Dano

The foam is there for more than flotation. If you look at how these old boats were made the foam is sandwiched between the hull and the floor. Essentially acting as a core material making the relatively thin fibreglass hull stronger, more rigid, distributing forces across greater areas, while also providing support for the floor. In the boats I’ve seen with the floors pulled up there is very little structure that would provide any support for the hull with the foam removed. I would replace with new foam and enjoy your ride. Keep a dry bilge and it will last forever. It’s also a great safety feature. not sure what rating you need but you can check with skidim.com or skiboatpartsonline.com I’m sure they will both know exactly what you are looking for.

This one is in Canada. https://www.facebook.com/share/D6uM4dyBpY8XWH38/?mibextid=79PoIi

So i took Horton up on his ultra cheap video coaching. the process was super easy, just drag and drop your video file into the conversation box, pay your 10 bucks and you're done. He responded very quickly, and as I expected the feedback was excellent. I came out of it knowing exactly what to work on and why. What I liked most is that without me telling him, he addressed an issue that i've known to be my major issue for a long time, but I've never had a fix for it or understood why I couldn't seem to eliminate it from my skiing . So it feels really good to have him shed some light on it and to have some direction in how to fix it. If you haven't had coaching before. Get a video, and send it in. You won't regret it.

This is so good.

@scoke thanks. It’s good to have info like this as a reference. Our water is still in the 40’s here and it just doesn’t feel good right now.

@scoke Which way are are the boots going as the water warms?

From an old BOS thread I think @santangelo may have been the developer?

This app is still workfing with no issues on my iPhone ios17.3.1. @Horton it’s a useful app you can save multiple skis and all your settings and settings history with notes. It also included a fin share option that could share your settings with other users. So you can see what others are using

I messed around a fair bit with this last year to try and get a feel for binding placement, mostly for my own reference. I summarized it by how the ski felt thru the wakes. From what I felt, too far forward the ski felt like it was a lot of work, was harder to maintain connection, it began to feel like I was hitting cement curbs crossing the wakes, and I just could not make space before the buoy. I tried back and liked it. For some reason I had it in my head that most skiers were going forward, I thought I must be doing something wrong. So I started this thread to discuss.

@Horton I think this is spot on. I’m just trying dial in -32 with hopes to get deeper into-35. Boot forward is breaking me and I’m seperated after CL. It’s a little easier to manage with my boots back a little.

@jjackkrash Somehow i missed that episode. around the 15 minute mark explains pretty much exactly what I'm feeling. Thanks for sharing.

In reading about how to adjust bindings /fin most all of the info refers to tuning for turns, but there’s not much talk about how the ski moves/feels thru the wakes. I like the way my ski turns with binding forward but I’ve found that if my front boot gets too far forward it becomes really heavy feeling at the wakes and takes a more direct path to the buoy. Moving binding back, the ski feels lighter, faster and creates more space. It turns both sides well enough that I never really think about turning. In reading on this site most people are pushing bindings forward. This has never worked for me. On multiple skis my favoured binding position has been 1/8 to 1/4 back of stock with stock fin settings. So I’m curious if I’m missing out on some magic. I know it’s personal preference for each individual style I’m just looking to better understand things.

@scoke wth are you even talking about? He is no where near the whitewash. Sure that day was an older Malibu. I can assure you it looks exactly the same behind his 2023 prostar.

@Horton I’m as astonished as you are. But the skier In the photos I uploaded runs into -38 at every tournament, and probably every day. I have to think he knows what he is doing.

@Horton This isn't me. He's a pretty good skier. He is gliding and the boat has just cleared the 55's. pass is -32@34. This is interesting to me. like you I watch the red balls as soon as I move left. I would have guessed the boat is much deeper when I begin my glide.

Well I thought for sure mastercrafter was crazy. But watching some drone footage of myself, the boat is certainly still going through the greens as I begin to stand up into my glide. I have never paid attention to that before.

@ReallyGottaSki are you using coosa for the stringers too? Do you have to then laminate a bunch of pieces together to get the required thickness? Will Coosa accept lag bolts for motor mounts are do you have to come up with a new design for motor and trans mounts?

@jhughes not everybody is in love with Cc. Other brands drive fine too. They are just different. Other wakes are great too. Cc to me is a great boat but I just don’t see it as being leaps and bounds ahead of others. Having skied the bubble butts that everybody raves about, I think it has some great wakes but I don’t think they are so much better than other brands that the other brands are irrelevant.

Free ski until we get the course floating in a couple weeks. Once the course in I'll run -15 for a few sets, if feeling good I'll shorten to -28 pretty quickly, that is where i'll stay for a while. I can run -28 pretty routinely, -32 is harder and still pretty scrappy, -35 has not yet fallen for me.

@stevezie You summed Centurion up pretty good. Great wakes, rough ride. If you have calm water these boats skied really well. The Falcon hull was a great skiing boat with very little spray. Wood stringers was one of the negative to them as well. I think the Tru Tracs and Lapoints were very similar and I'd expect them to ski very well too. I believe the Eclipse was a continuation of the Falcon hull but was composite construction and open bow.

I have a Falcon. I think its wakes are really good. Low and soft. Tracking isn’t that bad and there’s next to no spray. Its beam is a bit wider than most of that era, so it’s not as prone to weight distribution. The boat is like an Indy car on water as long as the water is flat. It really is a rough ride in choppy water is the only complaint I have. I’m not sure but I think the falcons and the Tige’s share the same Hull produced by Fineline as @RAWSki already mentioned. I don’t know what the differences would be outside of the branding.

if you are checking motor mounts just make sure the bolts are holding without turning them. Tightening can pull threads out, and loosening can also weaken them. They are just lag bolts into wood.

Float it and watch for water leaks. The bilge should not take on much water during use. A drip or 2 every 10 seconds from the log packing is all you should expect. It should not have 2 or 3 gallons sloshing around. check fuel hose is in good condition and there are no fuel leaks. Insure the bilge blower fan is operating and properly vented out the back of the boat. Make sure your carburetor is equipped with a throttle return spring. So it will return to idle if your throttle cable breaks. Speaking of cables a boat that old may need new brass fittings on the ends of the throttle and shift cables. Mine were just about worn thru when I replaced them last year. make sure your bilge pump is operational. Steering cable. If you don’t know how old it is. It is a good idea to replace it. Even if it appears to be operating smoothly. You don’t want to experience a broken steering cable at any speed. You will also want to check the steering cable clamp block is in good shape and there is no slop in it. I have a centurion of that era and the rear drain plugs are the crappiest design. Suggest you at least have a look at what is there and make sure they are securely attached still. On my boat they are just garboard plugs with tiny wood screws that were screwed thru the fiberglass into the wood transom. Never sealed properly. Wet wood Resulted in loose screws. the speedo pickup hoses are another point of water intake where they go thru the transom. Get perfect pass, Toss the Speedo’s in the garbage and plug the holes with epoxy. grab your prop and see how much play is in the cutlass bearing. It shouldn’t have a lot of movement but it will have a little play. While you are ther give the rudder a shake. Again a little movement is fine but if it feels loose and moves around it may need to be serviced . start it up, and watch the temperature operates as expected probably around 160degrees. If it climbs higher it’s time to shut it down and figure out why. By the way the danger here is damage to the engine but also the exhaust hoses could get extremely hot if the raw water is not flowing properly. That heat can cause the exhaust hoses to fail. I’ve seen the rubber seperate on the inside and become an obstruction. Worst case is they fail completely and you are now sinking. Always keep an eye on your temps. enjoy your boat!

From the thread titled "why can pp not be like ZO" seems the patent expires in 2027 noted by MattP. I see the date listed on that page as being 2025-05-08. but I can't see how to read more about it? I'm not sure if that changes anything but it seems like it could open the door.

PP DBW systems are very good. I think ZO loses their ability to keep PP on the outside in the next couple of years. Will be interesting to see if PP competes for the business.