Looking at a used boat that uses skylon pole that connects to the nose of the boat. Can this cause structural / mechanical damage to the boat? For instance if there is too much load on the rope? Thanks for your help.

Some of the extended pylons used a strap, others a cable. The cable was a lot better & had little or no flex. But the straps would stretch out, or work loose & allow the pylon to flex quite a bit. Also, if a guy threw a lot of tricks out in the flats, he'd be pulling on the rope & there would be little or no support out wide, which would also flex the pylon. So check the floor, stringers, u-bolts, etc. under the floor where the pylon is secured. It could have no damage, just be loose, or have seriously damaged things in there.

In my days of the skylon poles the only damage we cam across was if you didnt put a pad of some sort on the top of the actual pyolon before you slid the skylon pole on top. They made a mesh wrap for around the pylon but it also needed a little buffer on top otherwise the through bolt would wear the top of the ski pylon

I've been using one for years and I haven't seen any damage. I deep up three footers too!

The straps can discolor the hull up front where they wrap around the nose.. No issues other than that and alittle paint coming off the pylon.

Thanks guys for the info!

If your ski pylon isn't 100 percent tight ( U bolts through the frame) the added leverage will quickly make it very loose. <BR> <BR>Keep an eye on the and check tightness regually.