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What Flightcraft Australia has been up to

Dacon62

By Dacon62
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RAWSki Mentor

RAWSki

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I thought Malibu bought Flightcraft back in the 90's but apparently it wasn't "forever".

The concept looks cool --- while none of the features are actually new it's great to see innovation and new builds beyond wake-surf barges.

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6balls Grand Master

6balls

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@Keith_Menard as someone who owned one for a long time--I would say they were good when inboards were not as good as they are now. As the inboards got better my boat became a classic car--rumbling exhaust, smelly, just begging you to throw hammer down and show off that blistering acceleration and speed. Made a good family boat, too--tons of room and oh yeah I did flying dock barefoot starts without getting my hair wet--back when I had hair.

Back in the day, though, it had better wakes at 15 off and 22 off than any inboard, zero spray, tracked reasonably well for the day. I skied into 35 off/36 mph behind it regularly and only saw an inboard on tourney days--hand driven of course--no speed control.

The outboards became obsolete once you had fuel injected inboards w/big HP, and w/out spray--and PP came out as speed control.

After that all you could say is gee it's got tons of space inside, it looks cool, throws a great barefoot wake, throws a small beginners slalom wake, and it's really fun to drive.

I'll take an inboard all day long and twice on Sundays--just like I drive a Porsche not a '69 Chevelle.

 

 

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DangerBoy Proficient

DangerBoy

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@UWSkier Outboards vent exhaust through the propeller so that shouldn't be an issue. For the record, the Bombardier/Evinrude eTec 2-stroke motors produce LOWER emissions than their 4-stroke competitors. Given the enormous emissions the old 2-stroke outboards produced, the e-Tecs are truly an amazing feat of engineering.

 

@6balls You are correct in many of the points you made, especially about the lack of speed control on outboards. That is one thing I wish my eTec could have. But I can live without it as we only free ski and have no access to a course. I ski at 22 and sometimes 28 feet off behind my boat and the wake is great. Never tried anything shorter than that so don't know if the wake would be any gòod there. That might put you crossing the wake right at the hump so it might not be very good at 32 or 35 off but at 22 or 28 off, the wake on my boat is just as nice or even nicer than my friend's Prostar.

 

For me, however, the ability to tilt the motor and get the prop out of the water is a must and the performance, fuel economy and reliability my eTec delivers are major bonuses. I do wish it had speed control because the boat speed does sometimes drift a couple mph during a skier's run but we're just out there having a blast shredding up the calm morning water on a big beautiful lake knowing that afterwards we're gonna either be drinking coffee and Baileys in a hot tub or while soaking up the morning sun in anti-gravity chairs on a dock that gets the early morning sun so we don't sweat the imperfect speed or course control one bit. It's all good. ??

 

P.S. If anyone is thinking about getting an eTec outboard, I do highly recommend them but not the G2s. My nephew is a senior marine mechanic at an Evinrude/BRP dealer and works on them all the time and says the G2s are crap. The first gen eTecs are great, however, but they're getting harder to find since BRP got out of the outboard business and people who have them and love them aren't often willing to sell them. I'll never sell mine, that's for sure.

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DangerBoy Proficient

DangerBoy

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@6balls I'm running a 2010 Glastron GT180. Great hull. Really stable, well made/solid, handles well, really good in rough water and nice wake for skiing. I bought it used over the Internet from a gentleman in Pipestone, MN, had it towed to the US/Canada border in Montana (UShip) where I picked it up and imported it into Canada. It took me 3 years to find that boat and it was one of the best and smartest purchases I've ever made. Great boat for my purposes. All my ski buddies love skiing behind it.

 

Interesting note...

 

I just ran across a posting on an eTec owners forum about a guy who successfully adapted a Stargazer GPS PerfectPass speed control system to a G1 eTec 150 like mine. Being someone who loves modifying/tweaking things and having a nephew who is a senior eTec mechanic, I HAVE to look into it! ?

 

It would be amazing if I could get that to work...

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GregHind Rising Star

GregHind

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@DangerBoy I've got PP on my 225HO G1 e-tec and have had it since new in 2007. I also helped a guy install it on a 150 G1 e-tec back about 8 years ago. We're both happy with it. There are quite a few photos of different outboard installations here on ball of spray that will help you figure it out. I've seen it on a Johnson, a Suzuki and helped plenty of Merc EFI, Merc Opti, Evinrude & Yamaha owners get it up and running. Evinrude and Yamaha are similar to each other and both are harder than Merc to get up and running.
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UWSkier Veteran

UWSkier

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@DangerBoy maybe it's changed in newer models, but our old Merc BlackMax would vent exhaust out of two above-water exhaust ports at idle, especially during morning start up. All the exhaust went out the prop while underway but at idle, it was the above-water ports mostly. Most smoky outboards I see starting up are belching smoke from a port above the waterline.
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DangerBoy Proficient

DangerBoy

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@UWSkier Maybe you're correct about that for some outboards. My eTec never makes any smoke so I'm not sure if it works the same way on those motors. Actually, now that I think about it, there is one time when the eTec does make a little smoke. That's when I start it up for the first time in the spring. With the motor being fogged during the winterization process, there's a bit of excess oil that has to be burned off. Other than that one time each year, that motor never makes any smoke.
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drmadd Apprentice

drmadd

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Man, I wouldnt mind skiing behind an outboard, certified for tournaments. I'm sorry, but the new boats are beginning to suck in the wake department, particularly at the slower speeds, as one gets older. Just watch a video of Nationals or Hilltop. I understand why Tournament boats are getting bigger and need an open bow (Because a dealer can't give away a ski boat). I remember years ago skiing and driving a Mastercraft Outboard with a 225 Yamaha at a California Tournament. I skied well, and the woman and kids loved it.
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6balls Grand Master

6balls

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@drmadd you couldn't make a wake if you tried behind my Centurion Falcon Barefoot. Was far better than the inboards up to 28 off and equivocal there--deeper shortline the inboards were better but at that time struggled with spray.

Tracking....well...for shortline it was possible to counter if you were really good, and speed control took skill as well. Basically a slow throttle push to get maybe 400 increased rpm over the length of the course.

My old man...he just wanted to hit 16.08 so he would come in hot, and I would drag him down over the length of the course and he would get a perfect time. My one ball was probably 37 mph, my 6 ball 35. Just had to survive the first few balls!

The outboard was a great family boat. No need for open bow with all of that room inside and storage under the nose. Platforms are an issue. Otherwise fast and fun.

For shorter slalom, tho, I'll take an inboard all day long and twice on Sunday--but my opener is 28 off. It doesn't have to be a new inboard--I've got a bubble butt Nautique and she drives and skis great down to very short lines. Longer lines not too bad.

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drmadd Apprentice

drmadd

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One of my ski partners has a Bubble Butt. You are correct, sweet ride. What happened to Nautique? Frankly I dread getting behind most of the new ones at a Tournament. The 20 ft isn't too bad with small motor.

 

I have a friend who has the Centurion Barefooter. I look forward to skiing behind it. It's also a blast with a 24" pitch prop on my MAHA GT 84" SpeedSki!

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Dacon62 Experienced

Dacon62

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Very hard to determine from the picture but deadrise looks like the typical Aussie 18 degree, planked bottom hull. The Sanger outboards are running a little less deadrise around 15-16 degrees IIRC which made for a bit smaller wakes between the 2 boats. Remember skiing behind both back to back in the early 90’s.

Cool that someone is building a new outboard these days. Can’t wait to hear the reports once it hits the water.

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