why are outboards bad

[money_mike]

i hear people doggin on outboards alot, what makes them worse than an inboard or an i/o

[BigMace255]

The wake is much smaller, making it harder to get air. Simple as that.

Plus there are the safety issues that come with having the motor hanging off the end vs. the propeller tucked away under the boat.

I've seen some impressive pics of the wake of a well-weighted outboard though... Most people dogging them are right to do so; in general the wake is much smaller, and less suitable for wakeboarding. But any boat is better than no boat, so if you're starting off with an outboard, then enjoy it for as long as you can. I learned how to do these things from an outboard:

take one apart and put it back together
waterski
tube (learn, go for your first time, same thing)
kneeboard
wakeboard (got up anyway)
dock a boat
trailer a boat
prep and de-prep

The hierarchy in terms of "best wakeboard boats" is, as far as I know:
V-drive inboard
Direct-Drive inboard
I/O
Outboard
Canoe with Ronnie Coleman paddling.

[phantom268]

Aside from the wake and safety issues, also the handling, acceleration, tracking, etc are vastly different. Many outboard boats can go quite fast, but are not made for pulling and they accelerate slowly. They also generally don't have a good spot to attach a rope, especially higher up which helps for boarding. I learned behind an outboard and with the rope attaching at the rear of the boat its pretty much at water level and pulling you down. A strong rider can pull the back end of an outboard around fairly easily making tracking a straight line hard for the driver, and holding speed is a workout driving an outboard. Besides all that, just getting back into an outboard is annoying haha. Inboards take all those aspects and improve on them. They have the torque for pulling, accelerate fast, hold speed much better (and perfact pass is wonderful), track more of a straight line, easier to get in and out of, and more ideal rope tieoff locations like pylon or tower.

[money_mike]

my boat is confusing its a princecraft vacanza and the ski attachment is about waist high about a foot above the motor so its alright. I think it puts a decent wake out, but this year im going to get into weighting it so ill post how it all goes hopefully i can get a monster wake out of it.

Any tips on helping the wake??????????

[burntorange77]

Whatever you do with your weighting, make sure your boat is balanced. If you add weight to the back, add a little to the front as well. Just dragging the stern won't produce a quality wake.

Also, there is nothing "wrong" with outboards. Are they as good as Malibus or Moombas...no. But the positives you'll get from waking behing an OB are learning good fundamentals that'll make waking behind a true wakeboard boat later that much more fun.