EricKelley

Owned one for years, wish I would have kept it. Glad he's keeping it going.

My opinion is that they all are very good. The whole lot is better than ever. Any of these boats should be easy for a driver to maintain a perfect path. I think the new Ski Nautique tracks well. I personally own a 2015 Nautique 6 liter which is a good tracking boat and I think I can do at least as well with the new Ski Nautique. I find the new Ski puts the driver at different perspective that takes a few minutes to get familiar with. You feel a little higher and the boat feels a lot larger. I think its ability to maintain a straight path with a lateral tug is the same as my 200. I just can't "feel" the skier quite as well. My end course video in tournaments has been good with the new Ski. Driving the new Ski is a lot of fun especially with jumping. I drove the same Nautique in 3 records. I enjoy driving the newer Malibu and the Mastercraft a lot as well. They are easy to drive. All of them must be set up well with proper steering torque. I think people deciding which boat to buy shouldn't use tracking as a major factor to choose between these boats.

I was there when I was 19. I will never forget it. I preach handle guards to everyone. Some people don't think it can happen to them but it can. Now, when I fall the location of the handle becomes my primary thought.. I HOLD ON TO THE HANDLE TIL I FEEL THE BOAT TAKE IT AWAY. After I felt the violent pop, I reached down to feel if my arm was still attached to my body. I was in hospital with torn arteries and surgical drains to reduce compartment pressures for almost a week. I recovered pretty quickly and was even able to play college football that Fall. I have pondered the idea that there should be some kind of "Breakaway" link in the rope or handle. In my crash the handle went all the way to my armpit. The handle was bent to a 45 degree angle with the pressure. We need to talk to the people who we coach and ski with that this can happen and how to avoid it. Handle guards will help but it is still possible for hands and arms to get caught. Skiers need to be "handle aware" during crashes and manage it. Forward crashes at the buoy are almost always the biggest risk. It happens fast but skiers should always think about holding on to the handle until the boat takes it away.

Like the new format changes. Was planning to ski this season but I am hosting our State Championships this year which is the same date as the US stop. More stops would be favorable but it has evolved to be about the "show" which is necessary for the sponsors.

I have a Raptor with the 450hp version of the 3.5 Ecoboost. Without a doubt the 3.5 would do a good job in our boats with the ECM properly tuned. As far as fuel efficiency in the large Raptors go, it is extremely variable related to how hard you drive it. I get pretty good mileage with mine because I tend to be easy on the peddle. Mileage definitely goes down hill fast when you drive it hard or fast on the highway......of course this happens with all engines but with the Raptor, it is dramatic. Think it would work well in a boat. But more fuel efficient? I have my doubts. With the engines you can have Eco or you can have Boost. But not both.

Thanks for posting Shawn. Watched with some coffee today and it made my day. Makes me really miss my 83 Mastercraft that I used until 1998.

Something that worked great for me is..... a pvc pulley zip tied to the buoy. Rope from anchor goes over the pulley to a 16oz plastic soft drink bottle fillled with sand. I put a wire through the top on the bottle to attach rope to. Also zip tied a section of garden hose to the side of the bottle( the rope from the pulley to the counterweight goes through it.). The hose is necessary. This worked very well and was cheap. Found the pulleys in lowes in area where clothes line stuff is. After trial and error the pulleys that were about 3 inches worked the best. Is very well worth the effort.

By the way the picture with the ski is not me, it is my nephew. My son and nephew like some of the really old school stuff. They are in the boat.

This photo is of my old Majerajah ski and the boat that goes with it. Supposedly the boat, a Rayson Craft was built for Bob Majer. The boat and the ski are a lot of fun and get a lot of use. I'm going to take a try at the course this year.

This is interesting, looks like Mastercraft is marketing towards a lower price point. This photo was taken at the Louisville boat show. Of course they didn't have a Prostar. Their value models looked excellent.

One other thing to consider with decisions about your tech set up is redundancy. If something goes down, your tournament stops. Is a must with all the wireless equipment and this adds a great deal of cost. I ran two record tournaments the past 2 years and gave the wireless equipment a chance and it was a pain. During the last round the rope and handle destroyed the boat camera and wiring. Would have thought that was a low probability to happen, but it did. Generator with unclean power destroyed two wireless receivers before we figured it out. Most of the wireless components we found that were in my budget seemed to be to fragile and under engineered for the task. This is a great question to ask on the board. Im sure if your budget is big, there is a good answer.

After spending a good bit of time in the boat, I believe the weight claims. The boat feels very light. It also feels very strong. Stronger and tighter than any skiboat I have been in.

I wrote a letter to him asking him if Correct Craft would consider donating a boat to our Methodist Church camp. I only had to spoken to him on several occasions. After a couple of months I was kind of disappointed that I had not received a response from him. Then the camp director called me all excited and asked me to ride to Florida to pick up the boat! They did things the right way something rarely seen today. Hope to see him in the upper room one day.

@oldjeep ethanol does not make water it absorbs water and precipitates solids. If you read my post carefully you will see that I said people in climates that are below freezing most days have less worries about moisture than in climates where temperatures cycle above and below freezing. I have seen multiple gas engines that get shut down here because of pink crystals plugging things up. Most of these people are the usual boaters who do little maintenance. There is a reason why Mercury and Volvo marine engineers recommend this maintenance, it covers all bases for all climates. It is smart to have good reasons for things you do. Obviously what you have done to take care of your boats and equipment has worked well.

Andjules there is no data but facts about what happens to engines and storage. What is important to what you do depends on the climate your boat will be stored in. Facts Engine cylinders will develop rust if bare. A film of oil will do a lot to prevent this. If you store your boat in an area with a lot of thermal cycling above and below freezing this likelihood is increased because of moisture that is present when your metal parts warm from freezing to above freezing.(tools and other metals corrode like crazy in my metal storage barn which is not heated or cooled). If your boat resides where it stays almost always above freezing or conversely where it always stays below during freezing risks of corrosion are not nearly as great. I use a bilge heater in all my engine compartments to prevent moisture effects.(mold will form on engine components during the winter in Kentucky). So if you keep your boat sleeping in your heated garage fogging not as important. Fact, water combined with ethanol will result in the precipitation of solids, climate is important with this as well for the reasons just mentioned. The more time your winter layup is the more moisture will be present in your fuel tank. Screens in fuel injectors have metal screens which can be blocked by the precipitates. Blocked injectors not only cause poor performance but can catastrophic mechanical failure of individual cylinders.

I have never fogged my efi ski boat engines, but has anyone ever run a winterization cocktail(non ethanol fuel, two stroke oil, marvel mystery oil and fuel conditioner) through their ski boat engines. I have done this for years on my mercury racing engines. What you do is disconnect the fuel supply ahead of the fuel pump mix the winterization cocktail in a separate gas can,run a hose from the fuel pump to the can and run the engine on it for several minutes. It lubricates the cylinders and the fuel injectors/fuel pump and ensures there is no ethanol in the engine fuel system. I have been hesitant to do this with my cat PCM 6 liter because of the 02 sensors and the cats themselves. My racing engines have never had cats or 02 sensors and really don't know if this would be harmful to them. It is recommended by Mercury, Volvo marine etc

New Raptor, will look good with the Nautique as well.

MDB collegiate skiing is the brightest spot in tournament waterskiing right now. Go to the collegiate nationals and you will see it. Fun is why most of us do this and the collegiate skiing is a lot of fun. It has brought a lot of new younger people into the sport. One of my friends drove a tournament in Ohio this Fall and there were so many skiers there was no place to park.

Jody come up and ski with me or we'll use the Rayson Craft or Eliminator.

That ski was so cool looking. I bought one and it was the worst performing ski I ever owned. It had the double wing. I went to a Lucky Lowe clinic/MasterCraft skis sales event. Lucky told me that I had terrible form and couldn't believe that the ski was the reason I was unable to make my opening pass. Jobe was a great ski! Just pulled my friend on his yesterday.

Take out Freddie Winter's score at the last Nationals and calculate the Team winner. Changes things. ULM is going to have to do some more "student" recruitment at the starting dock at the US Open.

This is a big deal in a lot of ways. Thanks to all who were involved in getting this done and to the sponsors who financially supported it.

Really like the show, keep it up! Water conditions...... Feel is a test of a great skier to be able to deal with variables and win. As a public Lake skier, this allowed me to podium finish in a Big Dawg in Canada. The rollers and cold really freaked some of the technical skiers out. I can pretty much run through pwc wakes because of my background. Years ago when ESPN had their Hot Summer nights, venue selection was based on how to attract the maximum crowd and had little to do with conditions. TV audiences and local audiences, lay people which you must attract can get stoked with skiers at 32 off with a good announcer. There is no way you can drag a large crowd out to a private site in the middle of nowhere. BigDawg at Masters.....I'm sorry but the Pros are just jealous of th attention that the BigDawg series gets. They need to quit whining and realize that success isn't mutually exclusive.

I use my 200 OB on Lake Cumberland a lot and really like it. The downside as others have said is taking water over the nose. It is made worse on "lake" days because we have more people and gear. It is only a problem when coming down to idle zones with all the big cruiser wakes. You have to bump the throttle to keep the bow up. One of the best features to me is the Hydrogate, you can raise it to trick mode and it dramatically makes taking other boat wakes and whitecaps better. On Lake Cumberland this is a huge benefit. A lot of days we will make 80 mile trips through snotty water and the bow up attitude really softens the blow. One trip we got caught out in a storm with big whitecaps and I was able to find a speed that the 200 just cruised over them. Very few people use their 200's this way, but I am impressed by it. By just tournament driving the MC and Malibu I would say they are very capable Lake boats as well. I can't even consider the new Ski Nautique til they offer an open bow, the girls would not tolerate giving up riding in the bow.

I understand that problems with vendors occur but it is not a positive business model to take and hold customers money for so long.