Bongo

My unscientific guess is that about 60% will have been converted to electronic ignition, about 35% aren't aware the conversion is readily available, and 5% are adamant to keep their boat in its original patina. Years ago, I converted my 89' PS 190. The electronic ignition didn't really change how well it started; maybe another crank or two, but never an issue with points and condenser. Two pumps with the accelerator pump before hitting the ignition, and she'd fire right up. The difference I noticed was that it smoothed out throughout the throttle range. And to me, the biggest benefit is that I could ignore those components when I had problems. Bongo

Reasons for significantly heightened concern: 1. It has been named; COVID-19 or Coronavirus 2. It originated from an exotic place most of us never had on our radar; Wuhan, China ...which leads to endless media coverage, but on opinions of the concern and not fact-based or medical experts. My laymans understanding: More contagious than seasonal influenza but not quite as contagious as the common cold. About as severe as a tough strain of influenza. Remember H1N1? Avian flu a year or two earlier? With a nod to @6balls, what condition caused over 32 million illnesses and over 18,000 deaths over the past 12 months in the US? That's the low end of the flu estimates from the CDC.

Man, this thread is so hot I've got to wear my Sunglasses at Night. Loverboy, Chilliwack, Triumph, Bachman-Turner, Aldo Nova, April Wine, Streetheart. Possibly even be a good Canadian band or two from the eastern half...

@thager, @skihart - I've got a Sunstream hydraulic lift, and use food grade hydraulic oil. Bio-based, which essentially means vegetable oil. ISO 32 on your Google device. Presumably safe in environments where food might be impacted with leaks, even small drips. So safe enough for the environment. I'm in Missouri, where we leave our lifts in year round. About 1 in 5 years we get enough ice to walk safely onto the lake. Possible it breaks down the seals a little faster than if it were dry, but haven't seen a correlation and haven't really thought about it.

From the Invoice: Clad Tuff Panels - 3/4" plywood core - 17 oz. fiberglass - CT-641 Red gel coat exterior with standard white CT-076 gel coat interior. Spent 3 years on the jump and they continue to look very good and perform very well. We did seal the seams and where we countersunk the screws with an epoxy. Only issue this past Spring was they looked a little pink...until my co-owner used a power-washer to get rid of the goose poop. Bongo

@H2oskierarron, did you find a surface? We bought a completely new surface in early 2017 for just under $2,000 from Fiber-Tech in Washington Court House, OH. 3 panels, each 96" x 14', with extra $250 set-up charge to have one side in gel-coat red. I also grabbed a piece of their scrap material for the white section that's slightly underwater on our jump. Shipping costs were high enough that I decided to do myself. Spent $20 on 2"x4" to create a little shelf above the rails on a tandem axle transportation trailer, and was an easy load. Here's what I looked like when I left their manufacturing plant (white side up): We did have a solid frame, so this was the panels only. PM me if you want more details. Bongo PS: They have no idea what a ski jump is, so you need to order the raw materials - not a "can you quote me a ski jump surface" place.

Choices: 1. Legal, 2. Safe or 3. Cheap. BTW, Legal doesn't necessarily mean Safe or vice versa. I've moved two different 10' wide boat lifts on a scissor lift style pontoon trailer. One a ShoreStation and the other a ShoreMaster. Each some distance (e.g. 120 miles), but never through a lot of stop-and-go traffic. Legs stuck well wide of the trailer. My keys: 1. Go slow. Especially around corners. Even slower yet. Top heavy on a narrow trailer induces a bit of a pucker factor. 2. Have at least one informal chase vehicle. In both cases, I had a good blocker. May have pi$$ed off the cars trying to pass, but he did a good job of blocking anything behind me so all I had to worry about was what was ahead of me. 3. Go during off-traffic hours but with some light. I know in the most recent case, I left just before dawn on a Saturday morning. Figured all the late-nighters would be done by then, and more of the early workers would at least get a Saturday morning late® start. Cement truck and a milk truck were about the only two where I had any concerns, and they likely saw me before I saw them. No incidents at all. Nothing even close. Good luck. Oh yea, even slower. :-)

@rodecon - Just like: Me: "I haven't seen those shoes before?" Wife: "These old things?"

My family went there for about 6 years, ceasing about 5 years ago, and we'd bring and install a portable course. Well, it was actually a double trout line with very evenly spaced floats except for 6 orange floats on alternating sides. We once put it in the Sister Creek area, but all other times as far east as we could in either the cove with North Shore Resort or the next little cove east. I did find a slalom course the last time I was there (about 5 years ago) for a 3-day weekend. Just a little south and west of the Peel Ferry line / Buck Creek area. It appeared the course owner was the nearest dock and they had recent activity, but we couldn't flag anyone down to confirm and give them a little buoy support $$$.

@jercrane, there is a lot of good advice in the above. Including listening to @Bruce_Butterfield on the mechanics. On the non-ski side, I have found that established skiers and the tournament officials are very happy to welcome new skiers into the sport. Especially if she can ask the questions, even if you may prompt her to do so. In my non-scientific experience, about 75% will happily answer questions - and about 1 in 4 will pull her aside and give her a tour of everything she needs to know. So your goal, dad, will be to find that 1 in 4 to pair her up with and then get out of the way. In my daughters first tournament about 8 years ago, the hosts could not have been any nicer. But were also very busy. By happenstance, one of the judging towers was near where we set up camp for the day. My youngest asked the judge a question. He invited her up to sit near him, and explained everything about what he saw from each slalom skier. Then where Trick would start, when they'd get picked up and taken to the other end, and when they'd get to swim in when they fell and including where to swim to. Same with Jump. And what time the skier's lunch would be served. And where to find the coldest water bottles. While she won't remember it, that was the best welcome she could have received. From a slalom judge who was also a skier who got into 38' off, jumped around 175' and tricked over 5,000. So...finding the 75% of key people who can answer questions is good. Finding the 25% of key people who have the available time and attitude is great. And every tournament and location has these people. Everyone. Bongo

Common replacements were the heater cores from mid-1970's Ford vehicles; F-100, Vans or maybe a Thunderbird. NAPA 660-3100 is one that looks closest; $30. I know in my case when I did this a few years ago, I had to slightly trim the tin on the box where the inlet goes.

Uggghhh. I just spent a lot of hours with a very similar issue on a 2014 Carbon Pro with PCM. I did finally figure out the bad connections. In general, I found there are five wires that matter. 1. Constant power (usually red), 2. switch power (purple @ least most of the time), 3. neutral (black), 4. CAN-bus hi and 5. CAN-bus lo. The CAN-bus hi and CAN-bus lo seemingly changed wire colors at every connection. The signal for basically all gauges and controls run off this pair. The high side should be between 2.5V and 3.5V, while the low side should be between 2.5V and 1.5V. They transmit signals opposite each other, which I assume is a basic quality check. If either or both are very close to 2.5V DC, there's no signal (in my case, 2.44V). I used a simple multimeter set to 20V DC. I ground black from the multimeter to the ground at a connection, and then connected the red from the multimeter to the pin for the CAN-bus hi and CAN-bus low to get my readings. I'd suggest starting at the back of the ZO gauge. And start by connecting / disconnecting the ZO pucks, each and then both. See how the voltage changes, if it does. Then start tracing the CAN-bus hi and CAN-bus lo wires back toward the engine. With help from the ZO folks, RPM mode and Diagnostic mode are your two best friends. In my case, I had no RPM - and they convinced me that until I got that back I should keep looking. The diagnostics gave me two different errors; almost always GPS1_fail, but sometimes also J1938_txfail. (J1939 is the specific data protocol on the CAN-bus.) The GPS1_fail was a red herring for me. In my case, there was a pin from the main CAN-bus connection at the point where it connected to the wiring harness that distributed the signals to each of the gauges that had pulled partially out. Really wedged up under the dash, so I don't know how it got dislodged. And, I expect, in my troubleshooting I disconnected a connector between the ZO side and the rest of the gauges and ECM, which was my second problem. Good Luck. My final suggestion is slow and methodical. It'll likely be better than where I started, which was to try and be quick and jump to conclusions. That lead to a lot of incorrect conclusions and me chasing parts. Bongo

Dang, I read this thread and thought I must be dealing with the wrong company. I called their Tech Services twice over the past two weeks and got through quickly each time. Different technicians, but each was more than patient and willing to walk through the questions I had, explained how ZO worked in conjunction with the rest of the computer control signals and explained more about the rest of the CAN-bus system that was unrelated to ZO. Basically, talked to the level of knowledge I demonstrated I could understand; neither insulting nor speaking over my head. I also contacted Sales, and they were responsive. I'd go out of my way to deal with these guys.

I had a similar problem a couple years ago with my '04 197. Two things would happen occasionally; alarm and limp mode, or alarm and low voltage warning. I did have a code reader, but it didn't help as much as it could. (Or I wasn't savvy enough to zoom in on the Diacom graph that might have showed it; no relevant codes were thrown.) After weeks of chasing, found a negative / ground wire under the dash that was slightly loose. Since sporadic, didn't really know until a few weeks passed without an issue. ....now if I could only get it to smooth out at 1,850 RPM. No issues above or below...but that's where I pull a lot of my trick skier runs...

So after reading @eleeski on multiple occasions, I convinced myself and (I think) my lake co-owner to avoid turn islands on the lake we bought and turned into a ski lake. It'd seem to me the point of a turn island is to (a) direct traffic flow and (b) to either absorb or redirect the waves. Traffic flow could be handled by a drop buoy or small floating raft. Or mentally mark a virtual spot on the water, if most drivers and skiers are familiar with the lake. I don't see how a floating raft, whether soft-sided or not, could either absorb much wave energy or redirect much energy. I expect something with perforations, to mimic the affect of rip-rap, and that doesn't bob up-and-down could do so to a limit extent. Even then, rip-rap along a permanent island to redirect the wave energy in a dozen little ripples would be way, way better. But maybe beyond feasible for most lakes unless built in. My $0.02 aside @addkerr, if you mount a tiki hut and bar on top of that island, I'll spot skiers all day long for you. Bongo

@skimtb : It is a bit sad we have to pay $12 to buy a spout to add to that $10 plastic gas can to overcome the new style spouts guaranteed to spill. In my current situation, this is what I use about half the time. The other half for my other boat, where the boat typically sits lower than the water, I use gravity with a rattle nozzle similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Wadoy-Siphon-Gasoline-Transfer-Priming/dp/B07D7TN9D6/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=shaker+siphon+3%2F4&qid=1551840607&s=automotive&sr=1-5-catcorr When I lived in MN, we had a ski shed close to the water and we used fuel oil to heat our house. Got a 150 gallon fuel tank intended for a pick-up for the shed. Since I bought enough fuel oil to heat my house, fuel delivery truck was willing to fill it up a couple times per year. In my current situation, couldn't find a real reason to overcome a parade of 5 gallon plastic cans.

I've got an '04 MC 197 and half interest in a '14 Carbon Pro. Different lakes, and don't want to haul them between. Nothing really to add to what @oldmanskier said regarding the Carbon Pro; easy to drive and tracks well, small slalom wake and just enough space to haul everything as a tug boat. As with most inboards, easy for routine maintenance. Trick wake small, but a flat table. Wake trick gets more practice behind the MC 197. I'd like to upgrade my '04 MC 197 to a Zero Off boat rather than Perfect Pass. I'd consider myself to be a bit loyal to MC; previous boat was an '89 MC Prostar. Current hull MC Prostars are too expensive from my value perspective, even for well-used. So I'd prefer another Cabon Pro, but now that they ceased to be made, seems it'll kill their potential resale value. Brendella, Tige or Supra anyone? So I feel a bit stuck. Which very likely means I'll run another year with what I've got... Bongo

@DangerBoy, I agree with you. On my combo skis, I do paint the fins with a neon yellow. Sadly, flakes off fairly quickly. Much, much better if the manufacturers used bright rather than black on bottom and fin.

@lpskier hit it right with "NH may own the water, but you own the land around and under the water." Look up riparian water rights, as I believe this applies to NH. I'm in Missouri, which follows the riparian doctrine. And live on an artificial lake where all the (practical) land surrounding the lake is governed by the Covenants and Restrictions established when the Community Association (CA) was created and the lake was flooded. Basically, the State of Missouri owns the water. The land under the lake and all adjoining land is owned by the Community Association or governed by the C&R's. In these rules, there are a lot of restrictions imposed upon those who have access to the lake via land; no jet propulsion, boats of a certain length or horsepower, etc. Even though the local Fire Department has a jet ski for water rescue, we (CA) don't allow them to practice their rescue techniques on "our" lake. So when can they (non CA members, such as fire department) access the lake? When they have reasonable cause to intervene. A real water rescue in a true emergency. A reasonable suspicion someone has taken more fish than State law allows. Other than that, you ain't getting on the lake. While not a lawyer, my short view would be: Don't give them a reason where they see there is a dire need to intervene. And in practice, no real issue. (Are they gonna fly a helicopter in to observe what you might be doing that fails to comply?) Bongo

Man, we had a fun tournament in Columbia, MO this past weekend. ~40 slalom skiers, 5 to each team, 8 teams. Handicapped. Each skier's baseline was 6 buoys below their 12-month PB. Some had never skied, so PB was 0....and ~6 teams had skiers with a 0. Every buoy below that baseline on a pass, and took points away from your team. Every buoy above added points. Max of +/- 9 points / skier / round. First two rounds of the tournament were pool play to determine team seeding for the bracket. Once seeded in the bracket team tournament, team-vs-team and skiers went head-to-head on each pass. Each skier had to start two passes below their PB; e.g. 1 @ 32' PB off meant opening pass was 22' off at same speed. Each team captain determined running order of their skiers (team captain always last), without knowing what the other team captain would do. Higher seeded team got to pick either their boat choice, or their order (1st skier off the dock, or 2nd). 1st skier for team one attempted their opening pass and if successful sat down at the other end of the lake. 1st skier for team two attempted to beat their opponent. If both made their opener, came back the other way in the same order. Until someone won...which was never more than 3 passes. Whichever team won first 3 head-to-head competitions moves forward in the bracket. Smack talkin' greatly encouraged. Led to a few great showdowns. Showdown #1: M4 skier is first skier and runs his 22' off 34mph opening pass. Sits down at the other end of the lake with his tow boat. B2 (moderately novice) skier runs his required opening pass @ 27mph. Sits down near first skier, points a finger and says "You ain't got nothing on me!". M4 skier comes back. Just as he's going through the end gates, looks back and motions to the B2 skier: Here, kitty kitty. B2 skier runs his pass back, dropped in the water next to the M4 skier, and says "Hey ol' man, you are starting to look a little tired." ... Showdown #2: By random chance, Daughter vs Dad. Win the head-to-head, and their team advances. Yikes! None skiing at their max speed. Daughter up as the first skier; falls halfway through on her opening pass. Dad opts to increase speed past his required opener. Barely beats her. Showdown #3: M4 skier sets his new PB on third pass in the bracket tournament. Gets beat by B2 skier who is still a couple away from his PB and who is getting better each week. Showdown #4: New B3 skier. Good show skier, but never run a successful 3-event tournament pass. Still doesn't in the team bracket, and looses his head-to-head. But his team advances. So gets another shot. Happy kid. The G3 girls like his curly hair. Just might be hooked. And in the end, you may have to ask @skiinxs how he liked his cheese balls or gummy bears. But his new boat is nice. Very nice. But not red. Bongo

Done. Good cause.

In my day of curious interactions, one was waiting for and then heading up the elevator with an IDD adult. In making small talk, he raised the topic of Stephen Hawking and was very proud of Stephen's acceptance in society. Did the best I could to have a good peer-to-peer type conversation without being patronizing. And hadn't thought earlier that Stephen would be seen as his hero.

@Tonster17 @MS @swc5150 I've got to agree that The Liquid Edge and Doug are great. I met Doug and his family at a tournament in Fall 2016. Later, said I'd like to come buy a ski from him, as long as he set it up for my daughter. Early this past summer, they had a tournament. So we went up, bought the ski (65" D3 ARC-S), he set it up to factory specs explaining what meant what, watched her ski and had a few helpful suggestions - mostly how the ski and set-up would feel and ski differently than her Syndicate. He seemed excited to explain this to us, even though he had a shop full of customers and a lot of folks buzzing about the lake. Class act.

@"Eric Kelley" asks: "Should a towboat manufacturer receive credit for pulling a tournament if the boat used was a privately owned boat?" Refinement: Is the purpose of the credit: a. Demonstration of each manufacturers financial and promotional support for the sport, or b. Demonstration that it is a mainstream (enough) boat that frequently pulls tournament skiers? If (b.), the make & model are what gets credit. Doesn't matter the financial background. If (a.), I'd still argue the manufacturer should get credit. In some cases, the manufacturer needs to sweeten the deal by giving promo owner deals to private boat owners and in return stipulate they'll have the boat available per x number of tournaments / events. In other cases, private owners are so happy* with the manufacturer and model that the private owner will provide the boat they purchased without subsidy to pull the tournament. Whether financial or enthusiastic support for the brand, both seem appropriate motivation. * Ok, I get happy may not be universal. Some local tournaments very likely beg for boats, and their buddies feel compelled to support the sport and "volunteer" their own boat. Just my $0.02. Not a promo boat owner, as you might guess. Bongo

Resurrecting a thread from the past, I wanted to give a shout out to Ed Brazil ( @Edbrazil ) for writing the article and re-posting it here for how to measuring and install a slalom course on ice. Also, various advice from this thread and others for what to consider when installing our permanent course; e.g. @eleeski‌ for the importance or lack-thereof for a turn island. In our case, we've got about 2,100' of distance. One end with deeper water (12') and an 'L' shape, though inverted and the wrong way way for the slalom skier pull-out. The other end, somewhat shallow (4') and a straight pull into the course. Nonetheless, more than enough room for a Slalom course and separate Jump course. The brief version of this past weekend's activities: - Measure and mark slalom course. - Re-measure slalom course. - Consider impact to Jump course, especially where the Slalom 3-ball might interfere with the skiers approach to the Jump on a 3/4 cut. - Slightly adjust slalom course. Really, only one turn-ball that was 5 cm off on the diagonal measurement (D for those looking at the official slalom course measurements). - Cut holes, measure depth, assemble anchor lines and drop anchors into lake. (This went way faster than measuring.) - Second-guess everything we just did. - Measure and mark Jump course. - Second-guess Jump course, especially if we've got enough room on the pull-out for big jumpers. I've got a few anchors to drop for the Jump course, which I am confident will go quickly this upcoming weekend. Then wait for spring thaw and get skiers on the course. Lake is at: 39°44'51.3"N 92°13'44.0"W My co-owner and I have coined the name NEMO Ski Lake. Where NEMO might be: (a.) cute little fish from some movie, (b.) latin for nobody, as in nobody's ski lake, (c.) Northeast Missouri, or (d.) all of the above. Great perspectives and advice on this forum that I considered when installing the temporary course and now our permanent courses.