Michigan State Waterski Boat

[Delonous]

Hi,

 

The Michigan Sate Waterski Team has started fundraising to purchase a boat. Many dealers have moved away from lease deals with collegiate teams, due to increasing boat prices and costs. Therefore our team has decided to purchase a boat!

 

Here's a little about our team.

Michigan State is located in East Lansing, and our site is on the Grand River about 15 minutes away from campus. We have been competing at this site since 1981 when our team was founded. Since then, we've continued on the tradition of 3 event waterskiing at a national level. We strive to be the best team in Michigan and the Midwest year after year. And our current goal is to take our club to the next level and purchase a boat for our team.

 

And as we are actively looking for boats, feel free to reach out if you have any advice on boats or have some that are for sale! If you are able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated!

msuwaterski@gmail.com

 

For more information head over to msuwaterski.com!

 

Michigan State Waterski Team

[dbski]

Being a MSU grad (many moons ago) let DBski be the first to donate. I'll ship you guys a check out tomorrow. Go Green!

[MISkier]

@Delonous, one suggestion I have for you is to get the team to put in docks and boat lifts around Lake Lansing. I’ve seen other ski teams do this to earn/raise money. The timing is right, as many are probably looking to have theirs installed about now.

 

 

[Delonous]

@MISkier Our team is actually headed over to Lake Shannon this weekend for dock and hoist installations! Hopefully we will be able to expand into other lakes in the future.

[BraceMaker]

What boat are you looking for?

[DynaSkiPete]

You might want to give Todd at Twin Lakes Marine in Twin Lakes Wisconsin a call. He might be able to come up with a lease on an inboard boat. Maybe not. Calling is your best method of initial contact.

[MISkier]

@BraceMaker, on their website, they have pictures of 3 candidate boats in various cost increments.

[oldjeep]

Just a thought looking at the 3 boats. That 197 seems pretty over priced unless they are more popular in MI than they seem to be here. For that money you can get a nice couple year newer TXI.

[MISkier]

I’m with @oldjeep, but I suspect they want it for the trick wake. I would prefer a different slalom option.

[PurdueSkier]

Why not this one? Looks like colors should match! https://www.onlyinboards.com/2009-Malibu-Reponse-LXi-for-sale-Comstock-Park-Michigan-72480.aspx

[MISkier]

I think that is one of their old boats.

[34mph]

@PurdueSkier My guess that is the same dealership / company that dropped their deal they had and don't want to go down that road with them....... but who knows

[BraceMaker]

Action Tommy's and Silver Spray are all big groups, you'd think they could come up with something but then again I think all the teams have this problem.

[eleeski]

@MISkier Tricks behind a 196? Be careful. Some tables are a problem for tricks.

 

Make sure you get ZO so it can pull college tournaments. Old 200s, old Mastercraft and old Malibus would be great.

 

Eric

[Delonous]

@PurdueSkier Yes that was our old boat, Tommys decided not to continue our lease deal.

 

Thanks for all the input guys! Just to clear things up, we are looking for a low hour boat and of course speed control. Although as a team, we are trying to avoid loans/debt due to members coming and going very quickly. Currently we are looking at boats around the 15k price range, which leaves us with boats around the 2000 year.

 

Since we are transitioning from a lease agreement to a purchase, for a few years we will be behind an older boat. And the plan is, in a few years after saving money and selling our current boat. We will be able to afford a newer nicer boat. Let us know what you think.

 

Dean

[MISkier]

@eleeski, the boat referenced by @oldjeep and me was the 197 in their list of candidates, not the 196. I am sure you would concur the 197 is suitable for tricks.

[DynaSkiPete]

A call to Todd at Twin Lakes won't cost anything. I'm thinking he may be able to lease or rent the team a boat.

[Delonous]

@DynaSkiPete I'll give him a call tomorrow.

[WoodySkier]

@Delonous I’ll for sure make a donation, also as mentioned above you might want to do docks and hoists as a fundraiser, I’d be happy to pay you to put in my dock and hoists (about an hour from East Lansing), I’d also throw in a pull behind my 200.

[bishop8950]

I was with the MSU team 94-98 back when we leased a Mastercraft. Great times and I always felt like that deal was too good to be true. One year we found someone that was willing to donate a boat as a tax write off. We accepted it and sold it and put the proceeds towards a jump ramp. Just wondering if you can finagle something like that?

 

The school used to reluctantly co-sign for the lease. Will the school sign up for ownership? Whos name will the boat be under?

 

If you had $30-40k you could get into a nice/current 3 event boat. If you then flipped it every year and assume $10k deprecation I suppose you have a model. Just fund raise $10k/yr once you have the initial boat covered. But even then, $10k/yr isn't easy!

[Delonous]

@WoodySkier Thank you, and I'll message you!

 

@bishop8950 We are starting the process of becoming a non-profit, so hopefully our organization can sign for the boat. But in the mean time it would be our president. School said no chance they'll sign for it.

I agree on getting a nice 30-40k boat and flipping it every year. Right not we just don't have the cash to buy it, down the line we will buy a nicer boat, just have to spend a few years saving and fundraising.

[vtjc]

A lease is a financial instrument, that can be obtained independent from a dealer or a boat manufacture. A local lender (bank or credit union) may be able to offer you a lease on a new or used boat. Given the high turnover on the team a lease were the current members are essentially paying for their use of the boat via a lease may make sense. If the cost of the boat being leased isn’t subsidized by a dealer or manufacturer the cost may be higher than earlier arrangements.

[RAWSki]

It's a shame. there are probably a dozen perfect boats for this application on our lake that sit on their hoists ALLSummer long.

[BraceMaker]

@rawski the funny thing is with the school year not being till August most college teams don't even need a boat lease during peak may June July and bum and borrow successfully.

 

Those idle boats are just sitting because kiss go back to school. If only the risk of the boat getting destroyed wasn't so high.

[EricKelley]

If I was a marketing person for the Boat Companies, I would have collegiate skiers be the promo team. Collegiate skiing is the shining star of the sport now. They need help and collegiate skiers will be the newest boat buyers.

There would be risk of trashing the boat, but I think it would would work well.

[Delonous]

I agree @"Eric Kelley". We have a lot of new skiers who have their first time behind a ski boat with us. If they spend their 4 years behind a *insert boat company*, there's a decent chance they'll buy one out of college.

Yes we run boats pretty hard, lots of hours and pulls. But I do think with the proper practices in place (working on those right now), we can take great care of any boat.

[BraceMaker]

@Delonous best bet is to take the seat bases out before you even use it. Make a project out of making some seat bases to use.

[DynaSkiPete]

I wonder what it costs to lease a boat for the summer or what ever period is needed?

[Ilivetoski]

I like the idea but a lot of teams can’t even afford a 15 year old $8,000 perfect pass boat. I’m not too sure where they could get $60,000 to get started as a promo

[Ilivetoski]

@DynaSkiPete typically college teams practice from April/may depending on where they are located until nationals in October

[DW]

@Delonous: Good luck on securing a suitable ski boat for the upcoming season. Surprising given the number of dealers in Michigan and the relative strength of the sport in Michigan that a major college is having a challenge on their hands. For future success, make sure the team works the dealership network so that one of the kids looks at MSU as a prime school, thus 'dad' may ensure a suitable boat is available, that example has existed at an alternate (read blue) school. Given the change with boat use, I would have the team create a boat business plan for short term and long term success and it does sound like you are doing that.

[UWSkier]

@"Eric Kelley" we tried something like that in Wisconsin from 2002-2005ish with mixed results. Some schools did alright with it and actually sold their boats at the end of the season like they were supposed to. Others treated it like an entitlement and abused the program. I actually managed to sell boats for a few of the other schools when they wouldn't properly promote or try to sell their boat.

 

TBH, some of the schools and kids were great. Others I wouldn't trust with a potato gun much less an 80k boat.

[burdhntr]

Knowing the group that leased you the boat before and their penchant for wanting the exposure, it’s probably a pretty good sized loss for them to continue. Was their any damage? Was maintenance done on schedule? Maybe it’s the short timeframe for usage. They’ve always seemed like a company that WANTS to help/work with people. I DID hear that there was significant damage to a boat they leased to the MSU Wakeboarding Team.

 

EIther way, good luck. As a MSU Grad myself, I look back on my time and wished I’d competed back then.

[jjackkrash]

If the team buys and gets title to the boat, don't let the school get involved with the boat at all. If the team controls the boat, including title, the team controls the team and not some administrator at the school. That's how Chico ran for years and it was great. Just make sure to keep up liability insurance at all times.

[EricKelley]

@Live2ski I'm not talking about buying boat. Promo deal like Nautique's new deal. Make the colleges take the boat to the regular tournaments during the summer, do boat shows, lake demos, etc...

You really can get a 6 or 9 month note for boats and just pay interest if you are forced to buy the traditional way. You would have to make sure that you could get a deal where you are not upside down.

[eleeski]

I just got back from being a judge at UCLA's tournament at Wet Set. Great fun vibe. College skiing rocks!

 

Thanks to Wet Set, Jackie Horton (who opened the Feruzzo house to so many of us), the Richardson's (for the Mastercraft), Ty Vaio (boat mover extraordinaire), all the volunteers and all the skiers (including the alumni and friends whose entries helped support UCLA).

 

I'm posting this to remind people that they can help support college skiing in modest ways that are really fun. Go to the college tournament. Help out. Buy a burger and tee shirt. Ski if there's room. Volunteer. Judge. This is the rocking part of waterskiing. Be part of it!

 

Enough support and the teams might be able to afford a boat. And develop the next crop of tournament skiers.

 

Best luck to @Delonous

 

Eric

[shansen345]

Makes me sad that I'm about to graduate...

[eleeski]

@shansen345 Most of the officials were ex college skiers. Many were recent graduates. You are still welcome to be part of collegiate skiing. Please!

 

Eric

[BraceMaker]

@Delonous did you end up procuring one?

[MISkier]

@BraceMaker, it looks like they bought a 1995 Nautique.

 

http://msuwaterski.com/donations.html

 

@Delonous, how did it work out for you?

[Delonous]

Yes, so we were able to buy a 1995 Nautique. I believe it had just under 500 hours at the time we bought it and we got a great deal on it from a guy on Lake St. Clair. Has the GT-40 engine and it runs great. Interior is in great shape so we hope we can keep that looking good as well. Perfect pass is a little finicky, hoping to upgrade to the gps version.

 

Also will continue saving and fundraising in hopes of buying a newer boat in the next few years.

 

Thanks for checking in!

[DW]

@Delonous : As you consider upgrading to GPS, I suggest to peruse this site for threads on setting up the system. If you have a short setup, there are key setup settings you will want. PP classic if that is what you have is pretty straightforward although it does not have the option of Z box, the PP ZO simulator.

[MISkier]

@DW, they have a lot of setup time on the Grand River. I'm not sure if the very latest versions of StarGazer and Z-box are the same as the StarGazer I had in 2008, but you could still run mine in Classic RPM mode and it was fine, even if you didn't have the StarGazer dialed in right. If that is still the case, the risk to go to StarGazer and Z-box is low and they would only be out some cash, if they can't get it tuned.

[LLUSA]

@jjackkrash don't get the school involved? I thought this was collegiate skiing? Why cut off the largest source of possible income to start with? Not that way at Bama, full support from the President on down, @"Eric Kelley" the Nautique lease will not work for collegiate due to the hours limitation, plus you can almost buy a Malibu and Mastercraft for one Nautique, I can't name a collegiate program besides maybe Rollins than runs Nautiques. Bottom line is, and I've been involved in collegiate skiing since the early 80's, you got to have money, you got to have an administration that backs you with financial aid, you've got to have a permanent site, and you've got to have someone day in day out that handles the boat transactions.

[Ilivetoski]

@LLUSA I skied at Cincinnati for 2 years. Virtually no support from the school, but we made it work. Both coaches are promo members, the team pays them to use their boats once a week at practice. I understand that Bama gets help from the school, but that is not the way most collegiate teams function, especially in the Midwest. Most either don’t have a team boat or it’s not particularly new

[BraceMaker]

@LLUSA ya that could not be any different at most of the schools within collegiate skiing.

 

For the most case, collegiate ski CLUBS are supported the same way as the Quidditch team and disc golf clubs.

 

Once approved by the college you get some funds maybe 1000 or 1500 bucks a year for certain social functions or to print flyers, maybe you use it to buy some snacks for your meetings. You also gain the ability to use certain university resources for your club, like meeting rooms in the union hall, or space on campus during fares to recruit members. Beyond that the clubs typically operate independently, boat leases etc. have to be negotiated with no university support, definitely not access to water, boats, staff etc.

As opposed to Rollins this is why you'll find more of the waterski teams have facebook pages than university webpages, good luck finding out who the current club president is let alone the roster.

 

Makes it even more impressive when collegiate skiers do well and stick around.

 

 

 

[WIRiverRat]

Back when I was on the Michigan State Team I can confirm that schools gives them zero dollars. At that point it took about $10,000 a year to operate the team and that did NOT include any tournament fees, gas or transportation. That was strictly to pay for a boat, insurance, dock etc. I have seen all the work the current members have put in to fund raising for this boat as they have been sending out alumini letters, fundraising updates and hosting events as fund raisers. Good for them. They are learning a lot more than just skiing.

[BraceMaker]

@WIRiverRat - I was involved in an effort to create a new sports club at my university (trap shooting). I didn't get very far, an interesting subject that was raised by the representative from the university's athletics is that there were actual Title IX issues with doing so. So I am not surprised they get nothing from the school.

 

[Ilivetoski]

I tried to make a team at the University of Kentucky, and after 1 meeting with the school I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work. No funding at all from the school, & when the team was “kicked off campus” back in the late 90’s it ended pretty bad. Only reason we would have even received permission to form a club is because the advisor for club sports was the advisor and an alum of my fraternity. After I realized tournaments are on the same weekends as football games (yeah UK is horrible at football, but we still tailgate & no one wants to miss that) it got put to the side