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Saturday, our fearless APBA Stock Outboard commissioner allowed me as much seat time in his CSH (set up with a restrictor plate as a precaution) as I wanted.
Howie's dad graciously loaned me his Kevlar suit, which fit quite well as we are about the same size.
WHAT I LIKED:
1. I didn't crash the boat, or burn up the engine!
2. The weather was PERFECT, almost no wind.
3. It was fast enough to be fun.
4. It was enough unlike anything else I've driven to give me something else to learn.
5. The kneeling position didn't absolutely shred my back.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER:
1. Steering: Is it absolutely necessary to run so much friction pre-load on the steering hub? Even after they reduced the pre-load for me ( the first ride was SCAREY!), I still found it difficult to give the desired amount of course correction without sometimes overshooting due to the amount of effort required to turn the wheel.
A larger diameter wheel would be one obvious fix, but I suppose that if that was workable, it would already be in use.
Is the engine torque so much a factor that this (seemingly excessive) preload is required?
2. What to do with your feet? I was wearing my closed-toe Teva sandals, as they were the most substantial footwear I own that still drain water pretty well. After a few rides, I found that I had to choose between cramping up my toes by maintaining my foot vertical, ( with the toes folded forward, as if getting ready to spring forward), or laying the foot over on its side, which resulted in a SORE ankle pretty quick.
When I was a kid, I had a junky little 8 foot "skimmer" which had an inner cockpit sole with "D" shaped cut-outs for your toes, which allowed some depth for the front of your foot to protrude down into, and this worked quite well.
With the modern design "sandwich" cockpit soles, has anyone else found a way to deal with this issue? Pictures and descriptions, please!
3. Turning the boat: I think this is probably a learning curve thing. I equate this most closely to my snowmobile riding back in Michigan 35 years ago. My good old 250 Merc Snow Twister acted a lot like the boat did.
Yeah, I fell off that thing a lot learning to ride it, too! :-)
One other fellow tried to be there with his PRO lay down boat so I could see how I liked that, but it didn't work out, so that's still a question mark for me.
Anyway, there's the good, bad, and the ugly.
It WAS fun, but for me to want to leap right out and get into this, the issues I've detailed above need a little work.
Also, I still need to see how this cornering thing works when bouncing sideways through 11 other wakes, and trying to see through their roost!
OK, Your turn. Let me know what you think about my first ride, and the gripes I had with it.
AND, after about the 3rd chorus of "that's just the way it is, deal with it!", I'm outa here!
Thanks!
Bob Cowgill
Mims, Florida
Howie's dad graciously loaned me his Kevlar suit, which fit quite well as we are about the same size.
WHAT I LIKED:
1. I didn't crash the boat, or burn up the engine!
2. The weather was PERFECT, almost no wind.
3. It was fast enough to be fun.
4. It was enough unlike anything else I've driven to give me something else to learn.
5. The kneeling position didn't absolutely shred my back.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER:
1. Steering: Is it absolutely necessary to run so much friction pre-load on the steering hub? Even after they reduced the pre-load for me ( the first ride was SCAREY!), I still found it difficult to give the desired amount of course correction without sometimes overshooting due to the amount of effort required to turn the wheel.
A larger diameter wheel would be one obvious fix, but I suppose that if that was workable, it would already be in use.
Is the engine torque so much a factor that this (seemingly excessive) preload is required?
2. What to do with your feet? I was wearing my closed-toe Teva sandals, as they were the most substantial footwear I own that still drain water pretty well. After a few rides, I found that I had to choose between cramping up my toes by maintaining my foot vertical, ( with the toes folded forward, as if getting ready to spring forward), or laying the foot over on its side, which resulted in a SORE ankle pretty quick.
When I was a kid, I had a junky little 8 foot "skimmer" which had an inner cockpit sole with "D" shaped cut-outs for your toes, which allowed some depth for the front of your foot to protrude down into, and this worked quite well.
With the modern design "sandwich" cockpit soles, has anyone else found a way to deal with this issue? Pictures and descriptions, please!
3. Turning the boat: I think this is probably a learning curve thing. I equate this most closely to my snowmobile riding back in Michigan 35 years ago. My good old 250 Merc Snow Twister acted a lot like the boat did.
Yeah, I fell off that thing a lot learning to ride it, too! :-)
One other fellow tried to be there with his PRO lay down boat so I could see how I liked that, but it didn't work out, so that's still a question mark for me.
Anyway, there's the good, bad, and the ugly.
It WAS fun, but for me to want to leap right out and get into this, the issues I've detailed above need a little work.
Also, I still need to see how this cornering thing works when bouncing sideways through 11 other wakes, and trying to see through their roost!
OK, Your turn. Let me know what you think about my first ride, and the gripes I had with it.
AND, after about the 3rd chorus of "that's just the way it is, deal with it!", I'm outa here!
Thanks!
Bob Cowgill
Mims, Florida
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