Thread: Powering a pontoon

We never had a vest of any sort. Just a ski belt. The usual comment of the boat driver was "Quityurbellyaching. It'll quit hurting in a minute." The real speed was when making hard U turns. The Lord might know how fast the skier was going, but past "skint back" I don't. It was fun, then, and predictable. Noting like navigating womenfolk. Young and dumb and full of numb.

Yep, the good old ski belt.
What really got us was not the cruising speed, but the tricky turns that would put some slack in the rope slowing you way, way down, shortly followed by the "POP" that led you into a wake that launched you into good air.
Yes, well beyond "Skint Back", we referred to this new flight speed as "Warp Factor Two, Mr. Sulu".

Many ski ropes were tested doing that. Those were the days, were they not?

I only wore a vest if I was barefooting or going out into the Ms. river. Skiing in the Ms. River is always interesting with the swirling current. It would play the devil with a solemn.

If my Dad was still alive, His advice would be "Put a 12 horse Wizard on it". He had one for over 20 years that He moved from boat to boat. "It's all you need, Son...".

If only one was available.
An uncle had one that would plane a 14' plywood boat with two adults and cane poles in it. He missed it, and talked about it a lot through the years. He was a good guy.

Deltarat, the Mississippi would be a fun place to ski, now that you mention it. We had tides only. The swirls and a brother operating the boat would make for a busy time. Sorry to have missed that. Never made it to bare footing. Hat tip to you for going without.

I used to ski with a teenage girlfriend and her folks, and later with my friends. Competition skiing, if I remember right, started at 30 and then went up to around 35. Then they started shortening the rope. 75’ to start and shortened in what I think was 5’ increments. Cutting to one side to where you had slack rope and cutting hard back to the other side was very close to doubling the speed of the tow boat. I busted my cookies one day crossing the wake and the boat was doing 45, so I was over 80, and did 3 end over ends before I finally splashed. Tore the shoulder out of a nylon reinforced foam vest. They came back to get me after retrieving the ski and asked if I was ready to go again. I passed.

I’m no help on the prop. Getting a motor to pull a few people and pull a skier could get pricey. As far as motor size, I like having enough to make tracks when you need to, even if you never use it. Pushing any motor wot every time it’s used will wear it down fast and use lots more fuel. Small motors theoretically use less fuel, and that’s a good thing til the lightning starts popping.

That is the first estimate of skier speed I have encountered, and it's quite helpful. Thank you. We had extensive experience falling, most developed at slower speeds behind a slower boat, and were better at falling than skiing.

My father got a 40' fiberglass tri-hull cabin cruiser that had the top burned off, and converted it into a bay trawler shrimp boat. It was never weighed, to my knowledge, but was somewhat heavy. Knowing his penchant for cutting corners I suggested that he fashion on the rudder a mount for a 9.9 Merc that ran well. It got used more than once getting that rig back for repairs and refit, esp. early, and did yeoman's work. Not fast, but it did provide sufficient power.

My plan is a four blade low pitch, with a rev limiter fashioned on the engine.

The "big" water at Eufaula is 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the launch, usually, and having grown up on Mobile Bay I am aware enough of weather to avoid being entangled in anything dangerous, esp. with children on board. I have seen the new model triple toons that will pull a skier, but am not about spend over 100K to own one, or 10K for an outboard that will only give so-so performance. We will go at idle speed with the barge, and rampage behind something more suited.