I am looking for a fiberglass boat that equally satisfies a waterskiing/cruising outing, as well as a salmon fishing trip out of Westport or La Push (on a moderate day). I would prefer an open bow with seating, and would like to stay under 20 feet. Any recommendations out there?

I've been looking at the Grady White Tournament (19 foot) and the Arima Sea Pacer as a start.

Thanks!

FP

Short of running a hydrofoil, I have no idea how you build a boat that creates a small wake and doesn't knock your teeth out in a heavy chop.

Check out Boston Whaler...





Skywalker is right. I wouldn't want to ski
behind anything but a tournament ski boat...


But, I did learn to ski behind a 24' cabin
cruiser... the first time the boat turned and I
hit the wake it was like falling off a cliff... At 10
or 12 years old that wake was as big as me....


still fun though.

I thought I had exactly what you were looking for until I noticed that you were looking for fiberglass boats. If you change your mind, I know of a couple aluminum boats that are he## for stout, ready for big water and have better skiing wakes than most/all glass boats.

Yeah, I agree with you guys. I've skied behind a boston whaler montauk a few times, and it was ok, nothing like a maxum or a malibu of course. . .

There's skiing and skiing. That is, you can ski behind any boat that can pull you up. So, are you wanting to seriously ski or just mess around?

I struggled with this decision last year. I looked at every possible style of boat. I came away with a couple generalizations:

1. there is no function-built ski boat that can comfortably handle saltwater conditions -- you will just get pounded to death in anything that has less than maybe a 12-degree deadrise. It might sound overly analytical, but it is true -- the ride quality of a boat is highy dependent on the amount of deadrise. My first boat had a 21 degree deadrise, and it rode real nice. I've been in a few since then that were in the 15-18 degree range, and the ride quality was definitely much lower.

2. everything that makes a ski boat "good" is diametrically opposed to being a good saltwater fishing boat -- low freeboard, carpeted floor, lots of cushy bench-style seating, fixed propeller shaft, etc.

3. when skiing/boarding/tubing, you spend a lot of time screwing around back at the transom with tow lines, and anything that hangs off of the transom is a hindrance -- kicker, downriggers, outboard, rodholders, etc. Everything that can be made removable should be done so.

You have to give something up in order to get one boat to do both things. As JimH mentioned, you can ski behind most anything, but only a function-built ski boat will do that job really well.

Someone mentioned Al -- great fishing boats, but the generally sparse interior is a turnoff for skiers in bare feet and swimsuits, especially when that aluminum heats up in the midday July sun.

You say that an open bow is preferred -- just don't forget that your passengers may well want somewhere to go to get warm and dry after a couple hours on the salt at 8:00 in the morning. OTOH, when skiing, it's nice to put some kids up in the bow for ballast, and they really enjoy the ride up there.

I ended up getting a Reinell cuddy with a V-8. It is definitely a compromise on both fronts -- it is carpeted, so fish make a mess. The V-8 launches it out of the hole PDQ, but it sucks a lot of gas when I want to run 20 miles. The extra weight at the back means extra bow rise (trim tabs help a lot with that). I will really miss the open bow in the summer, but it is a hard requirement (at least for my passengers) for the other 3 seasons. I would have preferred an outboard, but couldn't find one in my price range.

Friends dont let friends ski

All I could think of every time I went out water skiing... " If you would slow this thing way down we could troll "....

Same set of circumstances for me a year ago...I ditched the fiberglass idea and was sold on the 2050 Sportfish Crestliner...roomy and has great features that please the lil lady/family and fits my fishing needs to a T!
You will not be disappointed!

I would stay away from the arima as a ski boat. I have a 17 SeaRanger and I can pull the kids around on a tube, but skiing would be a little tough, it can be done, just not well.

I would like to see the faces on the $60k ski boat crowds faces when you showed up to Ski with a 10 horse kicker and downriggers and the radar on the tower of the Competition ski boat.

thier is no imbetween you need to choose one over the other or settle for half assed both ways Imho.

A side story for you. I have a 21 foot Northwest jet boat with a Hamilton 212 pump on it. We had it up at a lake one day with a large group of people with boats. Some of my freinds wanted to water ski behind it. Long story short, when you yell "hit it" behind a jet boat with a standard length rope... you get blasted right out of your ski's ... After we figured out that you need at least 100 ft of rope, it worked fine. However, sking inside the wake feels like sking on gravel or something. I thought about this because the boat has a kicker and had down riggers on it at the time as mentioned in an above post.

Good points all around. Thanks for the thoughtful responses and advice. I would like to stick to an outboard, to reduce the gas consumption. I figure if I go with a 150-200 hp outboard on a 19' boat, I won't have any problem getting out of the hole on a slalom or a wakeboard.

Unfortunately, I can only get one boat. . .

I got 19 foot hardtop Arima for fishing and skiing. I'm 220 lbs and with a Suzuki 115 I get out on the deep start. Have had lots of different boats and all are a trade-off but I would recommend the Arima for fishing and water sports use. I fish year around and ski about 3 months so I weighted the fishing side a little bit more.

Yeah, I'll be doing more skiing than fishing too, and I'll wait my decision accordingly.

Btw, anyone notice that the boats are much cheaper on the east coast, and southeast? Probably hurricane specials. . .

FP, Since you mentioned wakeboarding you have a chance.....I have a 21 seaswirl striper with a 175 Johnson and 9.9 kicker. Added an Atlantic tower to keep the tow rope over the kicker. This boat works great for salmon fishing as you described and is pretty good for wakeboarding. It makes a big well shaped wake better than skiboats unless they have a ballast bag. It is tougher than a skiboat to maintain constant speed but after adding a 4 blade prop, not too bad. Plenty of power for skiing too, but wake is too big.

FishPirate,

If you are worried about fuel consumption, better stick with 4-stroke outboards. 2-strokes, at least traditional ones, suck more fuel than a comparable HP I/O. My buddy has a 22' Pursuit running a 200 HP Yamaha "regular" 2-stroke, and every time we talk boats, he is moaning about the fuel.

OTOH, big 4-stroke outboards are pretty heavy, not to mention spendy -- about 600#/ $16-big for the 200's. Good luck finding a used one, since they haven't been around very long.

For a light 19-footer (Arima or aluminum), a 150 HP outboard should be plenty. The Arima Sea Chaser 19' has a max HP rating of 150 HP, which on a 1600# hull is a lot.

Compare that to an 18' Boston Whaler Ventura, which is a 2300# hull. The max HP for this boat is also 150, and I'll bet you are not going to be thrilled with the ski performance at that weight/HP ratio. You can run a thinner prop to get out of the hole quicker, but then you're running excessive RPMs at cruise, and hence burning more fuel.

If I had the dough, I'd have bought the 19' Sea Ranger (bigger cuddy) with a 150 HP Yamaha 4-stroke. Unfortunately, you just don't find them used very often, and this rig runs about $30-big new.

There's a 20' Grady in the classifieds here. I don't think you'll find a bigger wakeboard wake from any other 20'er. (Posted there 1/18)

J.D.

You might want to look at a Bluewater.

I have a 19'r with a 4.3 volvo dual-prop that gets the job done both ways.

Composit deck, good sized fishing area, plenty of upholstery, good power, reasonable fuel bill.



herm