Orlando76

@dtm8119 not knowing the gender yet? Awesome! Same here. One thing I was planning to do is start the baby very very early in a vest daily while at the house. As an infant, maybe keeping baby in one of those carrier things that mom/dad wear will be easiest/safest.

Myself and a few others are soon to be dads. How have y'all placed your baby's in the boat while chasing buoys? Lots of different views on this. My plan but not tested yet is to line the bottom and sides of spare car seat with foam pool noodles to give buoyancy if something were to happen. Then wedge baby seat between pylon and front seats but not strapped in all while being protected by the awful looking bimin. What have been your experiences? Any pics?

We won't know until it comes out, the whole baby thing has been a surprise thus far, we're gonna ride it out all the way. My wife thinks about logical things like what day care are we going to, while Im picking out life jackets for it and planning my learn-to-ski strategy. Heck, baby's first outfit bought was the Goode Ski's "Goode Baby" jumper. A lot of ideas on where and how to place baby in boat. My thought as of now is to wedge the car seat/carrier between pylon and passenger seat (if it'll fit) not strapped in and lined underneath with pool noodles for flotation.

Maybe I'm still in 1993 but I love my purple on black Ski Nautique. A rather utilitarian design, somebody ordered it without combing pads and no backseat to climb over making it easier to clean and more room for ski gear.

the guys I ski with always say look at the back of the boat. They agree when they do, 38 and 39.5 go smoother. I'm just barely a long liner cheating the gates but I can see an improvement when looking at the transom.

Z I hear ya. I spent all last weekend moving my taxidermy out our spare room to make a nursery for our first one due 12/17. Somehow I had to cram 4 walls of animals to our office which is bigger but 3 of the walls are glass so I'm losing a lot of space. 9 mounts got booted to the garage. Congratulations!

I don't know what causes it other than maybe rapid temperature fluctuation. Cracks lead to sucking air which leads to overheating. I removed mine due overheating.

I searched high and low for my purple Ski Nautique since my wife said we couldn't have another blue one.

I've seen a few of those ghost rider videos but that one is the top so far. What a douche.

What's the thought on rope shelf life? Say you found a model you liked and it was on sale and stocked up on a couple, bad idea? Obviously keep it in a climate controlled environment.

That's as good as I ski on a real ski.

I've been to Matt rini twice and 2 or 3 times to Jodi Fishers. I've never met Jodi, I've always been coached by Logan at Jodis. I feel I've gotten much better feedback at Jodi's rather Matt Rinis. Not to discredit Matt Rini, I was happy there but at my beginner level in the course, jodi's was more informative. If you have access to a Go Pro, bring it along.

I buy 99.9% of my ski stuff from Performance (they don't carry my palm liners). Good company, great people, local. I'm at the same level as you, same ski. I did buy a quality Masterline handle bc they had the size I wanted. But I opted for 2 sets of Performance store branded ropes. I'm sorry y'all, and Bill, but those ropes are terrible. I mean they get the job done but the memory in it drives me insane and coils up like crap. My buddy's Masterline doesn't do that.

i just dropped my boat off to be detailed at the dealership that has this '04. Yes the hull is completely blistered on the very bottom but small blisters that feel "solid", as in I don't see them popping. The waterline sides of the boat had zero blisters that I saw. So unless you look under neath the boat when it's on the trailer you'll never know and I would never pursue a fix. Other than a minor interior detailing needed, the boat looks as good as new.

I don't watch these webcasts for the announcers but Freddie did do an awesome job and very detailed. John did good too. Nice break from the usual announcers.

Guess I'm a nerd but I've always stuck with USCG vests. #1 90% of my skiing is public water with bacon, #2 more than once on fast over the front falls I've had my zipper rip open which obviously could lead to disaster under the right conditions.

@Skoot1123 contact Art Cozier on correctcraftfan.com, he usually locates the build sheets.

The best I've found is Oneil Jordy Freaks. Thin, light, stretch, don't hold water. I currently have a pair of Quicksilvers that are a close 2nd. I've learned sticking with a real water sports brand for board shorts is a must. Wifey used to but me ones like Old Navy, American Eagle, etc.... Those will put you in the hospital if you ski.

Awesome. Our first born is due at Christmas time. So far our biggest issue is my wife's 6 month baby belly is getting in the way of climbing in & out boat (while on trailer) when she launchs it. She says next month I'll have to launch it. God bless my great wife, 6 months pregnant, 97* in FL, zero wind and she's still my driver.

@Waternut yeah my dog could've wrote a better sentence than that. I was trying to say, what I did was I recently took a 134.6' of rope ( my tape was short too so I measured in increments, attached one end of the rope to a street sign and pulled). I originally used 1/4 rope on the surface on a glassy morning but it acted like a sail so surveyors string/brick mason line should work better. That'll give you the boat guides then I made a square out of 2x4's shown in this figure: http://www.iwsf.com/slalomcourselayout/fig2.gif to come up with the turn buoy. You could use a 41' rope rather a wooden square to set the turn buoy which I did but wasn't close enough, wooden square was much better.

That's similar to what I've done recently. My .02, do it on a day with a down course wind because it's amazing how much a rope can catch a cross breeze causing it to bow (even on a calm flat morning). After my last bout, I think I'd use surveyors string rather rope. To measure the turn buoy a room e will work but a ~41' 2x4 square is easier.

my ski partner has a portable course that we leave in. Once it get a cross breeze it's always a banana. Like Ed said, a bucket of concrete just doesn't work as an anchor, horrible shape and it rolls. My concern with a portable course is and maybe @Ed_Obermeier can shed light here is: typically a portBle course is dropped in calm water, skied, pulled up, done. If you leave it in and put serious anchors to keep it tight, when it gets a 15 mph cross breeze now instead of bowing and the anchors dragging you are adding a lot of strain on the course that it's not designed for being 800+ feet long with flopping PVC arms 41' long, it's like a sail catching a lot of energy, how well will hold up like that? I might have put a permanent course in two weeks ago. It's a homemade hybrid style course. After watching our issues with the portable course I decided what I wanted done differently. I essentially copied a portable main line minus the PVC turn buoys and arms. Screwed two mobile home anchors in lake bed, 4 (112lbs total) blocks on opposite end and used a harbor freight cum a long to keep tension on line. Then I took an old garbage can, cut it 8"x30" disc shaped sections for a concrete mold and filled with 80lbs concrete and attached a sub buoy for the turn buoys. FYI proto type was 55 lbs and didn't seem like enough once I sunk it.

Ha, I know which boat your talking about and it really sparked our interest, thanks for checking on it as now I Know what's wrong with it. Blisters are caused by leaving boat in the water for extended periods of time ( in as little as a season) The gel coat essentially becomes water logged and blisters form. They can and probably will burst but if your gentle, they may very well not burst. BLISTERS ARE COMPLETELY COSMETIC. Bottom paint will prevent it and will cover it up but IMO it's wrong and ugly. To fix significant blistering you'll need to re gel coat. Southeast's numbers seem high for both the paint and re-gel. Once the boat dries out thoroughly I doubt more blisters will appear. My '76 Ski Nautique came with 4-5 blisters, in 5 years no more appeared and none burst. Blisters seem less common in newer gel coats.

I'm a Nautique guy but if you're looking for a slalom boat I'd scratch that Sport off the list.

Wait, I got this backwards. I rushed out to put a new course in this week before my baby gets here..... You mean I should've waited a couple months and my parents/Inlaws would've put one in!!?