jpwhit

I understood the question, but since it's asked in the context of keeping OffCourse in calibration as you change passengers in the boat, it's not really the most important question. The answer to the question is the angle will change between sitting still and moving. But that amount of change will be most consistent if the boat is level and balanced when sitting still. Consistency is what matters for OffCourse. If the boat was level and balanced during the initial OffCourse calibration, then that initial calibration includes any dynamic tilt at speed. Then as long as there is consistency in the tilt, OffCourse will stay accurate. The amount of change in tilt at speed will potentially be speed dependent, but I don't think it'll change enough with speed to matter very much.

If the boat is truly level sitting still, it'll be at the same tilt at speed. But this is only true if it's actually level. If it's level, then the weight distribution is even. And an evenly weighted boat will be at the same level of tilt at speed. That's because any tilt at speed due to hull hydrodynamics and prop torque, will always be the same for an evenly weighted boat. This does assume the mass of the boat doesn't change significantly. So assuming you not going from a couple of people to 10 people in the boat.

Hydrofoil and other changes to boat are not likely to make much difference. Not with a lightweight aluminum boat. Motor height on transom may make some difference on top speed, but very little on out-of-the hole, unless it's too high and the prop is caveating. Rope length won't matter for getting up per se, but longer may be better for letting the boat do the maneuvers described above without impacting the skier much. Trim may make a very slight difference. All the way down is typically optimal for getting up. If the nose of the boat rises a lot on take-off, then moving weigh forward, such as the helm may make some difference. A prop with less pitch can make a fair amount of difference, but that depends a lot on how the motor is currently prop'ed and what RPMs it's turning. You don't need a stainless steel prop. A good condition used aluminum prop with one step less pitch may make a significant difference if the motor isn't already turning high RPM. For example if you current prop is a 15" pitch, a 13" pitch may help. Pitch typically changes in 2" increments on boat props. Motor rebuild could help if the motor isn't running well currently. But instead of rebuilding that motor, look around for something like a 50hp outboard that needs work. I have a friend that goes to lots of auctions. He's picked up many old boats with 50ish HP engines for a few hundred dollars that needed a little work. Often, he'd but the whole boat to get the motor, fix up the boat itself a little and re-sale that for a profit. Skier technique will make the biggest difference. If there any chance someone with more HP can pull you to re-learn how to get up, then you'd have a much better chance of getting up behind your boat. If you're having any trouble keeping the skis together, tie a cord between the skis right in front of the boots so the skis can't spread apart more than 4-6 inches. The cord has very little effect once you're up, but will make you much more stable on the get-up.

@ironhorse you need to add a Hobie Cat and a Pontoon. We use the Hobie when it’s too windy to ski or surf, and we use the pontoon as our floating dock out at the course complete with grill for cooking out. Pontoon is also invaluable for course maintenance.

@GregHind, that was our experience as well on our Nautique 200 club boat. We didn't realize how much the pull on our dual puck ZO had deteriorated until after I updated the firmware on the pucks. And since my ProStar at my lake house is the new single puck, it made the club boat and my other boat feel much closer to the same.

The pucks are not brand specific. The new single puck for ZO is made by ECI for ZO. ZO then provide the same ZO hardware to all boat manufacturers.

The symptoms you describe is exactly how ZO behaves when using pucks that suffer from the GPS week rollover bug in the Garmin 18x puck firmware. The rollover that impacts the original ZO dual puck system happened on April 6 2019.

I made the switch about 5 years ago after 30 years of skiing with double boots. I learned with a toe plate and skied that way for the first 5 years. I didn't do it for health reasons, I switched because I was convinced it would help my skiing and I was tired of constantly dealing with cramps in my rear foot. Shortly after I switched, I also switched to a reflex front binding. I had too many cases of falls where I felt like I came close to injuring my front leg. Haven't had a single case of that with the releasable reflex in the front. I'll have to say it wasn't the easiest transition. But I'm glad I stuck with it and feel like it's paid pretty significant dividends now. When I first switched I felt so insecure on the ski. I literally felt like I was going to fall off the ski.

@chrislandy I thought the mefiburn software only worked with MEFI ECMs, not eControls.

Good to know the analog gauge connector is there. Also means you can't assume the wiring diagrams are 100% complete.

If you're getting a "service required" message there should be engine codes stored in the ECU. I can't recall if that model had any way to read the codes out w/o DIACOM, but in any case you need to know which codes are logged in the ECU as the starting point.

Yes, in the 2016 wiring diagram it shows an analog gauge connector. But in earlier year wiring diagrams that is not shown. Make me think that in earlier years there may have been difference harnesses or there was some king of gateway black box. I agree I'm not sure why that makes sense... This is part of why I'm very curious as to what you find on your boat. I looked at my 2012 200 Linc equipped club boat last night and didn't see an obvious analog gauge connector. I did see what I think is extra CANBUS and Power Connectors. Which are 3 and 4 wire connectors. The analog gauge connectors are typically more like 12 pin connectors. But I didn't have a lot of time so I couldn't do a very though inspection.

The "709" series prop is the standard prop and it's been updated twice in the last few years. Original was labeled 709, then the first update was labeled 709-MF, latest update is labeled 1709 and is the approved prop for 2022. The OJ 867-MF is the 2022 approved 3-blade prop. It's primarily for jump or high altitude. Never tried one, but I would expect it to run higher RPM. 2022 Approved Tow Boats My course at the lake house on a public lake is very shallow at one end. As a result I have at least one of each of these iterations. Each iteration is an improvement in lowering RPMs w/o any lose of hole shot. And if you're a frequent OJ customer, they start sending you t-shirts w/ you prop purchases and repairs :wink: I have a few t-shirts now.....

Is it a PCM 40i or 80i ? Generally speaking, once they slip the clutch plates are toast. And either need to be rebuilt or replaced. If it's a 40i, you should go ahead and replace it with the more robust 80i.

@mlange I'm interested in what you find in terms of analog gauge connections.

@KRoudy, the ones I replaced had a boat manufacturer specific part number on the device. It did not match any of the standard AIRMAR part numbers. I think I figured out which AIRMAR part # was likely correct, but in the end didn't want to risk it since I couldn't be sure and the part was not returnable. I can't find anywhere that I recorded the part # I thought it was.

@KRoudy, then it pretty much has to be the biducer itself. There's only a set of CANBUS and Power wires going to it. So if the temp is working, then the biducer is communicating on the CANBUS. The depth sounder circuitry in the biducer must be failing. And as I said before, this is a fairly common failure. I've replaced 2 out of the 5 boats I provide maintenance for in the last 5 years. It's actually possible to buy the part w/o going through Nautique or MasterCraft for cheaper. They are made by AIRMAR but it's tricky to match up the right part number. There are a lot of variables such as sensor angle and most of the boat makers use a different part # than the native AIRMAR part maker.

@KRoundy more than likely you need a new biducer. It possible to be an wiring issue, but the intermittent behavior you describe is typical of how these tend to fail. Are you getting temp reading ? https://nautiqueparts.com/product/bi-ducer-depth-temp/

@mlange the boat in question here has the ZO controls integrated into the LINC display. So, you would need to add a ZO head unit to your list. Also knowing what all the LINC display handles, I think there would have to be some kind of black box in addition to the gauges. Something similar to the MMDC of earlier boats. There isn't any wiring in the harness for analog gauge inputs. Everything is done via the CANBUS. So, unless each of the gauges in your list has a CANBUS interfaces, there would have to be some kind of black box to serve as the gateway between the gauges and the CANBUS. Also, looking at the 200 wiring diagram, there are no connectors shown for individual gauges. We used to have members of our ski club with 200's with analog gauges. Now I wish I had looked at how the gauges were connected into the wiring harness. Your 2012 200 is pre-LINC ZO integration, so I guess you do have the original ZO interface independently from the LINC display.

There are two things that happen that can cause these symptoms. One is that there is noise on the power feed to the screen during the time that firmware is configuring the LCD panel and the panel ends up configured incorrectly. This can be prevented in some cases by not doing certain things when the boat is being powered up. I also built an adapter cable with filter capacitors and ferrite beads on the power supply wires that can prevent this issue. The second thing is that the FPC cable that attaches the LCD matrix to the LCD driver start to delaminate from the circuit board. This causes all kinds of issues with the LCD and can be intermittent, but will get worse over time. There is nothing external that someone working on the boat can do that causes this or can fix it. The only solution is the either replace the whole screen assembly, or crack the sealed screen assembly open, replace the LCD panel, and reassemble and reseal the unit. The user interface on these is horrible. Part of the reason is that the boat manufacturers aren't writing the software natively. They are using a toolkit provided by Murphy that lets you develop applications for these screens with a minimal amount of actual software development. These toolkits impart of a lot of limitation on the application and make it very easy to build a horrible user interface. It's not really a good excuse, but it makes it easier to understand how it ended up so bad. Some boat manufacturers are better than others. I find the Nautique software to be the the worst. Especially the non-touch screen versions. Some of the latest MasterCraft display aren't so bad, but could still be so much better. Especially if the software were written natively to break out of some of the restrictions of the Murphy PowerView Toolkit.

Is this touchscreen version or the version that just uses the button around the perimeter of the display? I can't remember the exact year they added the touch screen. If it's not the touch screen version, I think I have the right LCD panel and can fix it. If it is the touch screen version, I may have one of those assemblies as well, but I'd have to look through my collection of complete display units and parts.

There is no reason to reduce your ZO speed, that has nothing to do with getting up.

A lot of good info here already. So only thing I'll add is if you have any access to an experienced direct drive boat driver for even one session. It would help both you and your wife to experience the optimum pull up process with an experienced driver. There's nothing better than being able to feel what the correct pull-up rate feels like. In a situation like yours, I've had a lot of success with the 2-step start if you're able to keep the ski reasonably straight while being towed in gear. Even if you can't keep the ski straight being towed in gear, that helps so much it's worth practicing it some to see if you can get the hang of it. I do it for a different reason, which is to save my back, but I can be towed in gear indefinitely without any issue until I say hit it. Having that little bit of momentum in the water makes the physical stress of getting up at least 2x less. I helped a lot of people that were having similar issues getting up by having them learn to be comfortable with being towed at idle. It's worth trying the rear foot out at least a couple of times, but I have found that for people like you that have a background getting up with rear foot in, more often than not it doesn't work out that well. But for some, it's like magic. I would say if you try it 2-3 times, and it doesn't help, don't keep going down that path.

@6balls the motor is damaged from improper winterization. I'm not planning to invest any time or money into the existing motor.

Nice looking boat @Jaypro