I am looking at a 18 ft 1977 ski natique. It has been completly redone. The floor and the interior. collapsable tower and speaker system. Bimini top also for under 7k <BR> <BR>would this be a descent boat.

anyone?

I grew up with a 77 Ski Nautique and the boat throws a great wake. If you like a steep wake that you get a ton of height but not a lot of distance it will be perfect. I threw my first couple inverts behind that boat.

That sounds great because I love getting more high w2w than into the flats cause the flats are hard on your body.

I have ridden behind a 76 and the wake has a nice shape to it. The wake is nice and steep, but it is narrow. I have never been behind the boat with ballast though, I imagine it would be pretty nice. I also drove the boat and they are a lot of fun to drive, handle like they are on rails.

I'm surprised everyone talks about the wake steepness on these boats, I recently got a 1980 SN and just loading it evenly or to the nose and the wake gets soft. <BR> <BR>Now I've just ordered an Acme 542 propeller so I can put some more weight in it.

You have to put more weight in the back. Especially with a direct drive. The weight distribution should be 75/25 with the back being the 75 and the front the 25.

Wakestetter, if you do so in such boats, specially with the stock propeller the boat will be too stern heavy, there the super steep wake.

thanks

Ive always heard 40/60 ratio. Note that this isn't what works for every D-drive boat it is just a good starting point for every D-drive boat.

Over the two years I have had my '89 2001 I would have to say 50/50. I started with about 500 in the back and then 250 on each side of the motor but when I had three adults in the boat all in the front it dropped the nose down and made the wake very nice. I currently go with 750 in back and 750 in front with one driver and the wake is unbelievable for a boat under 10k.

I just ran across this, might be worth looking at for a bit more and 8 years newer <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?topic=Search&amp;postid=SIA04063" target="_blank">http://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?topic=Search&amp;postid=SIA04063</a>

to much and to far

That is a great wake for a pretty fair price. We weight ours with 400 on either side of the boat and 200 in the nose with about 400 across the rear. If people sit in the right place and with a full gas tank the wake is nearly perfect (if you like steep wakes). I say go for it.