Not real sure what you mean; Inboard twin screws or two
outboards?
I won't go into one engine vs. two because it's a long
list of pros and cons with a lot of fans on either
side. But, for skiing behind them:
Twin outboards are much harder to ski behind, IFF the
driver and equipment aren't set up right. For one
thing, that much power (two 160's) on a 25' boat is
going to give it spectacularly dangerous high speed
capabilities for skiing. It's real easy to go too fast
with a boat when there's a skier behind. Acceleration
also takes getting used to or you just pull the ropes
right out of their hands (or arms out of t heir
sockets). But, given an experienced operator, smooth
working controls, and proper skiing setup, it's a real
thrill to ski behind a boat like that. Been there,
done it, love it, only cut myself once, never got
conked on the head.
With dual outboards especially, you need a good rope
setup, an done with some spring in the poles, like a
diving board. T hey're standard equipment but cost a
little more than just hooking onto two eyelets on the
back of the boat.
Normally you need a longer rope to get back where
the wake won't make it impossible to ski. SAme's with
a small boat and too short a rope, though, just a
little stronger tail shooting up.
Depending on the hull design, a good skiing speed
might be just prior to the boat planing off; making it
difficult to see where the driver is going, creating a
stong, high tail in the wake, and lots of water turmoil
for the skier unless the rope is long enough. If the
trottles are smooth though and the planing speed is
reasonable low, then it works out great. Else you're
going to be skiing at faster speeds.
A rope that gets into that tail prior to planing,
can get pretty rowdy; thus the rope extenders for the
ski rope.
Any good ski shop can tell you how to outfit
everything. Don't take my word or anyone else's here;
get the info first hand and if you have to, get the
boat for a day and get a good demo. Larger boats are
harder to handle and takes more experience to drive
them for a skier. It depends on so many things it's
impossible to give accurate opinions, really.
But, you CAN indeed ski behind a twin engine boat - if
you do it wrong, you'll learn how it was wrong rather
quickly though, so best to do the research you're
doing. Perhpaps more descrioptions are in order to get
some real world experience from others who've "been
there". Hull type, plane speeds, top dspeed, idle
speed, (mph, NOT in knots) has it been used for skiing
before & have a history, is it already equipped,
horsepower, screw directions, etc. etc. etc..
Liek you said, a boating group is likely to be lots
better; I'd keep looking.
HTH,
Pop
"HotRod" wrote in message
...
I posted this in the boat newsgroup but it doesn't
seem to get enough traffic, thought someone here might
be able to help.
My Dad is looking at a twin engine (twin 260 hp) 25'
boat. But he has one
major question? will he be able to take someone
skiing behind a twin engine
boat? A bunch of people we have talked to say that
you don't ski behind a
twin engine boat,
WHY? Is it a problem with the wake or just cost of
fuel?
Since he has also looked at a few single engine
bowriders what would be the main advantage of the
same size boat except twin engines? Disadvantages?
The twin engine boat is a Wellcraft 250 xl
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