RLogan

After 21 years of Nautiques, we jumped ship to the Prostar in 2016. Bought it from Jay Bennett. Steve Crichley is the best. Buying a Ski School boat from Jay can not be bested. New boat warranty and the boats are immaculate. My wife and I are at 30 and 32 mph respectively. There is simply no better wake out there.

Ski Chaste Lake, Mobile, Alabama: 86F

You gotta get your mind right, Luke.

It's not designed to be removed. Just folded down. You can remove it. I have. But be prepared for a little fiddling getting the spacers back in place as you reinsert the retaining pins.

I saw that boat the day it arrived at Bennett's from the factory. Sweet. I was picking up my 2016!

Live streaming now

Depending on how much trailering you'll be doing, that $3000 or so would be better spent on a ZO conversion. I know Jody Seal has done a number of them,

Crankin' it in Mobile in spring suits. Water high 60's Air mid 70's. Azaleas and Dogwoods blooming!

Just a note regarding Royal Purple. 11 years ago I "cooked" my 2001 Nautique GT40 motor using Royal Purple. Apparently, the oil did not hold particulates in suspension. Over a period of 2 years with 50hr oil changes, the sludge in the pan built up to the point of clogging the oil pump pickup. The result was burned crank and rod bearings. I own a 2016 ProStar. MasterCraft has approved Rotella 10W-40 as a replacement for Dexron III in the transmission. It seems smoother and quieter.

You do not need a reflectorless station to use the Leon survey method. Nor do you have to hook it up to your computer. It merely simplifies the process. You can tell the Leon forms to accept Deg/Min/Sec, Deg/decimal degrees or Gons. if you choose to use Deg/Min/Sec, the entry format for 43°22'51' would be 43.2251.

Good input Ed. I was far from prepared to spend $7,000. The Miami guy is my friend Ed Finley who devised his own survey program. I bought a circa 2007 Leica TPS805 Ultra for $3900. Jerry Jackson got religion and found one for $3500 and I've, since, seen them for as cheap as $3200. Make no mistake, a new Leica Flexline will run $8500+, but, really, all you get is Bluetooth and USB capability. You are correct about the color green. whatever that wave length is, it seems to be occasionally problematical. You are also correct in regard to range for reflectorless sights. I'm good out to about 200M. For the majority of my surveys, I set up between 3 and 4 ball. I do not use the pregates for a center line. The Lion program uses the gates. It will perform no calculations until all 4 gate balls are entered. If I'm shooting reflectorless, I will shoot all 4 gate balls first which allows me to see course errors as I do the rest.

By the way, thanks for all the great feedback!

To clarify, the Leon method uses a standard surveying technique of a base reference line established between the 4 gate buoys. And, true, if the gate buoys are out of whack it will throw everything else off. But the principle is based on the absolute necessity of gate buoy accuracy. This is easily checked before a survey with a "Check Tie" (Leica term), or "MLM" (Topcon term) of the gate buoys. As far as the numbering convention mentioned by Ed Brazil, Emmanuel chose to use the same even/odd convention of the gates and boat guides to ameliorate confusion, i.e. odd to the right, looking down course, even to the left. True, the Leon sheets allow for a 3 point survey if you want to take the time. I personally feel that the accuracy of EDM Total Stations will result in the same accuracy from a single point. With a reflectorless station, a 25 minute slalom course survey is easily attainable.

Thanks for the responses everyone. That's pretty much what I have heard. Would anyone be more interested if I told you you could plug your Topcon (depending on age) or Leica directly into your computer and have the bearing and distance of each buoy directly placed into the appropriate cell? And, upon completion have a graphic printout of the course with the resulting errors compared to desired positions of the buoys. If so, checkout my PowerPoint presentation on the USA Water Ski website under 3 Event, Technical Controller Resources, Survey Program, Lion Survey Method. Any questions, my phone number is in the Officials Directory.

I don't know how many out there are even interested since this topic concerns TC's primarily. But, as a result of some recent discussions, I am interested in knowing how many TC's out there are using Emmanuel Lion's survey method and Homologation Dossier. And, if not, why not. And how many TC's know it even exists.