east tx skier

I vote heated seats. They don't rust and spill water out behind the bulkhead after a few years.

If you were an early SG adopter (like really early), you might need a new Master Module. If you give PP your serial number, they will be able to tell you if your module will work with Zbox. They gave me a discount on my upgrade and I sold my old module (with full disclosure) for more than the cost to upgrade to the new one.

@Bulldog @Ilivetoski Thanks. It's been a long time in the making. Finally got a removeable tongue fitted to the boat trailer so I can back it straight in, get the car in the garage, and (with the car in the driveway) not have to walk around the boat to get to the rig on brew days. Priorities.

I make beer next to the boat. Does that count

Keep the heat gun moving and not too close and the gel coat will be fine.

Congratulations, Hortons! We had a tradition of giving our children some good redneck in utero names for people to them while we thought of something good. Our older son was "Cooter Roy." Our younger son was "Amos Moses." All the best to you guys. I know a guy out in Cali whose first son's middle name is actually "Danger."

@Wish For the bends, it's an easy fix. Don't go through the same hole though. There's a little strip along the inside of the hull to tap the screws. As long as you're level, you should hit it.

@Wish For the bends, it's an easy fix. Don't go through the same hole though. There's a little strip along the inside of the hull to tap the screws. As long as you're level, you should hit it.

If the whole thing is bent downward, you may just have a bent screw. Pull the insert, unscrew the screw raise up the rubrail piece, and put in a new screw.

If the whole thing is bent downward, you may just have a bent screw. Pull the insert, unscrew the screw raise up the rubrail piece, and put in a new screw.

The woman in my life likes a flat wake. I sold her on the under bow storage. Once she skied and drove our SN, any question of why we sold our open bow ski machine was put to rest.

@teammalibu Mike, you are always welcome to pop over to Tyler for a set.

@mwetskier I found it or something comparable after I heard what PP wanted (at cost). Turns out, $180 wasn't a bad deal at all. I think the one I found was upward of $225 or so.

A couple of interesting things after watching the Marcus Brown video. 1. Friggin' glove compartment right in front of the steering wheel. Brilliant. 2. Nice work on the dash. I'm sure the digital stuff will break and be a pain, but the speed control screen is intuitive and the view without the huge gauge cluster is excellent. 3. Sleeve locks on the bimini top. Perfect. 4. Observer's folding seat back slides flat and becomes a step to the bow. Wow! 5. Hinged bow cover for storage access. Impressive. Removing bow cover (does not compute). ;)

Had to replace my Stargazer puck last year. Not inexpensive, even at the out of warranty discount I got. $180.

I think the only reason to do it beforehand (assuming you have reliable numbers available) is so when you run your baseline calibration passes, a fair number of them are more likely to show up "ok" the first time through. Even after the system supposedly made the adjustment (and I approved it), I was always OCD enough to run another pass just to be sure. After updates that cleared the memory, I would reenter my previous baselines just to save time and fuel in the calibration runs.

That wake looks superb. Does that bow cover come with some epoxy as an option so that it can never be removed? I suppose I would have to take it off once to get the seats out. But after that, I'd need to glue it down. I also expect that, before too long, there will be an optional nose cone for the purists. :)

All of the above is correct. But in the interest of getting you something to do in the garage before you get to the lake, on my 1998 Ski Nautique, GT-40, Acme 422 Prop, upgraded rudder just like the one on your friend's 1999 SN, the factory numbers were fine for 36, 34, and 32 mph. 30 and under required slight tweaking. I ran Joe's 2008 numbers for Gate, 1, and 3 with good results (see attached .pdf). Have fun!

Not a bad looking boat. Even if I have to stomach the cocktail pickle fork on the nose. 20' 5" from what I understand and, from the video a lot of channeling going on with the hull design. She may ski like a dream, but how will the fuel consumption be? Perhaps the 200 made it okay to add a little more drag to the equation.

External or internal display, i.e. round display replacing a speedo or a rectangular external gauge?

@scotchipman, yes, assuming your version of the system is using the stock % and it can't be adjusted (interesting info @bigtallweed). Alternatively, if you have a hand timer, you could just hit the button. When we ski open water, close is good enough. With digital pro, we used to just put it in rpm mode, dial up the baseline, get going, and fine tune based on what our speedos or gps was telling us or what the skier told us he/she wanted (thumbs up/thumbs down).

Sounds like Slalom mode in WB pro is a little different. Back when I had version 6.4, I tried open water skiing in speed mode. The boat surged all over the place with every pull. Never again. Figure out what your baseline would be for your speed, add 100 rpm per 100 lbs of skier and crew weight, and add that to the rpm value. Then, run the boat in rpm mode at that rpm. Fine tune based on a GPS or Airguide reading (you can add/subtract rpm on the fly in rpm mode). If you run slalom mode (I'm talking about slalom mode in digital pro) in open water and want to be super precise, you'll need to add rpms based on 28% of skier weight since the system won't add that in because it will never sense the magnet at the gates, thereby causing it to roll in this rpm value.

I am so sorry to read this. We will be praying for these kids.

I resemble this remark, but only a little bit. I discovered course level skiing later in life after duffing it about the lake for over twenty years. When I bought a better ski and read about adjustments, I read (1) adjust your boots and (2) adjust your fin. I would start out stock with both and adjust a bit. Typically, we would have video on the first few rides on the stock settings. Now, being a duffer (as previously mentioned), I have developed a few bad habits over the years. One of these habits is being too far back on the ski. As a result, I would move my bindings forward one hole at a time. Invariably, I would end up all the way forward and, as video would indicate, I had a nice water break right under the ball of my front boot. I also tended to break at the waist a bit on my off side. To compensate, I would slightly move the fin forward (increase DFT) by .002". This has always settled the ski in. Yes, these are Band Aids. But tweaking is generally a Band Aid. We all strive for perfect form. But we are human. Even the pros at the highest level cannot exhibit perfect form. It is a sliding scale, to be sure. But I'm an old dog trying to learn one trick. For what it's worth, I'm slowly curing myself. I started out my Radar Vice with the boots forward and a stock fin setting. It feels good so far.

I have spent many hours dragging behind a zip sled with my 18 month to three year old sitting or standing in front of me getting used to riding behind a boat. When my older child was three-and-a-half, he said he wanted to ski. We broke out the trainers, had someone in the boat holding the rope, mom floated behind him in the water keeping him steady, and off we went at 7 mph. He fell the first time. We tried again and he got up the second time, but started screaming when he realized he was skiing. We dropped the rope and went back to pull him in. He looked at us and said, "I want to go again!" So we went again and he skied a half-mile down the river with no trouble. From there, it was gravy. My younger son had ear tubes and progressed a little slower. But the zip sled still gets used a lot. The kid in the original post will never know a life without skis.