GregHind

it’s the winter solstice today here in one of the coldest sea level parts of Australia. Frost outside. Every day lately has been sunny and still and I’m tempted to get the boat out. Top temperature might be low 50’s F. today

@horton I really appreciate this site and the work you do. You have a huge influence in this sport and your influence has helped create a lot of sales and a LOT of jobs for people who love this sport. In other words I have bought skis and gear simply because of your reviews when I didn’t need new stuff. I’m about as far away in this world as is humanly possible from you and you have influence here. Everything I post on the net is in my own name. I’ve never before seen a situation where I’d suggest creating an anonymous account but in this case, I feel that would have been a much better way to say what you felt you needed to say here You have a lot of credibility. You do something very important for the sport. On the flip side, we need sponsors, site owners and volunteers to come together to create events world wide. It’s pretty disheartening to be called out publicly and it would be a shame for the sport to lose these peoples enthusiastic contribution or to scare away others. If there is a problem, should we ideally be congratulating for what they have achieved so far and helping them? If somebody cheated that’s a different story but is that the accusation here? I would think we are a long way from thinking that. In the first instance, I think we should be thanking these people for their contribution and helping them to make sure everything is spot on

@Horton you must have hundreds. What do they look like in storage? It will make an incredible ski museum one day!

There was no drinking involved in this. Honestly.

Is the fan for temperature (eg at idle) or lack of airflow? The fan would have to push a few hundred cfm to make much of a difference. I’m sure it does something important. Wouldn’t be hard to add a sensor that only ran the fan when needed (and still only when engine running). Eg above 1000rpm or above a temperature.

43 with a driver only @Horton What’s it like with 4 men in the boat and a footer out the back? I’d like a prostar but for me it would have to be a 6.2. I had a run behind a 2014 6.2 prostar a few years ago and enjoyed it. Good speed, I think it was 72-74kph Range with 4 men in the boat. No trouble holding 66pkh.

Sounds like there are 50 to 100 promo prostars per year and maybe 500 to 1000 total prostars worldwide. I often hear that 3 event and slalom is an unimportant market with no margins and that probably was true at some point but I don’t believe it for one second now. I think our sport is going through a new heyday. I spend a lot more because I am connected to information and people through the internet. I bet that applies to everyone on this forum. Anyway it must be good for boat sales and margins which is good for investment and development.

@On_edge thank you I run 9.1 and didn’t know about the change to speed adjust. Winter is about to start here sounds like I will be ordering another upgrade before next summer....

How many prostars are sold new each year? Total worldwide? USA?

9.2 is totally upgraded from 8.x locks in to speed really fast, auto calibration is great

@horton English please?? In detail

In the video the front of your wife’s ski flaps up and down a lot when she crosses the wake. My wife does the same thing and that is what is holding up her confidence to go quickly across the wakes and is preventing improvement in the course. I’ve tried explaining ways but I can’t communicate a solution. The problem is, my wife can go faster but she risks a massive tip bury which has caused her ongoing neck problems since the last time it happened. Clearly @twhisper has no such problem at slow speed. Any tips to help my wife?

Get her one set behind a boat with a tiny 24mph wake and see what happens

Your wife is skiing incredibly. Well done to her and well done to you. She clearly loves it and I hope my wife still lives skiing that much at 65 The wakes are the biggest thing holding her back from increasing speed. Try shortening the rope to -22 to narrow the wakes and see if it helps. Try it for a few sets. The wakes will be even better at -28 but it does change how you ski a bit. Still worth a try. Otherwise buy an awesome outboard ski boat just for her use that has great slalom wakes at her speed. tiny wakes make slalom so much fun and it helps people quickly improve to the point they can ski fast enough to enjoy smaller wakes behind an onboard and keep improving behind it. I’m not sure about a new prostar maybe they might have better 24mph slow speed slalom wakes @Horton The outboard small boat suggestion is not a joke. It could transform the sport for your wife making it much safer and much, much more fun. It is possible to have a tiny 34mph sized wake at 22mph with the right boat

Stargazer still offers classic slalom mode which is what you have now. They used to be able to offer paddle wheel speed also on stargazer. Ask them. Otherwise buy a new display for somebody who runs stargazer on a g2 display there are truckloads out there.

Electric vehicles help make the grid more viable. If everybody drove them and there was a simple system of charge prioritisation for example priority level 1 is not important at all and priority 10 is urgent then the grid becomes much easier to manage. Most of us could easily plug in each night and most do not need to exhaust their maximum range every day. This just means that we can have cheap prices for charging our cars when there is spare solar or wind or whatever and creates huge efficiency for that kind of power. At the moment wind is a problem because it is intermittent but if we had a grid full of cars that could take charge when it was available and wait if it wasn’t then cheap green power is there to be had. And once that level of demand is there for cars, the tech for our boats will be economical. We never would have had the 350 Chevy if it wasn’t for cars making it economical for us.

30% efficiency is very generous for a gas engine. The fuel burn numbers came from a 5.7 350 chev which is multi point injected but not direct injected. That is not a particularly efficient engine. When you consider that a lot of the time the engine is idling (0% efficient because it is not doing anything) and it is unlikely to be in the motors most efficient point of operation, it would be a safe bet that efficiency would be closer to 20% Also, an electric engine may fit better with shaft angles and allow more efficient propulsion. Still, you are only looking at about 1 hour of run time if the rest of the numbers in the example are correct. 3 hours might make it viable...

We pulled 11 skiers from a deep start with a 115hp Yamaha 4 stroke 5 years ago. With a bit more playing with props we could have got 1 or 2 more I think. I would love to ski behind an old boat like this on old skis to see where we came from

At 34mph over ground with a 2mph head current, it is the same speed over water and same feeling as skiing at 36mph except that the boys are spaced out further. At 34mph over ground with a 2mph tail current it is the same feeling as skiing at 32mph except the buoys are closer together. Mapple was famous for opting up at Moomba and running difficult passes with tail currents so he could have the head current for the win

Reiley learning to barefoot at the end of last season And to top it off, I get to marry this girl in March.

While you are suffering -40 temperatures, we are enjoying endless days of 30C+ (92f+). Over the Christmas break at the lake, one of the early days was so good, a friend declared it would be one of the "top 3" weather days for the summer. It was an incredible day. Four of the next six days were also "top 3 days". We've lost count of how many more we've had. What a summer! Back in December we taught 5 people to slalom dry start in an hour and a half. Here are videos of my kids Zarah (11) and Aidan (9) and also of my Son Reiley (12), Zarah and I together. Wooden skis make it so much easier, especially for me to go at kid speed!

@eleeski I'm grateful that there was such a push from people about the 197 wake because it led MC to make the new ProStar. They made a very focused effort to make the wake great for longline and slow speed skiers. I ski at 55kph and the wake doesn't matter much to me but for the wife and kids who ski at 37-43kph the wake matters a lot. I think it is great that the market is demanding GREAT low speed slalom wakes. In what other sport do learners have to suffer the toughest conditions? We need to look after them to foster the sport and we especially have to look after the wife and kids. I think it is fantastic that manufacturers are making much more spacious boats with better wakes. I get where @eleeski is coming from about the loss of an awesome trick wake. I feel the same about barefoot wakes. I would love a boat which had both the best slalom wake and the best barefoot wake (at all speeds). Actually I'd also love it to have a great surf wake, turn like a flightcraft, be quiet and economical on fuel, fast, able to pull 6 men on doubles from a deep start and still look as good as the best Prostar. Personally, I don't currently care about what trick wake that boat produced, but then I would really like a small kneeboard wake for the kids and a good kneeboard trick wake for me and maybe the kids might trick one day so maybe I would care. Seriously though, if somebody could make a genuine slalom/surf/barefoot boat which was about as good as the current prostar on slalom wake and was genuinely good for surf and barefoot there would be a bumper market for it. Problem is everything with boats is a compromise and I'm yet to even hear of a boat which makes a good wife/kid/learner speed slalom wake and competes with crossovers at surf and interior room. Seems like a unicorn. So Eric I hear you, but I would not have been happy to own a 197 but a Prostar is currently on my wish list.

Wouldn’t it be better with the stripe as blue gel with white stickers/wrap?

@JoelHowley you are doing some great marketing of yourself which is of huge benefit to @Connelly_Skis_Inc I've had maybe 5 top end Connelly skis and your videos make me want another. Keep at it. Your unusual videos are much more interesting than typical ski marketing videos and just as effective.

What year TXI and what motor do you have. They are quite different even in identical looking hulls