By MM (wakechica) on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 8:55 am: <BR> <BR>Has anyone ever wakeboarded behind a Galaxy I/O boat before? I have a chance to buy a 1988 with a tower all new interior full stereo with speakers on the tower, subs, amps and lights for $2,500.00. It is a 4 cylinder Mercruiser engine and the boat is 21 foot. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about them? If you have ridden behind one how was the wake and was it weighted? If it was weighted how much and where was it placed?

I had an 89 four winns freedom 190 which is pretty damn close to being the same setup mine had a v6 though the wake behind mine with 3 people and 800lbs of ballast was ok but I don't have any experience wakeboarding with a 4cyl though I'm not sure how that will do with ballast

first boat was 86 wellcraft had tower perfectpass and 1000lbs decent wake not very wide but very useable, you will need to drop your prop pitch when loading up heavy mine had 140hp inline 4cyl also was only 20ft long

I'm the Galaxy owner from your other post. Galaxy cut a lot of corners and that made their boats pretty lightweight compared to their peers. I still think a 21' pushed around by a 4 cylinder is going to be a bit of a dog. If you do go to look at the boat in person, take a look at where the tower mounts to the boat and see if there are any cracks in the gelcoat and/or fiberglass. I'm looking at installing a tower myself in the off-season and would really like to know how they hold up on a Galaxy. <BR> <BR>To get a decent wake (I do stress decent, not good, not great, but not too bad), I load up the front with all I can and use a hydrofoil stabilizer to control the porpoising. It's ridable and you can progress pretty far behind it. <BR> <BR>And don't go thinking you can buy the 4 cylinder and repower it to a V6 or V8. You might get away with going from V6 to V8 but the 4 cylinder's mounting points are all different and you may not even have room in the engine compartment. Then you'd still have to replace your upper outdrive unit for a new gear ratio (or replace the gears but an SEI upper is cheaper than the gears and tools required to just change the ones you have).

My first motor boat was an 1987 17' SeaRay with a 3 liter Mercruiser 4 cylinder in it. We installed a Waylon extended pylon in it (how old is that?!) and learned how to wakeboard &amp; AirChair behind it. We put 4 sand tubes in it for weight. Bottom line, the wake was a joke. And it was severly underpowered. But it was reliable &amp; got us out on the water all the time for 3 years for very little investment &amp; we had a ball in it.

21' boat will be underpowered with a 4 cyl Merc if it's the 130 hp model even if you get a 17" prop. If it's the 170 hp model you might be adequate with a 17" prop. You'll need a hydrofoil for sure. <BR>I ran a 170 hp Merc on my '80 I/O 18' boat.

I have a 20' I/O with a v8 and granted it is a heavy (base weight =3400) boat I dont think I would even consider buying a 21' boat with anything less then a late model V6. Dont be swayed by the tower and stereo, you can add them later but you really need to start with a good platform. I/O's can be made to have a good wake but take a bit more playing with to get the shape right. Perfect pass is almost always a necessity due to the way an I/O hull is designed and the way it comes on plane. This is not to say you cant ride behind one but if you want a consistent wake and speed PP is where its at.