Does boat width matter?

[hewgdaddy]

Hi,

 

Intermediate skier who has always used other people’s boats. I’m looking to get a boat soon and heard some guy mention that his boat is a ‘tournament size’ ... meaning narrower.

Is a narrow boat better and is that what is used in tournaments? Also, when buying a boat is there an easy way to figure out its length/width?

Thanks

[Horton]

That's an extremely general question. If all other factors are the same a wider boat will produce a flatter smaller wake. Narrow boats generally make a bigger & sharper wake especially at slower speeds.

 

[Keith_Menard]

It does if you are @Than_Bogan :)

[Horton]

@hewgdaddy maybe a better way to answer your question is there are only a few boats in North America that are truly optimized for water skiing. Currently there are four boats built. Two offerings from Nautique, one offering from Malibu, and one offering from MasterCraft. Historically there were also boats from Centurion and a few other companies. Any other boats are likely going to have much less friendly wakes.

[fu_man]

Here is a list of all the current and past tournament approved ski boats. This would be a great reference if you are looking for a pure ski boat.

[Horton]

@fu_man did you look at that list? Not all of those are really slalom boats.

[MISkier]

@hewgdaddy, what boats are you skiing now and what is your budget for your eventual purchase?

[B_S]

@hewgdaddy the trend over the past decade has been wider for tournament 3 event boats.

[IGski]

@hewgdaddy "Tournament size" is usually referred to as a center mounted direct drive engine.

However, there are many different types and sizes of center mounted direct drives.....Choosing one depends on what you want to do behind it.

Wakeboard and surf boats have rear mounted engines called V-Drives. These throw a larger wake and are much larger boats.

The width is less critical than the type of boat/drive or length.

Hope this answers some of your question.

 

[BraceMaker]

Ironically the new tournament boats are pretty much at the legal lane limit for towing.

 

Google whatever pops up for ski boat and definitely check onlyinboards.com and ski-it-again

[VONMAN]

Weight is the wake killer, not width.

[ScottScott]

I'd say that overall "tournament size" is an odd way to refer to a ski boat. There are dedicated ski boats, all in the 19-20' length. As mentioned above, the width of the newest boats is a little wider than in years previous, but the width is pretty close to a normal runabout in the 20' range. The brands horton mentioned are the only current makers of ski boats, and traditionally they are still the main brands adding centurion and a couple others that have dabbled along the way....

[hewgdaddy]

@MISkier I currently ski behind a 91 ski centurion and an 06 prostar. Budget is about 40k. The boat I was referring to in the post was an early 2000s Malibu that was definitely narrower than the other 2 boats.

[ScottScott]

For 40K you could certainly get into a Nautique 200, likely even a '14 or after Mastercraft Prostar.

[rawly]

Hugedaddy asking if size matters ?? Must be a joke eh ? ? If not , the early 90’s ski brendallas are one of the narrowest older boats with killer slalom and trick ( wakeboard ) wakes. As a matter of fact , I may have one for sale for cheap in So Cal soon ?