My other former boat...

[6balls]

 

 

My Dad’s bought new in ‘91, mine as of ‘99. Sold last year to my nephew. This pic from him this morning ready for a little footing. Boat is cherry condition.

[6balls]

 

If u could only hear that 2 stroke bark or feel the 0-60...

[ral]

Falcon barefoot???

[6balls]

@ral yessir.

Grew up skiing only outboards, my Dad could hand drive 16.08 all day long even with a bull like me back there going into 35 off as a late teen. Only time I skied an inboard was at a tourney.

[6balls]

 

 

[6balls]

 

[6balls]

Bad ass, eh?

 

He got her with all kinds of suits/equipment/skis/barefoot boom for $7500. Yikes...family discount!

[bananaron]

I LOVE THAT BOAT. WOULD BUY IT IN A MINUTE......

[Cent]

I owned one. Fun FAST boat.

[6balls]

@bananaron unless u have Ross blood this one isn’t up for sale and u would have to pry it from Sam’s cold, dead hands. He’s built like a Ross too so good luck!

[ral]

@6balls , that was my dream boat in the early nineties! Then, I had zero chances of getting one…Eye candy in the Waterski Magazine boat review yearbook only.

[6balls]

@ral was a great family boat on the public lake after I bought it from my Dad. So much space and wrap around seating. I remember one day having 8 in the boat and running back to the lift across significant chop at about 55 mph...after footing the calm side.

 

Super flat slalom wake, tracked better than the inboards of that same era, blistering hole shot and acceleration, great footing boat, great family boat. Just don't ask it to throw a wakeboard wake it just can't mount anything up.

 

Turned heads so hard that once I was fueling on the trailer and a dude on a Harley rode right into the side of the building and then fell over gawking at her...I pretended not to notice...that had to hurt :smile:

 

She's got a great new home with my nephew Sam.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

Damn @6balls you must be really old!

[6balls]

@Bruce_Butterfield back at ya old man.

 

Glory days...they pass you by glory days..,

[RAWSki]

That's a rare beauty, my first ski boat was a 93 Falcon OB inboard with the same graphics.

Great ski boat for its day. Glad you can keep it in the family, the Vanguard trailer looks perfect too, mine was rusted after 5 years!

[Wayne]

So envious. About once a year I look for an OB Malibu or Centurion but they are rare to be on the market and in good condition. My neighbor has a barefoot warrior that seems to randomly show up now and then. It usually has a for sale sign on it at the start of the summer, I was very tempted until I saw their son stumble in the boat one day and grabbed the pylon to catch his fall. The pylon bent like a wet noodle. Im guessing it needs floors and stringers.

[6balls]

@rawski the trailer was never outdoors. He is going to strip and paint it--he wants some metal flake flare. He's also going to add LED lights and some of that LED shadow lighting under the trailer so it glows at night, in addition to LED's under the platforms, some lighting under the combing pads, new stereo, might drop in some long range fuel tanks. Has his eye on a performance upgrade for the 225 Yamaha to get to 300 hp.

 

He's been on the chain of lakes and gets a TON of attention in that thing--I always did as well. I love that he loves it and is using it--too many memories to recount for me.

[6balls]

@wayne yeah be careful lots of wood. The pylon set up sucks---we took the floor out of mine and re-did the pylon mount--it's thru bolted thru the stringers, double nutted, powder coated--solild as a rock but necessary on those boats. The "Bu has a much better set up from factory--and I think if you get the right year no wood.

 

There is no rot in the boat I sold Sam--cuz she never ever stayed wet.

 

We did the same pylon refurb to a Barefoot Warrior as well.

[6balls]

 

This one

[Wayne]

@6balls that dark red one looks nearly identical to my neighbors. I’m pretty sure it could be brought back, just time and money.

 

I’m really wondering why a new OB ski tug hasn’t been tried. Seems like they can have really good wakes. Maybe that would be the way to get a lower cost ski boat option on the market.

[6balls]

@Wayne I will take one all day long as a family and recreational boat...but I want my inboard for slalom for so many reasons. Thankfully I had the best of both worlds the Centurion on the public lake and the Nautique on the puddle with 2 courses.

[Jordan]

@Wayne the Canadian boat, the JCRAFT has been revived and redesigned. It goes for around $84,000 Canadian...$70k USD or so.

 

[HMan66]

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/boa/d/phoenix-ski-centurion-barefoot-warrior/7323120120.html

[HMan66]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3048785558673791/

[6balls]

@HMan66 nice find. Interior looks like time for new vinyl, not surprising given it's original 1992. Ideally will want a pylon mount re-do as we did on ours. Hydraulic steering is not a must--but I'd throw a tilt helm and hydraulic steering on there--made all the difference on ours. Then she'd be all dialed in given the condition is great otherwise.

My '91 Falcon Barefoot went out the door to my nephew as mentioned above for $7500 including some skis/suits/ropes. Redone pylon, tilt helm, hydraulic steering, new upholstery, trailer that never saw the outdoors w/out the boat on it, a '98 EFI 3.1 Yamaha VMAX 225. Granted this was a family discount and occured before the recent spike in used boat prices.

With that--I dunno in today's market maybe it's ok but I think this ride is over-priced...but a cool boat for sure.

[HMan66]

@6balls I always loved the Falcons and Barefoot Warriors. Great ski boats for their time, and the graphics/colors were top notch. Boat prices are nuts right now for sure! I’d seen both of these ads in the last week so when the topic came up I thought I’d post them if anyone was looking for one since they’re fairly rare these days.

[ALPJr]

That new Jcraft looks awesome.

[DangerBoy]

This was my former boat. It's a 1975 Starcraft American with a 1974 Johnson 115 outboard. My parents bought it in the fall of 1974 when I was just 13. I lovingly looked after and maintained it for 40 years. It was running beautifully when I reluctantly sold it in 2015. The young family I sold it to were absolutely thrilled to get it and I have the comfort of knowing it's still running beautifully for them just a few miles down the lake from me and a young boy is getting to learn how to ski and do everything fun I got to do behind it when I was a boy. That means a lot to me.

 

 

 

I know I'm biased and sentimental but to me that boat has beautiful lines that still look good today. It was great to ski behind. It had an incredible hole shot so it got you up and skiing with little effort or delay. It's wake was tiny, only maybe 4 or 5 feet across wake to wake and maybe 4 inches high. You didn't even feel it when you crossed it.

 

I really loved that boat and literally started to cry on my last few turns behind it. :'( <3 That said, I love my new boat a lot too and am glad I got it. :)