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GSchmid

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Everything posted by GSchmid

  1. Looks like you got a decent fix. I have an ‘02 Nautique which had the same problem. To fix it, here’s what I did: I cleaned the base of the hull forward if the pylon base with acetone. Pretty much had to do this blind while reaching in from the engine bay. Trimmed about 5 carbon fiber squares to fit between the gap from the pylon to the fiberglass ridge under the cooler I mixed up some 30 min resin and poured it in that gap and then just layered the squares in one at a time adding resin on top of each square. I was pretty liberal with the resin, and I layered it at least 3/8 of an inch high. There’s a nice little valley where the resin pools up in front of the pylon it’s held up perfectly so far (3yrs) and I was able to do this fix in about two hours, albeit laying on my belly. I guess this is too late to be useful for you but maybe it’ll help the next guy…
  2. Great work Lundberg! thanks for sharing this. A couple of observations I was surprised by: 1) peak velocity occurs much later vs. centerline than I would have guessed. 2) skiing an "earlier line" looks like a disadvantage in terms of both load profile on the boat and the change in velocity experienced at the buoy. (is that a correct interpretation) Not a surprise, but the "late line" simulation looks scary as hell. That's some crazy speed! A big penalty for pulling long. Any thoughts on how this model plays with speed control and where/how the boat should be picking you up? Seems like an earlier hit (C) would be an advantage because of the asymmetry of the velocity change (ie. early is much better than late). I'm not sure about the 1,2,3...
  3. I just repowered my CC 196 with an Excalibur 343 w/ZO. After years of Stargazer, the biggest difference I feel is how the boat picks me up off the ball. It's much easier to control the line in and out of the turn, and the work you put in at the first wake propels you wide and early. I'm using C2, and I'm loving it. I tend to be a "strong puller"; always been able to get in (and hold) a good leverage position. Having a tight line to load against allows me to exploit this strength.
  4. I'm sure it's different for everybody. For me, it's been almost exactly 6 buoys. 38' is my money pass at 34 mph and 35' is my money pass at 36. Run that at the same frequency (which is unfortunately not much these days :) ) I'm in M4, but switch back to 36 regularly because I believe it forces me to ski "cleaner". It helps me on my edge change and also doesn't allow me to get away with as much out of the buoy. Also, 36 is easier on the body... 38/34 puts much more load on you!
  5. I have always used the back of the boat, which is what it describes in the V9.2 instructions. I'm not sure how this impacts the pull/timing, but I will say that it "beeps" at the right time as I'm going through the course: right as the windshield hits the gate, system beeps. That's almost right on where my old magnet pickup used to be, so it feels and sounds right to me. Also, I've always mapped both ends of the course separately. Meaning: I spin the boat around and head IN to the course. I can't speak to "does it make a difference", because this is just what I've always done. Frankly, the Pylon would make more sense to me, but the PP Instructions make a point to say "rear of the boat". They even have a diagram in the instructions.
  6. GSchmid

    Saltwater

    I've been a regular saltwater skier for over 20 years. My current boat has been on salt for 18 years, and it runs/looks brand new. Here are my thoughts on how to be successful in this environment: 1) need to keep your bilge almost 100% dry. Any moisture under the engine box will start corroding the engine. Check the shaft seal, rudder tube, exhaust system for any leaks. If you do get water in there - which you will, then rinse it out and dry it before putting away. This seems hard to with the boat sitting in the water, much easier if you are trailering your boat in and out of salt. 2) I'm a big believer in closed cooling. I have had it on my boat from day 1. It was a $1000 kit. I've never had any problems with it and last summer when I took my cylinder heads off, the water-jackets looked perfect. Well worth the $1000! 3) Manifolds and risers do turn into a "consumable". You will have to replace every 4 years. The good news is they are readily available (at least for the Ford PCM) and can be changed in a few hours if you are handy. Costs are ~$800 per set, including gaskets. 4) Monitor the riser/manifold interface for leaks. If you see any evidence of a leak (salt trail), fix it ASAP. I always run a file across both interfaces to make sure they are perfectly flat. Also, your a torque wrench to install the riser. I use 25 ft/lbs. 5) My first trailer was painted, it lasted 3 years and the fenders were dangling. I'm on year 17 with my galvanized trailer, it's not a thing of beauty, but it's structurally sound. There are a lot of good options for trailer brakes: Stainless calipers, Galv-X rotors, Stainless backing plates, etc.. These parts last many years (~8 years maybe), and they aren't that much more expensive than the standard steel parts. I hope this list is helpful without scaring you off. Because saltwater shouldn't be scary. When you add up all the costs of saltwater, and divide by the number of useful years, you'll see that it's a minor cost.
  7. I don't know if a '97 - '05 Nautique fits into your price range, it may, but you can't go wrong. You can buy a TSC or TSC2 hull for <$20k, use it for 5 years, then turn around and sell it for within $2000 of what you paid for it. In the meantime, it's one of the best slalom hulls ever made, and the reliability is so good you'll hardly have to spend money on it to keep it running. For me, these off brands can be harder to resell and build quality is not as good.
  8. Can someone explain why those 3 little numbers should be different? (Stock settings are like 8, 55, 30; or something like that) I'm asking a sincere question. Don't we want the boat to respond to the pull, instead of adding different amounts of throttle depending on where you are in the course?
  9. My first boat was an '86 Mastercraft. Not the greatest in terms of fit or finish (or spray), but I didn't think the wake could get any better.... until I skied the '02 Nautique, which quickly became my second boat. 18 years later, it's hard to imagine a better slalom ride than the 196. Plus the driving experience (tracking, visiblity, handling) and reliability made me a Nautique Lifer. However, I'll be honest, the '21 Mastercraft may be enough to get me to remove my tattoo :). No moving parts under the waterline, reasonable interior space, tunable rudder, rear storage, plus the open bow possibility for the 1 week of the year I want it... I actually love the look of the new Ski Nautique; the Black and Red jackkrash boat is gorgeous. But it's too big of a boat to feel that small inside, and the slalom ride is not an upgrade from the 196. So, hard to justify the premium over the MC.
  10. I have used them for last 10 yrs (whenever they came out?) - lots of mileage! Only had to replace laces 1 time. Plus one wrap. Very comfortable, easy to get on, and light weight. I rarely fall and become dislodged from the ski, but the few times I have, the bindings pop right off. No foot or ankle issues for me.
  11. Thanks all for the input. I guess the answer is.. we'll never know how many hours my beautiful '02 Ski Nautique has on it... But the context behind the question isn't for resale, but more because I want to know the truth! My hourmeter crapped out years ago and I've been just measuring "relative hours" using PP. I've changed the PP module twice. Once many years ago ('05?) and then again last year upgrading to Stargazer. The first time, I don't remember typing in hours (may have?). But at that point in the boat's life, the primary hourmeter worked and I figured I'd never need that layer of redundancy. Last year when I put Stargazer in the PP said ~973 hrs (or something like that), but I could clearly see the hourmeter said: 1---.X So I plugged in 1000 hours which was the best I could guess from the missing digits. This was last June. 2019. Well... I'll be damned, in the second half of 2019 and first half of 2020, I put 174 hrs on my boat - according to PP (now at 1174). Not unreasonable, but seemed high to me. In fact according to oil change records (I always write the hours on the Oil Filter), I put 100 hrs on between Sept '19 and March '20! Which is on pace for over 200 hrs/yr. Again, it's possible, we skied through the winter here in San Diego, but this is double from any previous season... so I'm starting to question the PP hourmeter... Anyway, now I have a second hour meter, but it say 2.1 hours. I guess we'll never know :)
  12. Like everyone else in the world with a 2001/2002 Ski Nautique and the digital gauges, my hourmeter/tachometer (and speedo) have long since given up the ghost. So this weekend I replaced the Tach with a built in hourmeter. My boat is now NEW once again :wink: . But seriously, the display hasn't been readable in years and I don't really know how many hours are on the boat. i know it's a 4 digit number that starts with 1. Is there a way to read the engine hours from the ECM? Would a boat dealer be able to do this? I was using my PP hourmeter in the past, for oil changes and stuff, but I don't know how accurate that is. It's a Ford GT40 5.8... thanks
  13. I have a Ski Nautique, so it's got the single 2-inlet, 1-outlet muffler. Coincidentally, I just replaced my muffler because it was leaking water into the bilge. But I took a look inside before tossing it. It's a dual cavity resonator with 2 fiberglass baffles. I could see if your exhaust gets too hot (maybe blocked riser) the baffles could get hot and become unglassed, but more likely the rattling is contact with the floorboards.. Anyway, I shot some pix. One is a view through the inlet, one is through the outlet, the other is external.
  14. That red/black and tan is a great combo! It may be time to retire the SN 196 and move to Mastercraft. Will all the promos next year be 6.2 DI?
  15. @BCM, the defaults caused me to have a big RPM jump after 1 ball. I could feel it as skier, and hear it as a driver, so I needed to level that out. My break-through came from someone on BOS who posted that the 1 ball adjustment actually affects the 2 ball time; and the 3 ball adjustment actually affects the 4 ball time. (would have been nice for PP to mention that!). Anyway, after you heed that advice, it's all downhill. I was chasing at hot first buoy and it caused me to dial down the 1-ball number, which only made the surging worse. I wish PP was more open with how these 3 little numbers are used in their algorithm... and I wish they would explain why it's a good idea to give you different amounts of throttle at different places in the course. I do recall that PP Classic had a few of those fudge factors like SSB, but that had some logic to it (you don't pull out of 6 ball) I had that zero'ed out in my boat - I guess that's because I'm usually late out of 5 :) @Windsurfnut, I need to write all of my numbers down and I'll plug them into your spreadsheet. That's a good idea to set up a database. I also recall others posting numbers on this forum a few seasons ago. The consensus, as I recall, was to level them out.
  16. Engine is a Ford GT40 - 5.8. PP/SG is Version 9.20. And I did get a new GPS puck, apparently there was a recall last summer and they sent me the new puck.
  17. I put in Stargazer in my '02 196 last May and unfortunately it sapped about 1+ month of my prime ski season getting dialed in. Thanks to input from the BOS forum, I finally figured it out, PP was no help at all. I ended up flattening out the "Background Settings" all to the same level and adjusted from there; started at 25, then tuned to get actuals. The default settings caused a major surge after 1 ball. First image is where I started: This is where I ended up: Now that it's dialed, it works awesome! Pull feels great, early and wide, and all segments are +/-0.02. I would highly recommend SG w/Z-Box, but I honestly don't know what they were thinking with the high "Ball 3" setting as default. Didn't work for my boat. Didn't work for shortline skiing! I would love to hear an explanation about why the engine should "proactively" increase the engine RPM during a pass. Oh... forgot, I also had to crank up my KX. Can't remember the numbers, but I had to go from like 8 to 15.
  18. The run-off in Mission Bay hasn't killed me yet, why should I worry about some virus? :) Since I'm now WFH, I'm hoping to ski more. Maybe send it a little harder off the ramp.
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