outboard boat options?

[Horton]

okay it's bizarre but the other night I had a dream that I walked into a boat dealer and there was the most beautiful outboard ProStar hanging from the roof like you'd see a model airplane hanging from the roof of a hobby shop. so yes I do actually dream about water skiing and ProStars :-)

 

Here on BallOfSpray most of the conversation is about hardcore tournament boats made by the three big manufacturers. For non-tournament skiing in saltwater what are the other options?

[BrennanKMN]

Dyna-Ski is the first that comes to mind. Unless used boats are an option, then that opens up some more doors.

[MuskokaKy]

@BrennanKMN as of last year you were right.

 

But J-Craft made a come back last year at the Toronto Boat Show ( 4 weeks away now) and sold out. Almost no real style change but some minor improvements from what i was told. They look amazing and as most of us know; are super fun to drive and be behind.

 

Also; It's not a prostar but MC does offer a outboard option on the NXT 20 i believe; or atleast they did/. A gentleman on our lake has one ( i think its 2017)

 

 

[mmskiboat]

A little off topic but when we did a test drive of the boat we ended up buying in the fall this was parked at one of the docks. Not it the best shape but looks to be doing the job.

 

 

 

[MuskokaKy]

@mmskiboat what exactly is that? like a 1990 MC Barefoot 200? i like it!

[swc5150]

@MuskokaKy That's a BF 200, yes.

[jhughes]

There's a family on my lake up north that has this boat 17'6" Dyna Ski OB. They ski the snot out of it, the thing is always running and pulling slalom free-skiers. I've always admired how flat the boat drives and corners, zero bow rise ever. The boat attitude really stands out as just totally flat and composed, you can tell from a mile away that it's something different. Wake looks great, too.

[UWSkier]

I grew up skiing almost exclusively behind outboards until about 2001. Since then I don't think I've been behind anything except a Malibu, MC, or CC. Would really like to ski behind an outboard again to see how it'd feel.

[Dacon62]

Sanger Outboard is an awesome ski and barefoot boat wakewise.

[LoopSki]

rumor has it that there will be a 2020 Flight craft outboard. we shall see

[RAWSki]

Didn't Flightcraft get acquired by Malibu in the early 2000s?

[ALPJr]

There has been a couple ballers posting about the new Glastron GT180 OB. Imo the Flightcraft OB is hard to beat.

[Jordan]

FWIW, Back in the day I skied behind a bunch of Barefoot 200s. They always gave a decent pull.

[DangerBoy]

I love my Glastron 180 GT with a 150 HO Evinrude eTec. I's not a dedicated ski boat but it's a great runabout and really nice to ski behind. Glastron's SST hull design is great.

[jjackkrash]

We skied behind a Barefoot Sanger with an outboard many moons ago in a college tourney. I thought it was good boat to ski behind for slalom and jump. IIRC, some of the driver's bitched about the stiff outboard throttle and tracking compared to an inboard but that's the boat I'd get for those 2 events if the requirement was an outboard.

[skibrain]

The Glastron 180 (I share a yr 2000 with my BIL) is a passable compromise, and better than a fleet of i/o’s but not as good as some of the older flat bottom ski boats.

 

Back 15 yrs ago when I was hot to buy an outboard, while I never skied behind them for comparison (Flighcraft, MC, Sanger, Centurion) the research and consensus seemed to be the early ‘87-90 MC Prostar 200 had the best slalom wake of all these outboard ski boats. Flat, no-deadrise hull was the key. Ton of floor space without the doghouse. The 91 and later Barefoot 200 had a narrow little V in the hull (and giant trunk for gear behind the back seat.) crisper wake for BF. A little faster, but not quite as good for slalom.

 

Some day a Baller in northern Wisconsin will connect with Dynaski for a demo and let us know how they ski.

[Jordan]

The new relaunched JCraft at the Toronto Boat Show last year

[6balls]

In the used market the Flightcraft (later Malibu), the Sanger, the Centurions (Barefoot Warrior and Falcon Barefoot), the MC Barefoot 200 all did well as very versatile family/ski boats.

The Warrior has a tight interior so less practical. Both the Centurions have wood so they need to have been well cared for to consider. Sanger has wood stringers. The Centurions tracked the best but wake not quite as good as the Flighty, which in turn was not quite as good as the Sanger. I never skied a 200.

All are fast/fun to drive and for rec slalom do great, even ok to dabble in the balls I've run into 35 off at 36 on one...my guess is she was a bit of a handful on the helm but the old man was good! They barefoot great, they have TONS of interior space. They DON'T like trick/wakeboard speed. It's hard to get them to decide if they want to plane or sink back in the hole so lots of throttle management unless you have a big crew to weight the boat down then she settles in.

Very practical boats for the non high-end buoy skier...and back in the early 90's I would say the better slalom wake from 15-28 off than the inboards. Smaller wake for kids learning, too.

[mmskiboat]

I just updated the my post above to make the images clickable to high rez photos. There was a guy who posted his Sanger Outboard that was blue and gorgeous in another thread.

[75Tique]

A nice older flighty with a 200 Evinrude joined us at our CCf event this past October. That thing was a rocket.

 

[RAWSki]

In the early 90's Centurion made both the Warrior Barefoot and offered a Falcon Barefoot outboard model that was supposed to appeal to skiers as well. I heard it had great wakes but the platforms were tiny and tracking wasn't great.

 

[6balls]

@RAWSki I owned one from '91(new) until 2019, now my nephew owns it. It tracked great by outboard standards. Platforms are small but that's true for most of the outboards. Pylon mount sucks we modded ours well. Barefoot wake/speed not quite as good as flighty or sanger. We pulled six, 200 lb footers at 40 with a Yamaha 225 EFI V-max.

[LoopSki]

Centurion also made a vdrive falcon in the early 90's.

[andjules]

+1 on the J Craft, a refresh of the 70s/80s flat-bottomed, low-wake, no-spray outboard that dominated the Canadian market.

[Brewski]

The best of Boat worlds. Barefoot Sanger.

 

 

 

[skibrain]

I love the low-freeboard style of the Sanger. Really pretty boat.

[6balls]

@Brewski love that boat! The Sangers rock, the wake doesn't look natural when you are back there it's so flat. They bank in the corners a little more than the Centurions which corner REALLY flat and with high G's given the big tracking fins. The v-up front helps a little in rough water by comparison for the Sanger, which also tracks nice. We did find that a really good slalom skier would lift the nose just a little with each pull through the wakes. The Flighty would rock a little left to right with the same skier (til he broke the dealers rope---yeah my brother). Falcon Barefoot did neither of those things.

 

All are cool boats...and that Falcon turned heads everywhere I went. One day getting gas a guy on a Harley ran square into the building while looking at my boat. My nephew has people coming up to him all the time on the river checking it out in Wisconsin.

[alanc]

skied behind one of these yesterday nice boats and go real fast.have a carbon fibre hull think they also make race boats.https://www.forceboats.com/listing/force-f18-social-outboard/

[swc5150]

@6balls Where in WI does your nephew boat? Someone had the same/similar Falcon out on the Chippewa River in Eau Claire last summer.

[VONMAN]

Still rocken my 1992 BareFoot Warrior Carbon hull. With 2015 Mec 200 Pro Max outboard and Perfect Pass Stargazer speed control. For more info check it out here. https://forum.ballofspray.com/discussion/comment/306410#Comment_306410

[bananaron]

@VONMAN Great looking boat.Do you want to sell it??

[6balls]

@swc5150 likely was not him, he picked it up late season and put 60 gallons thru it the first weekend alone. That was the case for about a month where they just had a blast on the water. They are about 1 hour north of Madison.

 

[VONMAN]

@bananaron Thanks for the offer, but it's seems like a old friend after all these years. Just can't let her go. Maybe when I get old and can't ski anymore.

[VONMAN]

@Horton Great topic. There seems to be a huge outboard resurgence in outboard powered boats. But few to none outboard powered ski boats. I'm surprise by the lack of the boat manufactures to respond to the market.

One of the big problems that I faced was the size and weight of the new outboards, when repowering my boat. Back in 1992 a 200hp motor weight was 450lbs and the height of the motor was not a problem. Fastforward to 2015 when I was going to repower, 2-stroke's were 50lbs more and 2 inch's taller. 4-stroke's were over 100lbs and 4 to 5 inch's taller. I settled on 200 Merc, direct injected, smooth idle, no smoke, fuel sipping, monster. A dinosaur now, extinct, Merc does no longer make them. So here I am with a motor that barely clears the rope even with the tall pylon. The reason for the clearance is that on this motor there is a 7th piston that acts as a compressor for the fuel injection. The good news is it all worked out for me. Or I would have to rebuild the old 3 start, smoking, 3-2barrle gas sucking motor from 1992.

I think if a boat manufacture were to design a boat for today's outboards it could be a huge cost savings. And maybe the outboard manufacture's repackage the motor for the repower market. I was lucky in able to keep her going all these years and ski's great, many a inboard guy has skied behind her and could not believe a outboad could ski that good.

 

[bananaron]

I had several hydrostreams with big mercs and jack plates that were fantastic ski and barefoot boats.Back in the day they were difficult to drive in comparison to the new boats however fun to drive.Very FAST!!

[Brewski]

@VONMAN Does the perfect pass hold barefoot speeds above 40 mph?

[Jordan]

@bananaron I had a Hydrostream V-King with a 150 merc back in the day, hydraulic transom and a nose cone with low water pickups. It was a very fun boat!

[bananaron]

@Jordan Yes they were fun however none of my friends would ride with me.At top speed it was chine walking all over and you had to know how to drive it.

[VONMAN]

@Brewski Yes it does, rock steady when using RPM mode. Great for long distance runs. If you try to use MPH speed mode you get the throttle surging. Hand throttle for trick runs.

[6balls]

@jordan @bananaron my Dad won a Switzer in a sales competition in 1972. It was 13.5 feet and rated for 115 hp...it came with a 115 Merc. The Merc struggled on hole shot with big slalom skiers on such a short boat, so my Dad put a 140 Evinrude on there with 115 hp stickers. It would run mid 70's chine walking like crazy you had to be able to counter it to keep her mostly level and continue to run hot. Good memories.

When I was a kid, that boat seemed "big". Now I can't imagine something that tiny with a 140 on the back.

Our next Switzer was a SK 175 with a 175 hp Evinrude. More stable! A friend had a 19 footer with a 235 that ran 80 plus. He flipped it. He then got a Baker tunnel that would run 100...flipped that, too. Then he bought a 17 ft Switzer with a 115 and pleasure cruised.

Geez...all the metal flake! I have a pic of our 13 footer wide open...not much more than the motor in the water she was flying!

We eventually got a Centurion Barefoot Warrior, then a Centurion Falcon Barefoot. The only inboards I skied on my way to state titles in slalom were at the tournaments.

[swc5150]

@6balls We went from a 14' Forester needle nose, that was a death machine on water, to an '86 MC. I remember the MC seeming absolutely huge at the time. Now we have another '86 and it takes up basically no space in the garage it's so tiny. Times have changed indeed!

 

The MC Powerstar is a nice outboard boat, if you can find one. The timing of its release couldn't have been much worse, and was short lived as such.

[blakeyates]

I believe, whatever you get, the best fit for torque on the back may be the Evinrude E-Tec. They are still 2 stroke and many of the ski shows (I think) use them. Just my 2 cents worth.

[bananaron]

@blakeyates You are correct about the Evenrude E tec a great engine with literally no maintenance and can pull several footers at a time.I would buy the 250HO and put it on the Dyna ski boat.

[bananaron]

@6balls Great story about your dad and the boats you guys had.I know you like the big outboards for skiing however they have lost their popularity over the yrs and I know for the big tournament slalom guys they probably don't work.However for an old guy like me they are actually fantastic for slalom and barefoot.The big problem for me is how to get into the double boot slalom with that boat setup and no platform.....

[Jordan]

One of the cool things about the etec engines is that they have a winterize mode that enriches the gas/oil mix to coat the intake and cylinders. Since outboards drain the water out by gravity, that's all there is and you are all done in a few minutes.

 

[Spineofgoo]

@bananaron I agree,I would love to ski an out board again but no platform and no flexibility no go.

[Dacon62]

@Spineofgoo the Aussies have figured it out.

 

 

[Spineofgoo]

Tracking fins?

[GregHind]

@Spineofgoo yes they have tracking fins. I have owned two, great boats. Slalom wake is at least as good or better than the new prostar at every speed. Not sure at ultra short lengths but they were used at the biggest water ski tournament in the world for many years up until about 2001. Stejcraft pro skier

[Wish]

Wow.

.