Ker-SPLASH! Recreational Power Boaters Guide

Ker-SPLASH!

Ker-SPLASH!

Recreational Power Boaters Guide

Floyd M. Orr

All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2002 Floyd M. Orr

Smashwords Edition: Copyright © 2009 Floyd M. Orr

This book is a work of nonfiction. Any and all facts and figures presented herein are accurate to the best of our knowledge. The publisher and author disclaim responsibility for any misprints, math errors, or other inaccuracies presented. Any and all celebrity and trademark names are mentioned for identification purposes only. This is not an official publication sponsored or endorsed by any corporate entity mentioned herein.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Miss Pamela, who suggested one day while we were mooing like two contented cows as we drifted to nowhere on one of our two boats, that I write a book about boating. That turned out to be a splendid idea! I want to also dedicate this book to my dad, whose money fixed our ski boat after I sank it.

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been compiled in such a short time and with such ease without the internet. Much of the information within this book was compiled from manufacturer websites and manufacturer brochures. With the aid of the broad reach of the internet, numerous tiny details, facts, and figures could be located and verified. The websites listed in the Appendix of the book were used to locate and verify much of the information. In many cases, the comprehensive depth of information included on a company’s website was a great help in the proper inclusion of the necessary information about that company. The unfortunate opposite is also true in many cases. If a company has not offered the details of its history or its products, then the information included in the book may be sadly much less than I would have preferred. One of the central reasons that I chose to write this book at this time was that I could perceive a virtual sea of change happening in the industry at this time. My goal was to provide the most comprehensive book of information I could muster on the current state of the recreational power boating hobby in 2002. The information included in this book is in no way intended to negatively affect the fortune or future of any company that is in the business of providing us the tools to enjoy the recreational boating hobby. I certainly hope the opposite is true in every respect.

This book is intended to inform and entertain recreational power boating hobbyists. The material contained herein is totally my own opinion. I completed the most thorough research available to me concerning the facts and figures contained in this book. I utilized my own collection of boat and ski brochures, some dating back to 1975. I browsed through many ski and boat magazines, dated from 1995 through 2001, paying far the most attention to the ads. I never intended for this book to compete with all the magazines’ tests or glossy color photos or Buyer’s Guides, but to supplement them in a way that has rarely been done before. As you read through certain chapters of the book, you will read evidence of my career in the financial services field. I tend to be fascinated by marketing, prices, facts and figures, corporate histories, and the relationships among companies. You will also see evidence of my fascination with engines, and facts and figures about engines. As previously stated, the content of this book that is not obviously and directly based on facts and figures is my opinion, and in many instances, I remind you of that fact within the text. I could never have composed this material if I had not been obsessed with the subject matter. To the best of my knowledge, the entire book is nonfiction. The names of individuals have been changed, but that is all.

Cover Design by author.

Cover Photo: 1994 Sea Rayder. Photo by author.

Back Cover Photo: 1988 Bayliner Capri. Photo by author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction – Historical & Autobiographical Insight

What This Book is About

The Author’s Credentials

An Embarrassing Moment in Boating History

Chapter 2: Getting Started – Whatever Floats Your Boat

The Big Picture

The KISS Principle

The Sunbrella Bimini Syndrome

Moby Dick & His Trailer

Speed is Expensive

You Meet the Nicest Dealers at a Show

Nevers and Miracles

Chapter 3: Sterndrive Runabouts – Unsung Heroes

Introduction to the Runabouts

Seating Choices

Power Choices

The Stern Drive Runabouts

Chapter 4: Learning & Teaching to Ski - The Only Hard Part is Getting Out of the

Water

Learning to Ski

Teaching to Ski

Learning & Teaching to Slalom

Wakeboards

Kneeboards

What Flying Saucer?

Tubes & Other No-Brainers

Chapter 5: Skis & Other Water Toys – Skinny Sticks to Wide Loads & Mindless Tubes

The Inside Scoop

The Brand Names

Where to Buy All the Water Toys & Boat Accessories

Chapter 6: Towing Technique – A Real Art & A Real Science

Chapter 7: The Mini-Jet Splash of the Mid-Nineties - Spyders on the Water

Introduction to the Mini-Jets

The Individual Models

For Motorheads Only Department

Chapter 8: Serious Ski Boats – Trading Big Bucks for The Sweet Ride

Introduction

The Motorhead Department

Ski Boat Brands

Chapter 9: Maintenance Issues - Charge the Battery & Keep the Carbs Clean!

Introduction

Saltwater

Winterizing

Summer Maintenance

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Exxon is Not a Vintage Wine

A Piece of Steel Wool Goes a Long Way

Chapter 10: Safety Issues - Sober Life Vests and Other Boring Subjects

Let the Pirates Keep the Rum

All Sizes and Colors

Currents & Waves

Miss Sellaneous Common Cents

Boat Lights on Parade

Licensing Legality

Chapter 11: Those Other Boats on the Lake – Jet Skis to Scarabs

Introduction

Personal Watercraft

Sailboats

Bass Boats

Party Barges

Deck Boats

Cabin Cruisers

Canoes

Speedboats

Offshore Performance Boats

Appendix

Glossary

Website Bibliography

Corporate Contact Addresses

About the Author

Chapter 1: Introduction

Historical & Autobiographical Insight

What This Book is About

Every kind of boat known to man has books written about it – except this one. There are recreational power boaters all over the lakes and rivers of America enjoying the family fun of this type of boat. The boat could be a wooden fourteen-footer from The Fifties powered by a 30-hp, twin-cylinder Johnson outboard. It could be a mini-jet from The Nineties with an inboard Mercury 120-hp two-stroke or a fish-n-ski from The Eighties powered by a 150-hp Mercury Outboard Six. It might even be a 23-foot cuddy cabin motivated by a Chevy 454 stern-drive. These are all possibilities, but the most likely scenario is a 17-foot to 22-foot stern-drive powered by a marinized Chevrolet or Ford car engine. The engine could be a four-cylinder, a V-6, or a small-block V-8. The common factor these types of boats all share is that families usually buy them to enjoy recreational boating and the towing of water toys on the weekends. The amazing part is that so little has been written about them. This book is intended to fill that niche, to impart information the author has gained from decades of family recreational boating. The emphasis will be on those parts that need it: stern-drives, mini-jets, inboards, skis, tubes, trailer issues, maintenance, and towing and skiing techniques.

Ker-SPLASH! is a book for the family watersports enthusiast. It is written by an American for Americans. This is not a book for all those types of boating hobbies that already have lots of books written about them, such as sailboats, antique wooden boats, world-cruising yachts, and fishing boats. This is a book for all the rest of us. This is a book for people who love both the fiberglass hulls and the engines that power them. This is a book for the person who is bored silly drowning worms or flopping jibs or whatever those uppity, engine-hating environmentalist boaters call making a boat move by wind power. This is reading material for the yahoo who likes to go slinging around a fast turn, holding onto a tube by his thumbs, and yelling yeeeehhaaaah! This is a book for the aquatic speed freak who bought a bunch of Dell stock cheaply a long time ago and then sold it before the dot-com bubble burst. Now he’s ready to study the details of just how much does a boat cost that goes 70 miles-an-hour. The book is for the recreational, open-water skier who is ready to move up to an inboard, tournament ski boat, as well as selecting the best ski for the ride. Most of all, this book is for the person who has never owned anything bigger than a twelve-foot skiff with an outboard motor you can carry in the trunk of your car, but now he is ready for a boat the entire family can enjoy together.

Certain parameters had to be selected in order to present this material in a comprehensive, but not an overly detailed or overwhelming manner. There have been literally hundreds of boat builders through the last few decades. Many have come and gone in a lightning flash and many are still producing big fiberglass toys for us to play with. The saddest situation has become acutely common in just the last few years: builders that have been with us for decades have suddenly disappeared. Some have been bought out, some have been moved out of the country, and some just sank to the bottom of the corporate sea of red ink. The only brands discussed in this book are, at least primarily, products of the United States. There is one glaring exception: Bombardier. The Canadian company that swarms all over our lakes with Sea-Doos powered by Austrian Rotax engines has even bought the venerable Johnson and Evinrude brands. All the rest are totally American companies. This has been one of the extremely few industries in the United States to survive the attack of the Toyotas and BMW’s of the world. All but the fewest of the boats we play with on the weekends are designed and built completely by Americans. Practically all the engines propelling these boats are also made in the U. S., as are all of our water skis, wakeboards, and other water toys. This has been an industry that to the best of its ability, has kept Americans working. The legendary brand names we may be losing as you are reading this have held on to the American dream longer than those of most any other industry. No matter what the nutball environmentalists may think, when you burn Exxon in your Bayliner on a Saturday afternoon, you are least doing something to keep Americans working and the economy afloat.

There is one particular parameter you need to know. The listings by model or manufacturer, within each specific group, are always in the order in which my extensive research, combined purely with my opinion or just my gut reaction, has indicated they should be to present the reader with the most perceptive overall picture. The first brand name in the list is the one I think most neophytes need to read first. That brand may be the one that sells the most units, makes the most money, has been in business the longest, is the best known, is the one that invented the particular product or type of product, or is the name most people equate with that particular type of product. Any or all of these elements can be the deciding factor for the order of that particular list. Some of these choices were dirt simple to make and others I shifted around as I continued the research for the book. These lists are meant to be my personal value judgment. A lot of pertinent information would be left out if I had just put everything in alphabetical order. Ker-SPLASH! is not meant to be a buyer’s guide like those you find published by a boating magazine. This is not a listing of just this year’s models. The book can be read cover to cover just because you enjoy the subject matter and you think reading about a fun hobby is fun, too, just as I do. It can be purely a reference book that you refer to after coming home from a boat show, where you have just seen a bewildering array of brands and types of boats. This book could also be the first tiny step you take toward becoming a boat owner and water skier for the first time. Every brand and contact address listed within the text of the book is repeated in alphabetical order in the appendix so you can locate this information quickly and easily if necessary. You may see a more thorough contact address within the text than is shown in the alphabetical list in the appendix. You may also see notations in the text concerning the currently validity of the contact address. The last brand name on a list can be a brand that is definitely out of business, one that has been out of business longer than any brand listed ahead of it, a brand that may be out of business, but I have been unable to positively identify the current status of the company, a brand that was not produced for very long, a brand that produces less product annually than the other brands in front of it, a company that retails its product only regionally, or a company that is barely known to the boating public, but their product is so unique that the company deserves mention in the book. As with the opening brand name in each group, the last can be placed there because of any or all of the aforementioned factors. Within each group listing, the hierarchy is the result of whatever comprehensive research and careful thought that I could bring to this project. The more comprehensive and up to date the company’s website was, at a time when the American economy was in turmoil, the more accurate I was able to be with the information presented. Most of the research for Ker-SPLASH! was completed in 2001, a legendary, tumultuous year for America, Americans, and the boating industry.

The groups of boats and equipment selected for detailed analysis need to be defined and explained. The big picture is of the boats you might commonly see on the lake with you on that picturesque Saturday afternoon. A tighter focus of the picture would be the boats you might haul by trailer to the lake for the day. A closer picture shows you the boats that are capable of towing a water skier. Zoom in a little closer and you will see the boats that are either expressly designed for water skiing or the boats that are most commonly sold in large numbers for water skiing. The sterndrive bowriders are the common four-door sedans of the water. The mini-jets are the affordable sports cars. The offshore powerboats are the expensive sports cars and exotics. The tournament ski boats are the BMW’s and Mercedes SL’s. The deck boats are the SUV’s. The pontoon boats are the pickup trucks. Cabin cruisers are the Cadillacs and Lincolns. The personal watercraft are the motorcycles. Sailboats are the bicycles. Every type is mentioned, some are described effectively, and others are displayed in disgustingly explicit detail. The most important element I want you to get from me is a full description of the types of boats you want more information about, but you have been unable until now to find. You have seen sterndrive runabouts on the lakes and highways of America for decades, but you have read very little about them other than a few tests of the latest models in a boat magazine. The mini-jets offer an affordable alternative that is obviously heaps of fun, but very little comprehensive information has been written about them. Just what is a tournament ski boat, and why do they have to cost so much? Why do all these pseudo-millionaires seem to be roaring by me in a boat that looks like they stole it from Crockett and Tubbs?

I need to fill you in on a couple of personal idiosyncrasies that will aid in your understanding of this book. I became a fan of Mad Magazine back about the time Ahab the Arab first rode his camel named Clyde. One of my favorite things the magazine’s writers used to do was to call everything by its Department, such as The Don Martin Department. My favorite of Mr. Martin’s work has always been The Hardest Head in the World, from Don Martin Bounces Back, but that’s not the point here. The point is that you will be referred to The Offshore Power Boat Department or The Sterndrive Runabout Department, etc., repeatedly throughout Ker-SPLASH! Well, just get a grip and deal with it. I think The Department is more fun than a page or chapter number, and apparently the editors of Mad agreed with me. The other thing you will just have to put up with is that I write from a personal viewpoint because I think that’s fun to read, too. I am far from the most accomplished slalom skier in the world, and I can’t afford a tournament ski boat or a Scarab any more than I can a Ferrari, but all three are things I would dearly love to own. I’m a dreamer just like you are. I skied behind the boats my father could afford in The Sixties and I ski behind a four-cylinder Capri now. My hope is that a lot of you out there can identify with my silly attitude and Southern perspective.

Many things will be blatantly ignored just because great gobs of material are already available on these subjects. Many will be ignored just because I don’t give a rat’s derriere about those things, but there are many I do care about, yet so little information is available concerning those things. You will not read in this book details about: sailboats, yachts, canoes, fishing boats, cabin cruisers, or racing boats. You will find background information about and a few references to most of the above aquatic items. There might seem to be an excessive amount of information on the mini-jets of The Nineties; however, many of these are perfect entry-level boats on the used market and darn little has been written about them, other than a few tests and jet-roundup buyer’s guides in the boating magazines. You may also question why wakeboards are getting so little space and common water skis are getting so much. Wakeboards may be the latest fad for teenagers, but this is not a book about fads or teenagers. This is a book about the whole family and their water toys. There is quite a bit of info on wakeboards and wake-board-specific towboats in this book, particularly as the equipment relates to the same brands as the slalom ski makers and ski boat builders, but the material is held in proportion. If you are only interested in wakeboard material, you should consider this book a comprehensive reference for all water sports. There are many books, magazines, and CD-ROM’s you can buy for the totally intense sport of wakeboarding and nothing else. You may question the lack of information about fishing boats. The answer is that some of the boats may be used for that purpose, but that is not the subject of this book. This book is about recreational boating for the entire family and it is also about the lost art of recreational, open-water skiing. If you are a tournament skier behind a $45,000, purpose-built competition ski boat, you might enjoy reading this book for pleasure, but you are not likely to learn much new. If you have been playing on the water’s surface for years and you just want to finally read a few details about one of your favorite pastimes, then you will enjoy this book. If you are an ordinary Mr. Dad who is about ready to plunge into recreational boating with kids and all, then this book is written for you.

The concept of small recreational powerboats began with the sleek, wooden speedboats built by Chris-Craft and others. These ancestors of the fiberglass runabouts of today were closed-bow inboards used as runabouts by the well-heeled of yesterday, as we see now mostly in old movies. The invention of the sport of water skiing is generally attributed to an eighteen-year-old Ralph Samuelson in Minnesota in 1922. Mercury Marine began in 1939, made their first six-cylinder outboard in 1957, and merged with Brunswick in 1961. Mercury developed the first sterndrive in 1962, and their first black outer casing also appeared that same year on a 100-hp inline Six. Sea-Doo developed the first sit-down personal watercraft from their Ski-Doo snowmobile designs in 1968. Kawasaki reinvented the standup Jet Ski in 1973, coined the term, and began the marketing campaign that would be the first really successful one in this new industry. The 175-hp Mercury sixty-degree V-6 outboard design first appeared in 1975. Annual personal watercraft sales peaked at 200,000 in 1995.

The Author’s Credentials

My dad bought our family’s first ski boat in 1960. His youngest brother had already purchased a used 14’ aluminum rig with a 25-hp Johnson outboard. The only way you could tell it was something other than a fishing skiff was the starboard mounted steering wheel behind a closed bow and small windshield that was not even tall enough to mount a top to it! The water ran over your feet on the bare floor and the only luxury was an electric starter. Jumping on this new floating bandwagon, my dad chose a used wooden model of who knows what brand or vintage. Probably a model from the early Fifties, this 14-footer sported the fore and aft bench seat design separated by about a foot of gently curved deck. It came with what my dad called a speed prop with only two blades spun by a 45-hp Mercury outboard that clearly stated 55 on its tall chrome casing. I never could figure out why this was not a 55-hp model, but Dad insisted it was only 45 swimming ponies. With that classic airplane cockpit and tall inline four-cylinder, it was a cool machine compared to my uncle’s aluminum tub that scorched your flesh after it was out in the sun a while and you rubbed up against it. Like the aluminum model the cool machine’s only luxury appointments were an electric starter and a low windshield. The water still ran over your feet….

After a couple of years of the family learning the details of ski boat ownership, including many that were aggravating or embarrassing, as well as boatloads of fun, Dad located a new fourteen-foot fiberglass boat for sale. I think he paid only $300 for it, which was a good deal even back then. This was for a boat only, not a full rig. He mounted the old Mercury 55 on it and sold the powerless wooden boat for a small price I am sure. If I could remember if either or both of these boats were towed by a white ‘57 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Holiday Sedan with a large 325-hp V-8 or a white ’62 Buick Special with that unique 155-hp aluminum V-8, I could be more specific about the year we got a genuine modern fiberglass ski boat. The change from a wooden boat to a fiberglass one was very near our change from a conventional, thirsty V-8 to what was then the latest thing. I cannot remember the exact model year or brand of the fiberglass boat either, but the only change from the wooden model was the lightweight, low-maintenance, stylish red deck and white hull with a larger, open cockpit. Yes, we still cruised with wet feet through 1964.

The spring of 1965 brought many pleasant changes. Not only did I locate an interesting new boat on a used car lot that I thought Dad might be convinced to spend his money for, but I was old enough to drive it to the lake without parental supervision. For these and many other reasons, I can tell you a lot more about our third ski boat. This was another fourteen-foot, closed-bow, fiberglass model, a Lonestar Capri, to be exact, with a red deck and a white hull. The package included a twin-cylinder, 35-hp Evinrude Jubilee Edition of considerably newer vintage than the Mercury 55. Dad bought this one and sold the earlier rig. Although it may sound like a step backward, I assure you it was not. The Lone Star was probably a 1963 model, although I cannot be certain of that. I have been able to verify that Lone Star Capris were built in Grand Prairie, Texas, from 1960-63 for certain. There may have been a ’64 model Capri, too. I remember that the Capri