jhughes

So good, amazing work. Really makes me appreciate the work that goes into the TWBC and how much of a passion project it is. Vince and crew "choose" to do something incredibly hard and push the envelope in this incredibly niche sport, for the good of the sport and the love of the sport. That is extremely inspirational. As usual FW was great, I love his explanation of how weird the sport is, spot on.

I've felt this on multiple boats at that speed, I don't know that it's "fixable".

Agreed, ridiculous.

Incredibly good as usual. The bigger concept is really "how do we go right or left on a slalom ski" and most people  have not really even given it a thought. 

I have a large collection of pretty much mint impellers from changing them over the years. 
 

I have had two failures in the Sherwood style PCM 351 pumps, both were the rubber separating from the hub which is an instant 100% failure! They look perfect otherwise. So a visual inspection wouldn't really help.

I change them every 2 seasons or so.

Line lengths and speed? <- probably really important as we are talking feet of rope here.

I just put a brand new Competition Series S-Lines on the pylon yesterday at 28 off, ran a bunch of 28s and 32 at 34mph. Simply replacing my previous rope for this season, not hoping for miracle cures or anything, and just trying out a new supplier. Coming off of a 1 season old black ML line (the ML "pro" line) there was zero negative difference, as in the new rope felt great out of the box on set #1, FWIW. I didn't "feel" a difference good or bad but skied well generally. 

I think this looks pretty good actually. You may be asking the wrong question. I don't think your "stack" is that bad at all.

"How can I not bend my arms" would be a better question for in course stuff. I see a lot of arm work there and that creates rope tension and makes "stack" impossible. 

That gate is probably not going to work at 28 off but that might be a separate convo.

I wouldn't shotgun replace "both" fuel pumps and relays. It's the Low Pressure Pump, 95% probability. Start there. My HP pump is still fine and it is on season #24.

As far as the orange color specifically lets acknowledge that the Radar orange last a hell of a lot longer than Polyform, which turn white in about a month (it seems). So the Radar cost less and are brighter longer, for a non-Wally that is a win.

I agree it's not that big of a deal. It was a little longer than I expected but overall, who cares.

My god that brings back the memories. The best is the moans and groans about mid week, as well as the drop off of college kids showing up in the morning from having too much fun the night before!

Is it just me or are there a ton of nasty/scary falls at the Swiss Pro Slalom this year? What the hell is going on?

For reference- put about 10 sets on an R2 this spring and I'll be going back to my R1. Even with identical fin settings to the R1, the R2 is a step backward. In particular out of off-side 135 I'm finding myself in a very unsafe position that I have not felt in years, very consistently. In the spirit of "do no harm" the R2 will be for sale.

Shearing force is really really tough so I wouldn't really worry about the bolts shearing and I would also not worry about torquing them down too much, maybe 35 ft/lbs? It's not a huge fastener so maybe even less.

The DI motors tend to crank slow, that I've noticed at least. They run a lot of compression, maybe that has something to do with it.

No reason to buy anything fancy, I have a Wal Mart Everstart from 2011 that is still going strong in one of our boats.

A load tester is the key to determining if a battery is still good, great tool to have for sure.

Cash in hand, be a serious buyer, and then you will see what the actual price of the boats for sale is. Otherwise it's useless negative speculation and complaints for no reason. Boats are always worth what someone will pay for them.

Access to private water and "real work/sacrifice/inconvenience" to get it or show up to ski is the actual problem, the sport has always been expensive. Think of all the people that dug lakes in the 80s and 90s. That's moxie. Do people still have that? As one example- finding a reliable group of guys to show up at 6am (which we have, thankfully) to get good water all summer is way harder than finding the money for a boat.

They made these in 2001 as well, keep in mind. And technically in 2002 as the SNOB rigged as a little wakeboard boat IIRC.

These boats are from a high watermark  era for Malibu and are great boats. Great looking, perfect proportions. Other than a leaky HDS box (easily repaired, Google it) they are tough to beat. 

D3 NRG R3. Would love to be proven wrong that the R1 is the best ski ever (for me).

The R1 wasn't made for long, you don't see them in the wild as much. FW skied very well on one IIRC. It seems like the R2 was put into production pretty soon after the R1 and has had a long run. I've skied both and I think the R1 is absolutely amazing, I'll ski mine for as long as I can.

I do feel genuinely sorry for people that have to write marketing copy for skis every year. We need waterski marketing Bingo cards: "increased the sweet spot, increased rocker, narrowed the tail, put some width under the front foot, changed the flex profile, softened the tip, added taper to the tail, increased the flat spot" take your pick, mix n' match! Bingo!

Terrible news. Get well soon Adam!

One of the most commonly overlooked areas for new drivers seems to be that the "driving" needs to start before the course, meaning before the 55s. You know that feeling when the boat is coming with you in the move out, or in the glide the boat is not with you. Tough variable to have in a really critical area of the pass. That and an over-counter on the move-in that puts the boat a couple feet left at the gate, yikes. Very short rope at 1 then.

Everything on the sea and land fleet. 3 cars, 2 boats. Who knows what seasonal help a boat dealer might have in the back, no thanks. I'm not a professional mechanic but I generally enjoy the work and I figure I'll put more care into my own stuff than somebody punching the clock. Great learning experience and if a particular job is an excuse to get new tools it's even better.

12 hours ago, Lars said:

Would a manifold from a newer engine bolt up? 

 

The new manifolds are enormous in comparison to those older ones, that might be the issuers there.

OP if the only leak is that external leak how about welding or epoxy? Also what's with all the mud?