TallSkinnyGuy

Both the pics shown so far in this thread have the bimini much lower than I personally like it. I tend to like biminis at about 12" above the top of windshield and positioned so that the driver's head is in the middle of the bimini fore and aft. But everyone can be a little different with bimini preferences, so I recommend spending some time with friends who have biminis and figure out what you like best so that your first mount is a keeper.

If you don't care about top speed and you need good power out of the hole there is a good chance the prop manufacturers (OJ and Acme) will recommend going down 0.5" or even an inch in pitch. The problem with going down in pitch is that it is likely to increase your RPM at skiing speeds, too, which is more likely to firm up the wake than to soften it. They might also have other recommendations, but will most likely suggest trying two or three different props to figure out what works best for you. If that seems like too much of a hassle, then your probably pretty safe just going with the same prop you currently have minus 0.5" in pitch. That likely won't increase your RPMs too much at skiing speeds but should give you a little more out of the hole.

It is my understanding that prop evaluations have to include some other vital information in addition to what you provided: 1) What is your WOT RPM with old prop? (and top speed) 2) What is most important to you with boat performance? (e.g. soft slalom wake at skiing speeds, speed out of the hole due to short setup, etc.) 3) Also may be useful to know RPMs at skiing speeds of old prop. Seems like at 4500 elevation you would likely be better off with a lower pitch prop than the standard prop for that boat.

I just looked at satellite images of the lake on Google earth and the latest image is from July 2016 and the course is there on the northwest end of the lake. Every September when I go camping there I am tempted to take my ski and hold it up in the air on the shore near the course to try to get someone to pick me up for a set. There have always been one or more boats skiing it every morning when I have been there.

Note that Fallen Leaf Lake has really cold water, especially this year since the snow is still in the mountains around the lake.

I grew up skiing behind a tri-hull open-bow outboard and it actually skied pretty well. Even used it with a portable slalom course a couple times. Outboard motors are relatively light, and if you get a boat with a hull that is not too deep-v you can end up with a pretty small wake (though maybe a bit firmer than modern inboard wakes). If you haven't already and can get the chance it may be worth it for you to take a ski set behind a 1990s+ inboard ski boat so you have a measure to compare against.

What's your acceptable price range? Do you need open bow? Do you want to do anything else with the boat other than ski?

I mentioned above in an earlier post that I had a lot of confusion the first time setting up because the instructions didn't match the numbering on the pipes. Due to this confusion one of my buddies started putting pipes up on the edge of the boat to enable digging deeper in the pile to find the next pipe section. Two seconds later and a section was knocked off into the water and started sinking to the bottom (about 90' depth). I was standing on the back and dove in after it with hat and prescription sunglasses still on. I caught the pipe after it had sunk about 6' under the surface and came back up with the pipe section AND hat and sunglasses still on! It was a fortunate save, but that story is why I stressed putting together a section on land first.

If you got a v8 with a purchase this year I would guess the people at PP would send you an upgrade stick for free. Certainly worth a call to them.

I'd be happy to house sit for you while your gone and "watch over" your boat if you're concerned about leaving it home alone.

I think this round of Senates are the best looking ones ever. The graphic artists at Radar are doing a fantastic job -- the windows at the tip are really cool looking, too.

FYI, I mentioned above using 18 lb river anchors, but that was wrong. We use the 30 lb coated river anchors and I added about 6' of heavy chain to each to help keep the anchors in the right grabbing position even with a more upward pull from the mainline.

After installing ours a couple times we got the install time down to about 25 minutes -- and this is 90 feet of water, so shallower will require less time to drop anchors and make straightening the course easier/quicker. We use the compact EZ-slalom set, so it fits easily in our tow boat. One thing I really wish I would have done before taking the course out the first time is put together one arm section on land first. The instructions I got with the set did not correspond with the numbering on the arm sections and I would have preferred figuring that out on land rather than being very confused in the boat during initial install. For install we have one driver always at the wheel, one person in the boat and one on the swim deck. We keep sections 1 and 2 on one side of the engine and sections 3 and 4 on the other side to make finding the needed section faster. We also rigged up a way to keep the rope spool connected to the back of the engine cover to keep it stable -- this helps a lot during removal when winding the rope in. It won't take you long to figure out an efficient system for both install and removal. For removal you don't need the engine on, so we like to play some mellow tunes during removal and enjoy the serenity of the lake.

If you are leaving the course in then modified concrete buckets can work fine, but I tried those many years ago with a course I had to put in and take out each day and now that I have the rubber coated river anchors I will not go back. The rubber-coated river anchors stick quickly in muddy bottoms, are pretty easy to manage out of the water and won't scratch up your boat.

I use 18lb river anchors in my lake and have a muddy bottom. They work well. I attach a larger diameter rope with a buoy to each anchor to make pulling them up easier on the hands. I am in 90' of water, so pulling up the anchors is a chore. I also found that the line-tightening process works better by attaching my tightening line to the bottom of the anchor so that when I let loose of the tightening line the anchor is in the proper position to grab hold of the bottom right away.

According to the information in the API link that Jody Seal provided above, the "SM" is the gasoline engine designation, so it appears that it doesn't matter what diesel designation it has unless you're putting it in a diesel engine. For gas engines it is the "SM" that is important. At least that is what I got out of that API site.

@MarcusBrown Looking for an update -- is The Ridge open for coaching this summer?

Lots of discussion about this fuel pump on the Mastercraft Team Talk site. Might check there for some ideas.

Most people put the foot forward that is the most stable. In surfing it used to be considered "goofy" to put right foot forward (for reasons unknown to me), so many learned with left foot forward even if it felt awkward to them. There is no longer any social pressure to do that, particularly now that the GOAT surfer -- Kelly Slater -- is right foot forward. I surf, skateboard, wakeboard, snowboard and ski with my right foot forward.

Are there any warning signs before your battery needs replacing or does it just not start the boat one day out of the blue?

I know with snow ski boots a proper fitting requires taking the liner out and getting a "shell fit." Seems like this could be appropriate with Vapors, also, although the Vapors should be more forgiving than snow ski boots since the shell is not as hard. With the liners out and your foot in the shell (position your foot in the "center" so that there is equal space around your foot both in length and width), how much space do you have on either side of the ball of your foot? If you are still getting squished with the liner out then your foot may be too wide for this boot. If you move your foot forward in the shell so that your toes are just barely touching the front of the shell, how much space do you have behind your heel? I would guess you want about a centimeter or two? If less than 5mm the shell might be a bit small for you. If the shell seems to fit okay, then heat molding the liners should do the trick since that will compress the liner in the areas that are too tight.

We had the best spring snow conditions in Tahoe that I can remember. Amazing winter-like powder on many days, excellent corn snow on other days. I had such a great snow skiing spring I got a later-than-usual start with getting the boat out. I'm ready for summer now, but really want the debris to clear out soon.

It's unlikely you won't be able to get it off after applying some heat to the hub of the prop. Just get some pressure on it with the prop puller and heat the hub until it pops loose. I used an acetylene torch and it took about a minute of heating the hub to get it loose.

I just pulled my bottle of 303 Aerospace Protectant off the shelf yesterday and it said you can apply it to most anything except suede, fabric (canvas) and something else I can't remember. Fiberglass was one of the surfaces it explicitly listed as being one to apply it to. I've only ever used it on vinyl. May have to try it on other surfaces. I usually use Collinite paste wax on the gelcoat.

My understanding is that the front binding plate hole pattern is the same among all ski brands. If that is correct then any front binding mounted to a standard plate should work fine. So, bindings like the HO direct connect (or whatever they're called) and Radar feather frame bindings would not work. You need a binding on a standard plate.