Gern Blanston

Roger -  with a bot attack, the IP's can be from anywhere in the world. that's the blessing, and the curse, of being connected. Horton if videos have to go, then so be it. I think links to youtube should suffice as a reasonable compromise. I know of a security guy that's excellent. he's done stuff for Playboy.com, Schneider National trucking, etc. email me or whisper to me if you want his email and phone number. Jon

Eric - I'm having some problems with my Stargazer, too. The first thing they had me do was run a dedicated ground to the engine block. That solved most of my problems. The ground (for me) was in pin #13 in engine harness grouping of wires. The one that remains is that the system does not engage at 36. All the other speeds work just fine. I just got done doing a factory reset, then an auto crs, then input all my baseline rpms. Not to highjack the thread, but if there's anyone with any advice, it would be appreciated. PP Support seems to be baffled. I have an 05 MC PS197 and it's the first year of the DBW - no servo.

Thager - I see your digital gauges are still in place. My buddy's have long since faded and are in need of replacement. Is this clean living on your part or have you replaced them? And if you've replaced them, where did you get them? I'd like to pass along that info.  thanks

thanks for all the hard work in getting the site up and running again.

Horton - for what it's worth, there seems to be a lot of rogue viruses in the wild at the moment. I've seen LOTS of spyware problems over the last couple of weeks for those pc's that are not as fully protected as I would prefer. Many sites are getting hacked, downloading garbage to the clients. So, I'm not sure I totally with your statement that your PC's were never in danger. This type of attack is called a drive by and is how the virus, trojan, worm, etc propagate. The more traffic your site gets, the more likely you are to be hacked again. I obvioulsy know nothing about the cause of the latest round of issues, but if I'm correct, the answer is not necessarily changing providers. It's enhancing the security of the host server and the software running on it. Easier said than done, of course. Hackers generally fall into one of two categories. The first is the degenerate that has no life and is PO'd at the world. He googled some hacking scripts, deploys some bots, and feels superior. As soon as that guy gets a girlfriend, we don't have to worry about him any longer. The second and more dangerous are the guys that do it for a living for some company selling advertising, or something similar. Here's a list of some of them http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/Â

I've had very good luck with a number of free utilities. I like CCleaner. It's a cache cleaner. It will get rid of any and all temporary files that are serving no purpose. I will use the disk and registry components of that to remove unused reg keys. The best anti spyware utility I've found is called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.  The free version of that does a very good job of cleaning. I do the updates and scan about once a week. I also use Super Anti Spyware because it has a memory resident component that offers real time protection. All three can be obtained from majorgeeks.com I also periodically use the Wise Registry and Disk cleaners. The coolest thing about the wise reg cleaner is that it has ability to defrag your registry. Obviously you also want and need virus protection. I like McAfee a lot better than Symantec. Symantec seems to have too many issues. AVG is pretty good - for free. Microsoft just came out with a free anti virus program, but I haven't played with it yet. There are others of course. The main thing is to 1) make sure you're checking for updates at least once a day; and 2) make sure to scan your system at least once a week. Something may have gotten on before a def came out. Running the scan will find it before it goes live. Within Internet Explorer, make sure to delete your temporary files when the browser is closed. Tools, Internet Options, Advanced.  Get rid of older versions of programs. Java (which I can't stand) is the worst of them all. Each new version is not an upgrade, but a brand new program. The idea behind Java is great, but they, and many java developers, fail miserably in maintaining backwards compatibility. So, your app that was written for one version may not work on the latest. Go into control panel and remove the ones you don't want or need.  Once infected, many viruses/spyware will prevent you from installing utilities to remove them. For that, boot into safe mode - hit F8 when you see the "starting windows" CCleaner has a slim version that doesn't install the program. It just runs. Make sure to keep up with the latest patches. Upgrade to 7 or Vista if you're still on XP. The kernel is much more protected. If still on XP, I'd try the Root Kit Revealer. The gotcha is that you have to know what the system is supposed to look like when it's clean to be able to compare.  If still unsure, MS (the company, not the guy) has some cool utilities that they purchased from Sysinternals. The one that works best to see exactly what your machine is doing is called Process Explorer. remove anything from teh startup folder that's not necessary. Remove stuff from auto running. Start, Run Regedt32. Navigate to hklm, software, microsoft, windows, current version, run.....google any executables you don't recognize to see what they are. Nuke 'em if they're not important. ah...I could go on and on. It's tough to condense years of practical advice into little snippets that people can use.  hope that helps Jon

I've seen many fisherman do some stupid things - like pull in front of a boat pulling a barefooter. I watched him see the boat coming, and he did it deliberately. It's one thing to be a jerk, it's another to risk someone's life to "make a point" of some sort. I've seen fishermen sit in the middle of the course and just start fishing while we're between sets. We idle over and say "um....you're in the middle of where we're trying to ski" and the response is "I always fish here. tough" I've got many more stories, but I think you get the point. On the flip side, I've seen skiers spray fishermen and purposely stir up the water so that they're forced to move. There's a sense of entitlement on both sides. It all depends upon the individual people involved. I don't like to make a blanket statement and say "all fishermen are @$$ holes" I've got nothing against fishermen or fishing. It's simply too passive of an activity for me. For the life of me, I can't fathom why on a big public lake we can't just say "we're skiing here...please stay away and we won't trouble you while you're fishing." You've got people on both sides that seem to seek out the conflict. I'd rather put my energy into ripping it up.

for what it's worth, for the sake of completeness, I've done some maintenance and I am not entirely convinced that it was necessary. The ATF fluid was pretty close in color to the stuff I put in it's place. The fuel filter looked pretty good as well. The oil and filter were done in the fall. the trick to the pressurized fuel system was to find that shrader valve and release the pressure there.ÂÂ

Waldo is driving the tow rig. I guessed WN stood for Winnipeg.

RQ0013 - where in southern WI are you? I'm in Muskego.

Rawly - I've decided to give the fuel filter a go just to see what it looks like. I also have about 250 hours on my boat. In talking to the guy I ordered the replacement filter from, he said I need two specific fuel line "wrenches" a red and a blue one. I've not yet been to the auto supply store to know what that means. apparently the lines are two different sizes so you need those specific "wrenches" or whatever they are. There's a specific K&N flame arrestor cleaning kit available at many auto supply stores.  It's amazing how much gunk comes out of there! Tru-Jack thanks for the tip about depressurizing the system. I'll look for that.

GLoersen - you may wish to try clear fingernail polish as an alternative to superglue. I've used that many times. The nice thing about it is it comes off with nail polish remover when the wound has sufficiently healed.

makes sense. Thanks!

rawly - the manual says that "only MC authorized repair techs should replace the fuel filter" because the line is pressurized. Do you have an older MC that is not pressurized or is there some trick to relieving the pressure? I had a bee fly down my funnel when I was filling it with gas last summer. Must have liked the smell. When winterizing my boat a few years ago, the straw got sucked off the can of fogger. I found it - melted onto the intake valve. I don't use a straw any longer. a friend that drives a BMW was told by a certified mechanic that if you use synthetic oil, you only need to change it every 15K miles. Again, it's thinking like that led me to open the post. Boat engines get way less usage than a car - and it's more or less the same engine.

Eric - you've summed up the essential basis of the post. I'm trying to get a feel of what I "should" do. There's simply too big of an investment in my toy to be stupid about maintenance. I know what the manual says. In the end, I don't think it's a big deal to do some minor maintenance as a cheap form of insurance. Oil, filters, impeller, trans fluid. The other tune up type stuff on condition. MS - that's funny! I drive my buddy Bill's SN all the time. I'll grant it's a nice boat. I just hate not being able to see the skier as I go to pick them up. The best was when we saw a bunch of guys fishing off an older Nautique. My 7 year (at the time) old son looks at Bill and says "that's all they're good for!" We all practically peed our already wet shorts.

some people are just naturally more ambi-dextrous than others, too. For those people, I don't think it matters which foot is forward as long as there is consistency and repitition. Perhaps that's what's up with Alan Podawiltz?

thanks for the advice, guys! I have an inline raw water filter. I added it because there are so many weeds in my lake. I clean that and the strainer out several times a year. I can tell when they get clogged because the engine sounds and feels different. When checking any bolts, do I need to worry about a torque wrench? Or is tighter better (without over tightening, of course) I'm not sure about my shaft seal. Is that any easy thing to change? There's no leaking to speak of, but with all the spinning of the shaft, I would imagine it needs to be replaced every now and again. I get the impression many of you guys have much more experience with engines. My dad was always of the opinion of "why would I want to do it when I can pay someone?" Not to mention that it would take away from his golf time. My father in law is quite handy. I'm generally not afraid of taking stuff apart, and am very careful, but when we're talking about my toy, I get a bit anxious.ÂÂ

I know what a fuel filter/water separator is supposed to look like. I changed it every year in my old Malibu. If I had to guess, I'd say it's mounted on the fuel tank somehow. The line is pressurized at engine start. a fuel pump cannister? I can't say. I'll have to check it out. doesn't messing with the cap change the engine timing? thanks for the tips, Richard! I'll look for a vacuum extractor and the fuel pump cannister. Jon

05 MC PS197 with the MCX engine. I change the oil and filter every season. If there's a fuel filter/water separator, i can't find it. I've looked. I don't have a suction device to get the tranny fluid out, otherwise I'd do it. I also change the impeller every so often.

KM - I don't think it's a graphic that you see on bike components/frames. it's just the natural carbon weave you see through some clearcoat. My .02 is that the natural weave is way cool. I like the retro look, but probably won't in a few years.

bring it on!ÂÂ

My boat is at the point where, according to the manual, I should do a bunch of things to it - e.g. change the plugs, wires, tranny fluid, check shaft alignment, etc. The gotcha is that it's running just fine, tracks fine and I'd rather not throw money away if I don't "have" to. What seems to be the general concensus? thanks for your input!

my guess is that the cold water is not symptomatic of spray leg, but simply that your leg is not conditioned as Shane suggest. I get it so bad that my leg actually bleeds. I therefore have become a wuss and wear a spray guard. My buddy bill has skinny calves and so the guard wont' stay down. He also bleeds. So, he shaves his leg and wraps his calf with duct tape.

ELee - I recall reading an article in Skiing magazine a number of years ago that compared the times of maximum muscle contraction for snow skiing to other sports. Snow skiing had BY FAR the longest durations. Compare it to say a tennis serve where the muscles fire for 10's or 100's of a second. Snow skiing was something like 1.25 seconds of sustained, maximum exertion. I'm not at all sure how this compares to a water ski turn as either the article did not compare it or I simply forgot.  My only reason for bringing it up is that yes, a water ski turn takes longer to complete, but I'd bet you're using different muscles for different aspects of the turn. There's definitely more of an upper body strength component in water skiing. With the off side turn I prefer to think that I can't get my hips out of the way. That's why I don't try to lock my knees together any longer.

Please permit another dumb question: how do you secure the insoles in the boot? Or, don't you? I never checked to see if they float, or not. But in a yard sale fall, you could lose them if they don't.