculate the horsepower on that.

[Bulldog]

It was a 7.5 HP aluminum fishing boat and I was ten. Does that still count??

[mellig]

Deep water starts behind a 65 hp outboard was a long strenuous process!

[BrennanKMN]

I have gotten up on trick skis behind a 25 hp john boat. Tried to do a single trick but I dragged the boat down too much for it to get enough speed. I was 22 at the time.

[ALPJr]

20hp Johnson 13' Whaler

[MISkier]

I learned behind my grandparents' 1949 Chris Craft 14 foot runabout with our choice of 15 HP Johnson or 25 HP Goodyear Sea Bee. I even dropped a ski behind this boat and slalomed on a single jump ski with no rear binding.

 

I skied a few times behind our 12 foot aluminum boat with a 9.8 HP Mercury. We used a pair of 1950s Cypress Gardens 72 inch jump skis for instant planing.

 

I attempted to row that same 12 foot aluminum boat with a skier using those same jump skis. I got them partially planed out, but just couldn't get the job done.

 

My first deepwater slalom start was behind our 1966 Sea King 14 foot runabout with a 40 HP Evinrude. I skied that until I was 16. I took a big cut across the wake, stopped the boat, and it caused the driveshaft to crack in half. We "upgraded" to a 1974 Ebbtide Lakemaster with a 50 HP Johnson.

 

I skied various other boats (40 HP, 70 HP, 85 HP) in addition to my parents' boat until I bought my own at age 30. In that time, only 1 boat exceeded 100 HP - a 1976 Larson Shark with a 140HP I/O.

[HPskier1]

Learned behind a 1960 something Starcraft with a 33 hp Johnson. Skied it until the mid 80's in to my teens with dropping a ski. Of course if I tried I could also stop the boat even at only 135lbs. Lol

[gt2003]

55 HP Evinrude I believe behind probably a 1960's or 1970's Kingfisher bass boat. It would pull me and my friend both up on 2. Slalom was a different story and a lot of water was taken on during the process. As I got older and heavier I remember having to drop a ski then slowly sinking back down in the water a bit. I probably weighed 150 at the time so not too bad

[Stoner]

1985 Kawasaki 550 Standup JetSki had 40 or 43 hp. Brother and I decided that we were going to try to destroy one another. One on the JetSki, the other on a slalom ski. We chose green for the rope and the winner was last on standing. Got up everytime and only ran into JetSki and brother probably 50% of the time. Not sure if a winner was declared. It was a long time ago...

[Edbrazil]

Tried it behind my Chris Craft kit boat with 10hp, but it didn't quite work. Next boat I

had was a Glaspar G3 with 40hp. That worked, but was sloooow getting up on 1 ski.

For a 1-ski dock start, the boat had to start with most of the towline slack. Took some

convincing, but the next step was a 75hp on it, which worked well enough.

[ntx]

I taught my 5 year old sister with a 12 foot meyer rowboat and a 6hp Johnson.

[thager]

1959 or so Larson Thunderhawk with a 65 HP Mercury two bladed prop. Worked finr until I was a buck fifty. Buddy bought a Nautique and I never went back.

[h2onhk]

early 60's 14' Crosby with a 1982 25hp mercury outboard. 2 skis and drop to a slalom.....actually learned to barefoot off a kneeboard behind behind it around age 10. It was a neat fast little boat. Dad still has it and uses it frequently for cruises. Kind of kept the tradition going with my oldest daughter a couple years ago with out little 14' Lund and 25hp Merc. She was 5yr old at the time and loved it.

 

[6balls]

15 hp. Also as an adult used jumpers behind the same boat to help a kid get up.

[Orlando76]

Fortunate enough To have quite a fleet of boats to choose from for teaching my son to ski (once he's 2-3) including the same '75 SN that I learned to ski from (at 3) I think I'm gonna teach him with my 17' Carolina Skiff with 50 hp. Smaller wake at slower speeds, I'll be closer to him and overall I think it'll be less intimidating to him.

[Wish]

10hp 50s Johnson. 7yrs old. Didn't want to ski. Hated the idea. Got paid/bribed $1 by relatives and friends of the folks that were at the cabin. $8s later...I skied. Man I can be bought cheap.

[MichaelGoodman]

18 HP Johnson on a 12 foot aluminum boat. Took a while but it would pull

2 of us as skinny kids out of the water on one ski.

[Roger]

I learned behind an 18' Regal with 150hp Merc. This was before the HP was rated at the prop, so subtract about 7% or around 140hp. Seemed weak, but then I see all these posts of sub 20hp skiers and I'm amazed they could get out of the water at all :smile:

[Nando]

When I was about 15, my cousin's family had a 14' Crestliner with a 55HP Chrysler. I bet him I could stop it while slaloming behind it. (I had no idea if I could, but...) Sure enough, pulled out, made a big turn and the pull caused it to cavitate so bad it came off plane and the noise made him shut it down. I don't think we put any money on it or anything, but I won.

[PatM]

Learned on a 9hp row boat. Use to beat on my buddy's 6hp row boat when we were 13, skiing on two skis and using a skim board as a sub by pushing the nose under water.

[Edbrazil]

My next-door friend had a small boat with a 25hp that we skied behind. The family

had a Garwood inboard, probably about 90-120 hp. Think that we were able to do

shoe skis with the small boat, including a deepwater start, although they were longer

than most shoe skis. Back when, we didn't have to worry about Nazi water cops, and

skied without an observer. I remember barefooting starting off a disc, aka Flying Saucer,

which sort of helped, except that it would slap-slap-slap like crazy when getting over

about 20 mph.

[eddie_roberts_jr]

Was able to pull 2 slalom skiers up from deep water behind our 14' wood runabout with a 40 horse merc. Very small cupped 2 bladed prop. So small the motor would turn 7,300 RPM at full speed.

[lpskier]

I learned to slalom behind a Boston Whaler with a Merc 30 hp. Smallest was a Merc 6 hp. Biggest was a 60 foot 100 passenger tour boat (the 6 hp gave a better pull). We pulled a skier behind a 15 man war canoe.

[Texas6]

Jump to 1:40 http://ow.ly/3yNtkN

[Erik4c]

65 hp boat on a HO Burner with old school double handles and a 75 foot rope. Working on finding the video. It took 30 seconds or so to actually get going fast enough to stand up.

[RPT]

I know for myself I have skied behind 18 hp and even learned to slalom behind the same boat. Later when I started to compete I skied with the Puslinch ski club (the original home of the McLintock's) we use to do a ski show on our tournament weekend and for the show we pulled the smallest kid we could find on two skies behind a canoe with four guys paddling. He probably only stayed up for about 100ft

[A_B]

33HP Evinrude on a 14' Aluminum Starcraft. Which was basically a John boat with a deck and steering wheel. I took the windshield off and put two strips of black no-skid on the deck for racing stripes. Yea, it was a race boat. :)

[adkh2oskier]

10 HP fishing boat on 2 skis way back in the mid 60's. Smallest Slalom skiing was behind a 35 hp West Bend outboard.

[Than_Bogan]

In fact, @skibrain, I might take that thought a step further: Should we be actively promoting skiing behind 13-ft boats with 35 hp? Nearly 2/3 of us seems to have started that way and we all became addicts.

 

Is there a lesson in here that starting in a very casual way is actually even better (for the future of our sport) than growing up with a Nautique in your backyard??

[Bruce_Butterfield]

I got up for the first time behind an 18Hp Evinrude when I was 6 and we moved up to a 35Hp Chrysler on a 14' Penn Yan a short time later. I skied behind that until I was about 16. It was a big deal one year at Boy Scout camp that they had a Boston Whaler with a 55Hp motor! That was the cat's ass at the time.

 

Skied behind a Mastercraft for the first time in 1982 when I was 20 and took my first shot at the slalom course.

 

Damn kids don't know what they've got these days

[Alberto Soares]

@Bruce_Butterfield - pretty much like you, started at 7 on a 25hp, then with a 50hp till 20 when started skiing on course with an inbord with no transmission