Roger

Okeeheelee overhead view, 5 ski lakes. Centurion dual boat slalom at the 2013 Nationals.

@brody - "I had the opportunity to ride in the boat this year with a pro driver who gave me some great tips. He said he will not move the wheel until the he feels the skier." Really, a "Pro Driver" said that? Well, all I can say is I can't do that... I pulled Nick Parsons to 3@41 last year with the Centurion and I'll simply say that if I waited until I felt him pull, the boat would have been well outside the boat guides let alone in record tolerance. It varies by boat, but you will have to give the skier the back of the boat as they round the buoy to hook up or you will get pulled to that side and wind up in a reverse weave with the skier. How much you move the bow away from the skier (also called giving the skier the back of the boat) and when is what is critical to the feel for the skier. Counter too soon and the boat will be moving away from the skier at hookup and will feel firm, too late and they will have a loose line. Perhaps what he meant was that he feels where the skier is? I've been working hard on this for that past year and a half myself. When you know where the skier is, it's much easier to establish the proper rhythm with the skier and the whole process is easier for both of you. I've pulled many of the top pros into 41 and gotten feedback from them. Nearly all of them have a similar wish, and that is a tight line at the end of the turn, but not a runaway handle. Ultra shortline like this takes knowledge of the dynamics and a lot of practice. One thing you can do if you have someone who can really feel what the boat is doing is have them ski a set and give feedback during the set. A couple of years ago, I had @Chet (Chet Railey) come out to Okeeheelee and do just that. Chet can ski 35 off and tell you everything you're doing with the boat, even how you're holding the wheel. Getting feedback is paramount in my opinion. My feedback comes from the skiers I pull, my end course videos (and comparing them to other top drivers end course video), and other top drivers. I'm also a firm believer in practice, not just the ultra shortline skiers, but a variety. I pull everyone I can from slower speed long line skiers to ultra shorline skiers in practice. The last thing you want to do going into a tournament as a driver is to only be pulling your ski partner every day. Along that same line, drive as many of the current hulls as you can since they all react a bit differently. I'll finish with: My goal in the course as a driver is to be transparent to the skier. They should not notice a too tight or too loose line. They should not have a too hard or too soft deep water start. They should not be tugged after the line is shortened until the pull up. They should simply be able to concentrate on their skiing.

Nate at 41 slow motion. Those buoys sure seem to disappear in a similar fasion... though the angle is better and you can see the ball better as the ski moves past it.

@klindy - I did not ask for it, @Gloersen (Peter Gloersen) posted it to a thread about the tournament here on BOS. Not sure how he produced the report; maybe he will see this and let us know. Here is the thread victory-lake-spring-slalom-3c

@Edbrazil - Yes, targets are required in the boats for the SplashEye boat path measurements to work. I really like that part of the system and think it would be great if it recorded with the video, but it doesn't.

@klindy - I like that idea and I know the data is there. I pulled a round at Jacksonville earlier this year and the scorer was able to produce a chart with the skier, their performance and the driver. I believe this all came from WISTIMS (see attachment).

@John Brooks - That is something we have discussed with them in the past, but I don't believe we ever got anywhere with it (though I like the idea). My position is simply that if you're qualified for Nationals, you should not be required to go to Regionals. If Regionals revenue loss is an issue, I would not have a problem sending the entry fee while not being forced to attend.

@Toddl - What @Horton said. The entry fee isn't a big deal. It's the taking multiple days off from work and the expense of travel twice since we are forced to go to Regionals. If Nationals happens to be in Chicago next year, I would have to travel to Alabama most likely on work days and then Chicago. Even when we have Nationals here at Okeeheelee, I usually take 3 or 4 days off work to help with the tournament and would still have to travel to another state most likely for Regionals. Since I've skied Regionals and Nationals a few times, it's not important enough to me anymore to spend that kind of time and money. When we last hosted Nationals, I took time from work to help with driving for practice and whatever else needed to be done, but did not ski the tournament since I would have had to take additional time and spend additional money to go to Regionals. Allow me to pay for Regionals but not attend and I will consider Nationals again...

Not sure of the year, but I'm pretty sure Lucky Lowe ran it at a cash prize tournament in Georgia a few years back. I think it might have been a class C though if that matters.

@Mark_Matis - parallel courses. ZO, when set to auto-select, runs correctly in the course with the usual times. However, it does get confused and sometimes doesn't start the timer, this is reason we lock the course in at Okeeheelee. The only issue with getting bad (or weird) times in the course is when you have one of the parallel courses locked in and you run in the other course.

It is sanctioned.

There are only about 30 skiers signed up and many of them are either the judges and drivers for the Big Dawg/US Open or are already qualified and treating it as practice.

7 to 10 tournaments a year, on my 5th tournament ski boat (all bought new), senior driver (S) regular driver (T), senior judge (S), ski two sets 4 times a week, on the BOD for the Ski Club of the Palm Beaches many times. Besides working all our tournaments and Palm Bay's tournaments (sometimes Miami's tournaments), I've worked several Nationals and Regionals. Guess I'm committed (or should be)...

@oldjeep - Thanks for that, I missed it probably because I didn't read the "Interior" section. I was looking for engine/controls. Glad to see it too!

@Monkstr6100 - I must be going to the wrong site then as I don't see ZO mentioned at all on Gekkosports.com. Is there another site to look at or can you provide a link to a page of theirs that shows ZO as an option please? I'm glad to see that ZO is compatible with Ford engines though as I hate to see one engine (or anything) have a monopoly.

@oldjeep - I don't see how. ZO integrates with the GM ECU. I suspect the "non-competition" version does not and just controls the throttle like PP does.

@oldjeep - ZO is an option, but one that seems to have been ordered without. Not sure if there is a speed control on it or not since it doesn't say. Are you sure about that? I looks like they use Ford engines to me...

@skierjp - "I keep my 200 full of gas (27 gal) and half the time the back seat is in and I can't tell the difference. My wife starts at 30mph 15 off and skis into 28 off at 32 ( women's 5 ) and she can't tell the difference between a full tank and one that is empty." Same with my Mastercraft ProStar (2016), can't tell the difference. I also ski behind a 2015 6 liter Centurion and can't tell any difference with that hull either. I have no direct access to a Malibu, but I suspect it's similar in that respect as I don't notice the wake at all in a tournament where the tank is usually pretty full. The last boat I had that I really noticed the fuel level difference in was my 1994 Ski Nautuque and it wasn't a severe difference, but noticeable.

@PT Mike - I don't know for sure about Nancy. Every year I've been there (pretty much from the beginning), she has said she will be out of there within 2 years and it never happened. This year, someone told me the place is sold, but the new owner will not take possession until next year. They did not know if the new owner would be willing to allow the boat storage to continue or not either. Just waiting to see how it pans out. Still the cheapest storage around by far for me, so I'm staying until the end...

If you put it away bone dry, you should have no issues. I would recommend a carport (portable 12 x 20 or longer 8 or 10 post) to minimize the sun damage to your cover and any exposed parts of the boat. Where do you plan to keep it? I keep mine near Okeeheelee where a lady rents spaces to about 8 to 10 of us, so if you were to keep it there, I could check on it from time to time.

@swc5150 - "I agree it doesn't take all that long to change a steering cable on a 196, but it could be made easier with a wide conduit. I just did my '06, and fishing it from helm to stern is a pain." How are you doing it? I tape a piece of rope to the old cable when I pull it out, then tape the new cable to the rope and pull it back through, never had much of a problem "fishing" it through that way...

I'm with @Orlando76 I have changed out 4 steering cables in SN196s and it never took more than 45 minutes.

Probably is a fake, but the boat did seem to be programmed to travel in a large circle, so I guess he could have just waited for it to run out of gas...

2016 MC Prostar. I use B2 on all the boats except the 5.3 SN with single puck where I use B1. At a tournament at Okeeheelee early this year, I skied 3.5@35 behind 3 different boats, a 2016 MC, 2016 SN 200 5.3, and a 2015 Centurion 6.0. I also ski behind a 2016 MB at some of the Palm Bay tournaments and run about the same score. All 4 current boats are pretty great. My average is a bit lower than the PP days, but I'm a bit older too, so who knows... My tournament PB with PP was 2@38 and my tournament PB with ZO is 2@38 (just haven't gotten through 35 as often as I did with PP).

I've been expecting this (and more). Jason is the first Open skier I ever pulled in a record tournament. He ran 1.5 @ 41 after skipping 38 and running a tail 39 (quite a christening for me driving these guys for the first time). I've pulled him in at least 6 more tournaments since then and he's never missed a 39 and has scored several 2@41s. The last tournament I pulled him at earlier this year at Okeeheelee, I drove Open on Saturday and Becky boat judged and on Sunday Becky drove Open and I boat judged. Jason ran 1.5 and 2.0 at 41 Saturday. Sunday he ran 4@39 in round 1, but in round 2 ran 3@41 and he had the best 1,2 I could imagine at 41 off. I said to him at the end of the lake "Jason, you should have run that!" He agreed and I thought right there that he was going to go deep at 41 this year. I hope to see him into 43 soon... Congrats Jason!