Depth of water

ghettolake415 · Posted: Jun 10, 2003 4:51 pm Post subject: Depth of water

How mcuh water does the average ski/ wakeboard boat need to run in????? and by how mcuh does that number change if the boat is fully weighted???????

K-dub · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 14760

I ride in a tournament lake that is only 5 ft. deep.....when we weight the boat down heavily, you can see mud coming up in the propwash. I don't think were actually hitting ground, but I know were skimming pretty close to it.

bluefish86 · Posted: Jun 10, 2003 4:57 pm Post subject:

If you look at your boat spec sheet, the depth of the lowest part of the boat is listed as the draft.

Sportster4Tec · Posted: Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject:

Yeah but i think he might be leaning towards maybe if the water depth affects the wake? Ghetto i thought i remembered you saying you do or used to have a jet boat in like a 3 or 5 foot lake or something like that.

pooser · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 4738

you could probly get it to run in 3 to 4 foot depths as long as you know that the depth stays consistent and there are no rocks or sand bars and it depends on how much fully weighted is probly an additional foot every 1000 lbs tho just a guess.

Sportster4Tec, deeper lakes will definitely help the lake form up nicer.

Seth Martin · Moderator Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 891 City: Orlando

you need at least 10 foot for the wake to fully form

Partyb · Posted: Jun 11, 2003 8:40 am Post subject:

An unloaded inboard boat can float in about 22 inches of water. If you start going, the stern will drop, thereby requiring a little deeper water. If the boat is weighted, you will need to see how much lower the boat is when weighted, and add that number to 22 inches, or whatever. Re the wake, the deeper the better. I would agree that the wake will not ramp up nice unless it is like 8-10 feet deep. You can board in 3-4 feet of water, but the wake will be crap.

Kyle, I think you may have misspoke. I know you are not suggesting that the boat is skimming bottom in 5 feet of water. Your boat would be under water if that was true. Might be prop wash, but I would think you are at least 2 feet from bottom when starting off pull.

ghettolake415 · Posted: Jun 11, 2003 9:12 am Post subject:

Sportster4Tec, yes i do ride ussaully in about 3ft of water (we ride really close to an isalnd when a bunch of ppl r out, other then that i ussaully am in about 5 ft) and i really want to get a wake specific boat that's y i asked. Becuase the water we ride in isn't that deep.