Maintaining a course on a busy public lake - too much trouble ?

[swbca]

@GaryJanzig Are the bullet shaped boat guides in your picture the buoys sold as crab trap markers ? I have a bunch of those that I plan on using next summer. Curious why you have the bullet-end facing down. Wouldn't the occasional impact with the sides of your boat be softer if it was hitting on the curved end ?

[RAWSki]

lots of good ideas here. we have follow similar plans in Michigan. We use "mini course" subs to keep the arms level and encourage new beginning skiers. Stopped water filling turn balls this season and started using wally-buoys half inflated with a little weight on the end of the booms.For winter we replace the gates with polyform hard buoys (they look just like a wally buoy but much harder material.) on longer thicker bungie lines.Also leave (sacrifice) the green mini course balls by leaving them in place it seems to help keep the PVC off the bottom and out of weeds and muck---come spring its easy to find everything.We may switch from round boat path markers to the polyform "bullets" below next season.

[RAWSki]

lots of good ideas here. we have follow similar plans in Michigan. We use "mini course" subs to keep the arms level and encourage new beginning skiers. Stopped water filling turn balls this season and started using wally-buoys half inflated with a little weight on the end of the booms.For winter we replace the gates with polyform hard buoys (they look just like a wally buoy but much harder material.) on longer thicker bungie lines.Also leave (sacrifice) the green mini course balls by leaving them in place it seems to help keep the PVC off the bottom and out of weeds and muck---come spring its easy to find everything.We may switch from round boat path markers to the polyform "bullets" below next season.

[GaryJanzig]

@swbca You want the round end pointed down. The buoys will float upright. No problems with hitting the buoys with the boat. They float like the inflatable ones.

[GaryJanzig]

@swbca You want the round end pointed down. The buoys will float upright. No problems with hitting the buoys with the boat. They float like the inflatable ones.

[o2bnMaine]

@RAWSki How deep does the ice get? Some friends in Maine tried to leave a buoy at the surface in Maine. The course got ripped down the lake when ice out occurred. I've never attempted it as a result. Now they pull the course (the entire course) each Fall. That gets us an easy way to do annual maintenance!

[o2bnMaine]

@RAWSki How deep does the ice get? Some friends in Maine tried to leave a buoy at the surface in Maine. The course got ripped down the lake when ice out occurred. I've never attempted it as a result. Now they pull the course (the entire course) each Fall. That gets us an easy way to do annual maintenance!

[GaryJanzig]

I have a custom grappling hook that I use to maintain the course. I will post a photo the next time I am at the lake. Boat is in the garage. Time to start detailing.

[GaryJanzig]

I have a custom grappling hook that I use to maintain the course. I will post a photo the next time I am at the lake. Boat is in the garage. Time to start detailing.

[swbca]

@RAWSki The ice gets up to 48" during the coldest winters coupled with not much snow. The locator buoy is 5 feet down.

Using GPS Waypoints Navigator on an Android phone I can drive up to a submerged marker buoy every time. It takes some practice because GPS is more accurate when moving than when standing still. When standing still accuracy is 15-20 feet . . when moving at walking speed its about 5 feet. We have very clear water in our lake. If we couldn't see down 5 feet, we would have to jump in the lake with Goggles to find the marker after getting close with GPS.

GPS becomes very accurate at greater speed. That's why it works for speed control systems and GPS lap timers.

[swbca]

@RAWSki The ice gets up to 48" during the coldest winters coupled with not much snow. The locator buoy is 5 feet down.

Using GPS Waypoints Navigator on an Android phone I can drive up to a submerged marker buoy every time. It takes some practice because GPS is more accurate when moving than when standing still. When standing still accuracy is 15-20 feet . . when moving at walking speed its about 5 feet. We have very clear water in our lake. If we couldn't see down 5 feet, we would have to jump in the lake with Goggles to find the marker after getting close with GPS.

GPS becomes very accurate at greater speed. That's why it works for speed control systems and GPS lap timers.

[RAWSki]

Guess we have been lucky but our ice doesnt get much more than 2' thick the course is well below that and the 6' of long bungee on the gates allows for a bit of movement without stressing it seems ------ dont jinx us this year guys!!! haha

[RAWSki]

Guess we have been lucky but our ice doesnt get much more than 2' thick the course is well below that and the 6' of long bungee on the gates allows for a bit of movement without stressing it seems ------ dont jinx us this year guys!!! haha

[GaryJanzig]

When we sink our course there is nothing left on the surface. Ice is not a problem. I use two landmarks to start dragging my grappling hook from my canoe to find it. Once I snag the cable and pull it up, I start swapping out the jugs with the buoys as pictured above. No tools required. The cable and pipes float a foot above the bottom.

[GaryJanzig]

When we sink our course there is nothing left on the surface. Ice is not a problem. I use two landmarks to start dragging my grappling hook from my canoe to find it. Once I snag the cable and pull it up, I start swapping out the jugs with the buoys as pictured above. No tools required. The cable and pipes float a foot above the bottom.

[paul]

Does anyone know where to get the smaller foam bullets for boat guides? I have a set that was purchased from Skier2Skier awhile back. I skied on a course this year that had the same type but they were about half the size - way better for a portable.

[paul]

Does anyone know where to get the smaller foam bullets for boat guides? I have a set that was purchased from Skier2Skier awhile back. I skied on a course this year that had the same type but they were about half the size - way better for a portable.

[GaryJanzig]

@paul Go2marine.com They are actually crab floats.

[GaryJanzig]

@paul Go2marine.com They are actually crab floats.

[ETskier]

They also carry the white styro round bouys, cheap and work great for attaching right to the arms to prevent sagging. If you have the mini course set up use the 6", otherwise use the 8". The 6" make nice sub bouys for anchored courses.

[Jared]

what is typical for a recreation course width? We have ours at the start of the last pipe, I think ~30' wide,

[Killer]

@Jared there's 1 width and a tolerance to it Including the distance from that buoy to each other buoy in the course

11.5m is the distance from centre. No more, no less

[Drago]

@Jared if you're referring to the "mini course", that's good

[GaryJanzig]

The long pipes are about 41 feet long.

[lpskier]

@Jared If you have a tournament on your course, let me know. It will surely pull up my average.

[Jared]

No our red balls are at 37.5'/11.5M, it's our yellow balls at ~30' (1 pvc pole short of the tournament balls). We didn't really use them for ~10 years, but have some guys getting older who have started using them again, and a bunch of 3rd generation kids at our lake getting to ~10 years old that will hopefully be using them soon.

@lpskier, We're on a big lake and I've ran the yellows a couple of times when the lake is a little too rough to push things. It's probably not good for form, but it's kind of fun to run down to the end of the rope. I'm certainly not going to be getting the end of the rope on the red balls anytime soon.