shallow water wakeboat

[airdog]

I am planning to buy a boat for wakeboarding but have some conflicting situations. Half of the year the boat will be in a salt water bay that is only 3 - 5 feet deep. The other half of the year I will be in deep fresh water. Do to the boat being in as low as 3 feet of water, I think my only option for the best wakeboat would be an older V-drive that doesn't draw much or possibly a direct drive which I could add fat sacks to when I a in deeper water.

I found a 2002 Malibu wakesetter VLS (V-drive) that draws 18 inches. I am not sure if it would be dragging the prop into the bottom (mushy sand and some seaweed - no rocks) with this lower draft boat.

The direct drive I was thinking about is a 2001 Nautique which draws 18 inches as well. I am under the impression that a DD will not drop the prop as deep when it pulls up a wakeboarder, but the wake will be pretty small unless I add fat sacs.

The third option is a jetboat with fat sacs to try to creat a good enough wake.

In 3 feet of water, I am not sure if the first 2 options will work or not. Any advice out there?

[Wakeboarder3780]

Well I think you should rule out a jet boat period just because you probably won't be as happy as you could be even if you had to not use it for half the year.

Secondly, boats aside, do you really want to wakeboard in 3 feet of water? If you crash hard you're going to deck the lake bottom and you could break your neck (this almost happened to me once because I didnt know we were though shallow - luckily more forearm hit first because of the way I fell).

I guess 5' would be tolerable, I ride in that with my malibu sunsetter and it works just fine.

I guess I just feel like if you're worried that a boat might be skimming the bottom then you probably shouldn't be riding there out of safety reasons. What do you think?

[rc5695]

3' would be too shallow for me!!! I'd be nervous in 5'...

[airdog]

It would only be 3 feet at its lowest tide, so most of the time it would be 4 - 5 feet. This would only be for a few months and the rest of the year I would be in deep water.

The question really is if a 18 - 20 inch draft V drive would work in as shallow as 3 feet...without added ballast.

[ridininmd]

It would be fine if it doesn't get shallower that 3 feet. The problem is that in that shallow of water you're not going to throw much of a wake at all.

[airdog]

I know that the wake would be limited to the depth, but I think it would be better to wake board with a smaller wake and try lower elevation tricks then to not be able to go at all for 4 months. So I need to find a boat taht would work at this depth and I will try to mostly go out when the tide is higher at around 4 to 5 feet.

It is tough decision to decide what to get since a jet boat with ballast, like the sea doo wake 230 or wake 210 would work best in 3 feet, but I heard that it would suck in deeper water with poor wakes compared to a V drive...

I think that if I new that the V-drive would barely work in 3 feet, I would go with that and suffer when the watr is shallow, but be good when in deeper water the other 4 months of the year, but no one seems to be sure if a 18 - 20 inch draft V drive would be OK in that depth.

[Nor*Cal]

Doesn't matter what the boat is there will be minimal wake regardless of ballast in water that shallow. If wakeboarding is the main pursuit with this boat buy the best wakeboard boat you can afford.

Riding in shallow water isn't going to work out well for any boat jet or otherwise.

[jrhurst]

Get an older used vdrive and an older jetski to use when the water is shallow ,, only gunna be able to trow surface spins anyway to why use a boat to wakeboard when its shallow

[ridininmd]

a v-drive is still going to be better than a jet boat even in shallow depth. Jet boats don't throw good wakes regardless of what the manufacturers will try to tell you. If I remember right, the draft of a wakeboard boat is figured with the boat either at idle or at a stop. So once you're on plane it's going to run shallower, 22" may become 14" for example. You'd probably need to contact the manufacturer to verify that though. One other consideration is that the boat will have less draft in the salt water than in fresh water, due to the higher density of salt water.

I would buy the best boat I could for the deep water and figure on running during high tide in the shallower water. Any wakeboat will be fine in 4-5 feet, the wake is going to suffer some, but it will be rideable.

All that said, riding in salt sucks

[brew]

Is draft going to be measured at idle or when the boat is under power? I would think it's probably with the boat sitting in the water with nothing in it. It would seem like under low end power the boat would actually be lower in the water than it is at standstill, but I may be off in my thinking. Plus with fuel, people, and equipment it's going to sit even lower.

You could go with an older direct drive boat like a Mastercraft 205 that was made to not run very deep, but that you could load down with ballast when you had more depth to work with. That or buy a v-drive for the deep water and a jet ski (like jrhurst said) for the shallow water and take up wakeskating. Personally there is no way I'm running any direct drive or v-drive boat in water that is typically 3 feet or less deep. There are too many variables to account for and it's too big a risk.

You should have a dealer in your area that can give you an idea of what will work based on the conditions you ride in.

[leviwynnyk]

Heres a question, do you see other wakeboats out there? If so, talk to them and find out if they have any troubles.

Jet boats are good for doing doughnuts, and thats about it.

[airdog]

I think we are considering a V drive at this point and just taking it out when the tide is higher or trailer it to a deeper area of the bay (10+ feet but requires a drive), so we dont have to worry too much about depth.

We would be able to spend around $25K. So now the question is if we should go with an older Mastercraft or Malibu, or a newer Moomba.

Reliability seems to top the list at this point. Would a newer Moomba be more reliable then an older MC, malibu or supra for the same price?

[DRAGON88]