1986 southern skier

[possumandbean]

I guess I found my unicorn. I grew up skiing behind glastron tri hulls, in my twenties I had the pleasure of skiing behind nautiques with a natique pilot. I always remembered seeing a southern skier and thinking it was beautiful. Well, fast forward through the motorcycles, race cars, and other hobbies and here I am. I found a southern skier that needs love. I live about two miles away from a ramp on lake Whitney in central Texas. My plans are to get it up and running, then restore it as I go. I am sure I will be trolling this forum for information and welcome any information anyone is willing to give. I know the boat was made in Kingwood Texas, other than that I can't find any information on her.

Well, that's about it as far as introductions go. Howdy howdy

[possumandbean]

 

[dbutcher]

Reminds me of the 90's era Ski Supreme.

[RINLE]

What power plant under the hood?

[Stickman]

Yes, Looks very similar to the 89' Supreme I used to have.

[possumandbean]

351 Ford with a 71c velvet drive. The clutches took a dump the first day I had her on the water. I knew it was going to need some love, just didn't expect it to be on day one. I have been a mechanic pretty much all my life, so, I am researching removal, rebuild and installation. I plan on getting her as perfect mechanically as possible, waxed up, the wood cleaned up, and then getting her on the water as often as possible. I want to ski behind her and often as possible. As beautiful as they were when I was a kid, they don't belong in the weeds.

[RINLE]

PCM marinization? correctcraftfan has all the manuals, including one fir the tranny. Mastercraft Team Talk has a great thread on rebuilding the velvet drive.

[possumandbean]

You are awesome

[DW]

@possumandbean : There is an excellent 71C rebuild thread on the MC Team Talk forum. A step by step tranny rebuild w/ pictures as noted.

[possumandbean]

Yes, it looks to be all PCM parts. Like I stated earlier, it shows to be built under the southern skier name by a company out of Kingwood, Tx. I will get more pictures up when I can. I'm sure you all understand, I remember seeing one when I was a kid. When I saw her I could not let her waste away.

[possumandbean]

 

[thompjs]

Carlos of Palmer Power in Houston had them built in Mexico a partially rigged in Houston.

You should be able to get any parts through Palmer for PCM

 

Not sure if Carlos is still there.

[Stephen911]

Can’t help but add to this post. During the late 80s I was an RAF officer serving at Eglin AFB, Florida. We got into water skiing big time and I bought a 1990 Southern Skier. Great fun until the rotters promoted me and sent me back to the UK. At that time we were allowed to take a car home on any empty C-130 travelling East. I argued that a boat could be substituted and all looked good until Sadam invaded Kuwait - then all the C-130s went East to the Middle East. With days to go one aircraft arrived at Eglin and, with the loadmaster distracted, I managed to set up a winch and man handle my prized boat into the hold. It was offloaded in Canada but finally made it to the UK 3 months later. I was then posted to Germany and we had many happy times skiing on the beautiful lakes of Southwest France. Lovely boat with tons of power. About 10 years ago she was finally laid to rest - minus the engine - in a sandpit at a Cotswold ski park and the youngsters were able to play on her. Happy memories of surely the World’s most travelled Ski boat? Hope I haven’t bored anyone too much.

[Jetsetr]

@Stephen911 Great story...puts some humanization to this site that’s full of OCD peeps fretting about fin settings and other things vs actually having fun skiing (not that being OCD about skiing is bad, especially if you do it for a living) and especially if you frequent this site. Lots of people to help you out.

 

I think the older boats have so much more character...I guess I’m defective that way-I ski for fun, the challenge and physical conditioning.

[Orlando76]

@Jetsetr I’ll second all that.

[cougfan]

@Jetsetr my thoughts exactly

[MDB1056]

+1 @Jetsetr.

[Rednucleus]

Wonder if @possumandbean ever finished this project?

[MDB1056]

No updates since 2018?? Wow..... Nice looking boat. Lose the tower. Who made it?

[possumandbean]

Well, the boat and I are still above ground. Life is what happens to our plans.

Sooooo, she sat under a cover and still does. I picked up another transmission and am in the process of checking the fitment, going to rebuild the original. With the way the market is right now I may get a whole different running boat 350/velvet drive in a 90s model of which I forget the make of right now and get our Southern Skier up as well. I'll try to get pictures up. Carpet, new upholstery, ECT......

[GaryJanzig]

A friend of mine bought a 1984 American Skier. The engine was in perfect shape, the upholstery was like new, and the hull was like new. The floor and the stringers had rotted out. He rebuilt the stringers and the floor and put in new carpeting. He also installed Perfect Pass Stargazer. It was a kick ass boat. It had a great trick wake, and slalomed good too wakes were great. There was some spray at 32 off and shorter, but not bad. It had 240 HP but since the boat was under 19 feet it was like a rocket coming out of the hole. One of my favorite boats to drive.

[Minelickskier]

The windshield and shape look identical to a ski supreme minus the teak. Makes me wonder if there is a connection to the big offshoot of mastercraft in the 80’s in east Tennessee...namely supra and ski supreme...Rob Shirley, Bill Fowler, etc.

[Brendellanewb]

@possumandbean - do you have any info on the history of Southern Skier Boats? I found one for sale and I’m just trying to find a little info on their history and this forum thread is literally the only thing referencing them that google can find.