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Wakeboarding and Skiing?

I spent a ton of time behind the starliner - wake boarding, slalom, tubing. Like others have said - just about any checkmate is going to have more than adequate power to pull a slalom skier. The OB's all have really small wakes that are good for skiing. I had three ?300lb? fat sacs in the starliner and that made a good wakeboard wake - still not great, but it really depends on your frame of reference.

I mounted a tall ski pylon (about 6' above the floor of the boat) using as large aluminum plates as I could fit under the fiberglass epoxied in with 5200. It was strong and we towed tubes secured just above the motor cowling with no issues. As said before, the rear tow points on a starliner/starflite are too low to tow tubes well.

The 23' I/O throws a nice wake for wake boarding without ballast and we have a removable 8' pylon that works GREAT for wake boarding - no comparison to the starliner. Not as good for skiing of course.

There is nothing like a full width swim platform and sun pad.

Good luck - checkmates are awesome boats and most have really good build quality. You'll be happy with one.
 
I pull everything from the pylon and have not had any stress crack issues. The Eluder has a factory pylon and the Tri Mate, I installed the pylon. I made sure the support arms were mounted in a sturdy part of the deck with big backing plates for support. As for the rope, if the pole is tall enough, you wont have any issues with the engine.
 
merc245 said:
You mind as well leave the tube on the beach if your going to use a harness. Wheres the fun when your line is being dragged thru the wake. That is if your lucky to clear the wake! Pulled everyone and everything with the skipole even a double decker houseboat sideways in the wind.
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That's funny...What your saying is if your gonna do it the right way don't do it at all.:rof:
It probably say's right on most pylons to not pull tubes.The bottom line here is that a ski pylon is not designed to pull tubes for safety reasons.

I pulled a guy and his boat about 15 miles down the St.Johns river with the ski pylon.I can tell you that the forces a tube puts on the pylon is far greater than just gently pulling someone back to the ramp.

If your afraid of a little water in the face you should not be on the water

I most always have 3 kid's on a big tube that dare me to try and throw them off. WOT high speed whips will do it almost every time. :devil:
I would never put my ski pylon through that punishment or take a chance of hurting someone when the pylon decided it was done.
But hey...to each his own.
As it has been stated some boats have the transom eye's to low to hook to.This is not a problem on my 16' BR.:bigthumb:
 
We ski and wakeboard all the time off our Convincor 220. Although the wake is a little too big to get through a Slalom Course. But the bigger wake is pretty good for wakeboarding. Especially if you have a full boat load of people.
 
CHECK16 said:
That's funny...What your saying is if your gonna do it the right way don't do it at all.:rof:
It probably say's right on most pylons to not pull tubes.The bottom line here is that a ski pylon is not designed to pull tubes for safety reasons.

I pulled a guy and his boat about 15 miles down the St.Johns river with the ski pylon.I can tell you that the forces a tube puts on the pylon is far greater than just gently pulling someone back to the ramp.

If your afraid of a little water in the face you should not be on the water

I most always have 3 kid's on a big tube that dare me to try and throw them off. WOT high speed whips will do it almost every time. :devil:
I would never put my ski pylon through that punishment or take a chance of hurting someone when the pylon decided it was done.
But hey...to each his own.
As it has been stated some boats have the transom eye's to low to hook to.This is not a problem on my 16' BR.:bigthumb:
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I totally disagree. I have done hundreds of hours of tubing off of a Checkmate ski pylon (several different boats) and I never seen any stress cracks.

If you have a single post, it needs to be well secured on the bottom. If you have a tri-pod style you need to make sure that the "legs" are as tight as possible. In both cases, you need to make sure that there is no jolting affect when under a load (towards the motor).

Not looking to start anything here, but to say that tubing will absolutely cause stress cracks is not accurate.

HD
 
All I know is that I had 1/2 dozen neices & nephews keep bugging me to pull them on the tube and when I told them to get papaw (a Harness user)to do it, they were like its no fun with papaw, the lines in the water, he just goes a big circle. So once again, just about the time I'd be heading over to the sandbar for some adult fun, I'd be on the lake with the tube in tow with a bunch of happy kids!:thumb:
 
I think its all how you tow. You should always do your best to keep the line tight, which the driver should be able to do with a tube. I feel that a bad cut on skis, where the skier allows too much slack in the line and the ski bogged down in the water, has the potential create a lot more forces on the pole than a tube would. At least you feel it more in the boat. Either way, the setup needs to be taken care of and any installed properly.
 
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HD. I never said it would absolutely cause stress cracks. Just a good way to start some.
And also stated the Y adapter works for some not others.
Opinions are like.... well you know. Like i said to each his own.
I do it my way you do it your way and we are all happy.:thumb:
 
My dealer told me that the reason it says not to pull a tube on the pylon is that way back in the day when boats were all real small there were actually people flipping their boats over when they would go into a tight turn with the tube attached to a pole.

I have always towed everything including a tube with my pole and there is no chance in hell that would happen with the boats of today, especially not in a CM, we have a 3 man that we tow every weekend on the pole without issue, I have no stress cracks
 
during the summer we ski, tube and wakeboard behind the diplomat almost daily. pulls anyone out on one ski with less than half throttle, flat wake with tabs slightly down and trimmed in a little, go slower, tabs all the way up and trimmed up out to drive the stern down (and bow up a bit) and it throws a pretty decent wake...
 
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