Cnewbert

@ScottScott yet somehow, against all odds, we live to tell about it!

@ScottScott to say nothing of the snapping turtles and water moccasins. 😂

"I started MasterCraft because... I wanted to build the best boat on the market" -- Rob Shirley. Mission accomplished Rob!

@MitchellM I think depth only really matters if you are putting in a sinker course and water that is too shallow would not allow the course to be sunk deep enough for it to be out of sight, out of mischief and out of trouble. We're going to install a WallySinker course, but I got the impression you intend to install a floating course in which case 10' depth would not be a concern.

@H2Oski17 I'm curious about your statement that a 10' lake depth is almost perfect for a submersible course. Some friends and myself are planning to install a submersible course on our public lake, and water depth has been a topic of discussion. The consensus is that 10' would be marginal at best, and wouldn't allow for any significant drop in the lake level. Our thinking goes like this: we'd want the mainline, diamonds, and PVC arms 5' below the surface when the course is raised. When submerged we'd want the buoys a minimum of 5' deep. So even if the sand ballast bags were secured directly to the PVC arms and not hanging on lines beneath them, we'd need a full 10' of water to sink the course properly, and at a 10' water depth the mainline and arms would be resting on the lake bottom itself, likely in weeds which are abundant in FL lakes. As well, there would be no margin for error should the lake level go down. Ideally however, we'd like the buoys 6' deep when submerged. We want enough depth below the arms to allow the sand ballast hang lines to be adjusted individually for variations in depth that will certainly occur in any natural lake, and so the arms and mainline float above the bottom and above any weeds when the course is submerged. Our thinking is 15' depth is the minimum we'd look for. I'd be grateful for your thoughts on this.

Nice! Ya done well! And yes, Performance is in a class of their own.

@SkiGal re: shipping your boat from the mainland, be aware that the club skis on salt water. Does your boat have an open or closed cooling system?

American alligators feed primarily at night. This little dude was caught in our lake. Granted it was a while ago but I would rather enjoy my sunset beer looking out at the lake from the comfort our pool, than in the lake wondering if his kin folk might still be bent on revenge! 😂

@Andre so, for instance, you’d be comfortable swimming after dark in a Florida lake? 😂

I couldn't imagine a house in FL without a pool! We hit the jackpot when we found our lake house last May as it checked all of our boxes plus it has a big, gorgeous pool. Sold!

I just used it maybe a week ago and had a FastPass response within the day from Chris Parrish.

DUI (Diving Unlimited International) repairs all brands of drysuit. (divedui.com)

Maybe this is too simple, but if I were trying to determine if I had a bad battery or a parasitic drain I think I'd just disconnect the battery entirely before leaving the boat and when I came back over a week later, reconnect it and see if it drained on its own or remained charged.

Tuesday and Sunday, maybe other days. Weather is a concern.

@Chris Rossi thanks for that clarification. Based on the lower stitch line, my boot is actually set at 29 1/4". I can go back as much as I want, and I'll certainly try the factory recommended setting of 29", then move back bit by bit as you suggest, finding what feels best. With the current mounting plate holes, 29 1/4" is my forward limit unless I drill some extra boot mounting holes in the plate to allow me to find that forward point where it feels worse and then zero in on what works best for me. Thanks again.

@Chris Rossi Chris, could you please clarify something for me? The Radar fin settings webpage says the factory boot placement for my 65" '24 Vapor Pro Build with the L/S fin setting is 29". Following your advice to experiment with boot placement first and leave the fin alone, I'm confused about exactly where on the back of the front boot to measure from. If I measure from the rearmost bulge of the heel of my Radar Boa Vector boot, the boot is at the factory recommended 29" from the tail. But at that point the mounting plate is already all the way forward as far as it can go, and therefore doesn't permit experimenting with any boot placement further forward than the 29" factory setting. I checked the underside of the mounting plate and it does not have any optional boot mounting holes that would allow to the boot itself to be moved forward on the plate, just hole slots in the existing holes to allow for canting. Alternatively, if I measure from the apex of the curve at the back of the mounting plate, then the boot is 29 1/2" forward, but I'm quite sure that's not the correct measuring point. So assuming as I suspect that I should measure from the back of the heel, what options, if any, do I have to try a boot placement forward of the factory 29" other than drilling a series of new boot mounting holes in the mounting plate in front of the existing ones? And if that's my only option, what increments would you recommend... 1/4" perhaps? Thanks for any advice.

Right you are. I nearly learned this the hard way recently. Being small and light, I used to ask for fast starts. I would extend my legs immediately against the max displacement of water by the ski during acceleration in order to pop me up quickly and help keep water out of my face. A few weeks ago during my typical such start I felt something pop or rip in my front leg hamstring as I stood up. I finished my run but it hurt like crazy once back in the boat. Fortunately we had to go out of state a couple of days later and I was back skiing in about 9 days upon our return, but with a modified get up to relieve the pressure on my still tender, tight and not fully healed hamstring. I'm guessing I suffered micro tears in the muscle, and most certainly not a full tear. But I doubt I'll ever return to my former technique now that I know the potential consequences.

I had it a couple of years ago, diagnosed as such by my doctor. Wow, did it hurt! I went to PT for a month or more, going through the complete protocol of progressive stretches and exercises. I can’t say anything really helped. Except time. It seemed to go away as quickly as it started, never to return. (So far. Knock on wood). It remains a bit of a mystery to me.

These are GREAT! I ordered one after I saw this post and they are the best thing yet. Refueling at the dock has never been easier. They’re much better than the jigglers, which I used previously. @Horton they will actually work fine with less than a full gas can, even emptying the last few cupfuls that might remain in the gas can once the siphon starts sucking air and the siphon breaks. All you need to do in these situations is, instead of squeezing the sides, simply lift and tip the can forward just enough until the gas begins flowing out of the hose thereby starting (or re-starting) the siphon. With a partial tank you can then set the can back down and it will continue siphoning. When draining the last remaining drops after the siphon stopped you just have to hold the can tipped forward until the small amount of remaining gas has drained out.

@lefty I’m fairly certain it could be. I just put in a new one as it was a warranty replacement. I’ve saved the old one and will try and unplug it one of these days.l to have as a spare. Until then I have no way of knowing what plugged it, but the I.D. is quite small, so it wouldn’t take much.

@Vernon Reeve very creative… and complex! @APB if you are referring to the Parkit 360, I ordered one on Wednesday. It arrived today. It assembled in minutes. Very heavy duty machine and works like a champ. I only tried it with our empty trailer as our Prostar is on the lift. In doing so I realized exactly how tight the fit was and with the 90° turn required to fit it into our garage how completely impossible this would be with anything but a motorized dolly. Even my POS Kymco 4wd, assuming it ran decently which it never has, could not have made the turn in the available space. @MDB1056 yeah, but airplane stuff is even more insanely priced than boat stuff. Our former neighbor has his own helicopter that he moves in and out of his hanger with a motorized dolly — a $7000 motorized dolly! 🙂

Because the cross over tube is rarely — if ever — mentioned in overheating trouble shooting discussions for the Ilmor 6.0 in late model Prostars, and because it’s hard to even locate, I’ve included a photo of the plugged one I replaced, which instantly fixed my overheating problem after everything else in the system was either inspected or replaced. A descending rubber hose with a hose clamp on the right front of the motor connects to the vertical portion of the tube. That’s the easiest part to locate. The rest of the tube is pretty much obscured from sight and the left side is under the alternator and can only be seen from certain angles. Once the alternator is removed and the rubber hose detached, the tube is very easy to replace with a single bolt on the left and right. I still don’t have a clear understanding of what this tube does or how such a small diameter tube when plugged could have such a dramatic effect on the engine cooling, but it does. I hope this might help someone or save them a trip to the dealer.

What @jpwhit said "A likely culprit is a small air leak somewhere on the suctions side of the raw water system. Something letting air in between where the water enters the hull fitting and the intake side of the raw water pump" is exactly right. We have the same boat and it developed an overheating problem out of the blue last fall. Turns out the sealant for the clear elbow at the inlet for the raw water strainer was faulty, admitting air into the water flow. It never leaked a drop of water, but air was getting sucked in causing the overheating. Quick and easy fix by resealing it. Also, as @ColeGiacopuzzi said, the PRV can also be the source. The Ilmor manual says they're meant to be replaced every 100 hours. Replace it with a brass one like he said. Another quick fix if that is the problem. Thermostats can go bad, rarely I'm told, so it's probably not the source of your overheating. But there's one other possible culprit: Curiously we developed a second overheating problem 8 months after the issue with the bad sealant. This one defied diagnosis as we did all the usual checks and replacements. Nothing worked. It turned out we had a plugged cross-over tube. This is somewhat of an obscure part, and even when I had the new one to try, I couldn't find the existing one in order to replace it. It's hard to even see at the front of the motor, as it's more or less hidden under the alternator on the left side of the motor, plus everything is painted blue making it even harder to pick out. Once I found it, the replacement was relatively easy, except the alternator has to be removed and it's like a Chinese puzzle getting it completely out to expose the left end of the cross-over tube. (The right end is exposed and easy to access once you know what you're looking for). Anyhow, this tube was plugged at one end. I put the new one in and everything was back to normal. So if nothing else works, consider the cross-over tube as a last resort. You can take out the one you have, plug one end with your finger and blow through the top hose connection. Air should come out the other end. Then reverse the process to see if either side is plugged.

@skimtb Mastercraft Prostar Owners FB group.

@TomH I do have a 4-wheeler. A Kymco UXV 450 4wd. My only regret is that Florida doesn't have any high cliffs for me to drive this POS off of! 🙂 What a piece of garbage. But it came with the lake house we recently bought and the only real utility it would have had for us would be getting our boat in and out of the garage. It's in the shop (again) and if I can get the thing running well enough to sell in good conscience, I'll spend the proceeds on a good motorized dolly. @Mastercrafter I do have a z-turn and someone else suggested that as well on a Prostar forum. Worth considering. @BraceMaker I've never had the trailer in the garage. But when I tried to back it in (and I'm no amateur trailer backer. I have extensive trailering experience with not only boats, but much bigger horse trailers and numerous cross country horse hauling trips) I realized the turn radius of my truck and the available swing space on my narrow driveway lined with trees made it impossible to back the trailer in. I think the motorized dolly would be the fastest and most efficient option. I'm looking for the easiest solution. Not necessarily the cheapest.