Help with argument?

My wife and I both grew up on the lake and have been on boats all of our lives. This is a good thing in that I don't have to worry about doing everything on the ramp, didn't have to teach her how to drive and load the boat, and can kick back and relax knowing our boat is in good hands! The bad part is her back seat driving carries over to the boat. Our argument this weekend was a safe depth of water to pull a skier. She freaked as I drove across a point with 10' of water. She says it is too shallow and we are going to ruin a prop. I tell her that we idle though a section of our lake that is 6' to get to our riding spot and at speed, a boat sits the same if not higher in the water. She says the opposite! She thinks that a boat sits the same, if not deeper in the water at speed. The argument ended with both of us saying we really didn't know for sure and was no reason for a divorce! But, for safety sake , what is a minimum depth for a Supra 21v? Does the draft increase or decrease when a boat is on plane?

draft will increase at speed (up on plane). 10' of water is very safe to ski as long as there are not stick-ups or rocks that stick up. Most lakes that are built for competition are 10' or so deep. I think last year at INT nationals the lake was only about 5' deep. It really affected the wake of the wakeboard boats in a negative way.

YOU'LL NEVER WIN!! 5' IS FINE. If you need a place to sleep give me a call. Ha ha! Jet

I ride a Supra 21V and we often ride in a place that is sometimes 3.5 - 4 feet deep.

Oh, and dont bother trying to argue.

IMO draft (how deep a boat sits in the water) will decrease when on plane. my .02.

^^^^Thats what I meant. At speed you will be farther away from the bottom of the lake. I had my increases and decreases backwards I guess.

^^^ agreed Nacho. by the very nature of a boat on plane, it is ontop of the water and not 'in' it.

T

yeah, 10ft is fine. the draft on that boat is probably 30-32inches. or less than 3ft.

i routinely find spots in my lake that are only 5-6 ft. annoyingly the boat starts beeping like crazy at 6ft or less.

Here in the delta we all board in about 6-10 feet all the time. Tell her to relax.

We ride rails in 18 inches of water and fall without hurting riders! lol. Pulled by a jet ski of course. Tournament boats will run in 2 feet of water, period. Not saying pulling a rider is cool in 2 feet, but anything more than 5 feet there is now way you are touching bottom even with a rag-doll fall provided you have your vest on. But yeah you won't win just say yes dear and pull through the area.

i ride in 10 feet or less with the boat slammed....i think the most you'll do is stir up the sand a little bit

get a depth finder with an alarm. Tell her to keep the trap shut till it beeps!! LOL

The funny thing was that her concerns were not the safety of the rider, but were with damaging the boat!

Our home lake averages less than 10' of depth. We have the depth alarm set at 3'. There are tons of tournament boats out there. And the boat is definetley running in less water at speed.

we run the river alot. Common to be in 4 feet of water at times. Mostly in the 8-10 foot range though. Definately ride higher when on plane.

We have been boarding during low tide by Orwood in the Delta and have gone down on the outside and stood up in waste deep water.

Seen the depth finder hit 2 ft at speed and zero when idling before. Even seen muddy water churn up. The boat rides higher in the water at speed.

You need to find the video they used to show at the boat show with a tournament ski boat driving around in an olympic sized swimming pool.

Bell aqua lakes in sactown are not very deep in the middle. I can stand up near the middle and that is where they would hold the malibu open.

The less depth the lake has, the smaller the wake will be though.

We ride in the Delta all the time in 4-5 feet of water in a Sanger 215 loaded. No problems as long as it is consistent and you know there aren't any stumps or rocks that will sniper you. We sometimes see the i/os kicking up mud when they take off, but we have never had that problem. Even after some sweet mouse traps and failed invert attempts I have never touched the bottom at any point there, but I know it's close. One of our buddies stood up on the bottom one day when we were hanging out between runs. The middle of his chest up was out of water.

My father-in-law is a competition water skier. He is a member of a private lake north of Sacramento. I think the lake averages 3-4 feet deep. It is definitely shallow because when they fall during a run, they just walk to shore. He goes there all the time (2-4 times/week) and I have never heard of him or anyone else getting hurt from hitting the bottom. I'm sure it could happen, but it must be pretty rare.

You dropped you're wife in the grease on a public forum. You won the battle but have definitely lost the war. You're never gonna hear the end of it for starting this post.
For what it's worth you are corect and she is WRONG!!!

NO NOOKIE for you!!!

How low the boat sits in the water when on plane or at idle probably depends on how weighted the boat is. But I doubt it's more than about 24" - 30" either way.

The bottom line is know your lake. On Sammamish, there are places where if the bottom is at 10', the stumps are at 1'. If you don't know your lake, then be careful. Bent props suck.

4 feet is very common where i ride. ive never had a problem and ive never seen a problem with any of the other hundreds of boats that use the lake either.

I ride on plane across an area that registers as 2.9 ft on my depth finder...at idle you'll get stuck.

Your wake will definately suffer, even with a slammed boat, in anything less than 5 feet of water. When we cross over shallow spots in the lake, the wake diminishes to half its size...

whoop and to answer your question, like everyone said the draft decreases when on plane. Our X1 can run in like 2 feet of water.

(Message edited by wakeslife on June 04, 2008)

How about: You both are correct to a certain degree.

The draft initially increases when you're trying to get on plane (boat pushes stern down closer to lake bottom, bow rises) but once on plane, the draft decreases (boat levels out at speed).

Just don't try to start planing when it's 4'-5' deep. You can ruin a prop or your rudder easily.

^^^^ I get on plane with a fully weighted 07 SSV ( 2000-3000lbs) in 3-5 foot water all the time.

You can describe and provider her the actual draft parameters for your boat, but in the end logic and data are only marginally influential when dispelling emotionally held long term beliefs. I am just guessing that she was raised cautiously and probably parks her car in inconvenient places and reads all the small print on insurance contracts, and replaces her shoe laces Before they break.

Maybe a divorce is in order...

You guys gonna be on the water this weekend???

My lake is between 3-4ft of water over the entire lake. I use both my v drive maxum and my 2001 nautique on there without any problems.

It does churn up some mud when pulling away and when turning the corners as its less than 2ft deep at the ends but there is no debris in there so i know my prop is fine. The wake is also considereably smaller than it should be but as its on my door step we continue to ride there.

The only way your ruin your prop in 10ft of water is if there is a rock 8ft tall in there! I'd try and draw her a picture if I was you. Women struggle with basic physics and a little sketch whould show there is no way you will harm the prop.

3-4' in sections of our ski lane, no problem for the boat, but I have bounced off the bottom a few times...LOL!

10' is a luxury as far as I'm concerned, I would love to have that as my "Minimum"!

I start tp get concerned under 5 ft and very concerned under 3 ft. Above 5 ft is of no concern.

Is that a Tickle on Wakeworld? Yea, if the sun is shinning we will be there. We stay by the power plant for the most part. Gotta stay in the deep water!

Argument settled! Showed her the post last night and she said that what kvoman posted was what she was talking about.

Oh yeah... I'm still kicking... We'll be out all weekend.. I'll have to swing by and see the new SKIFF on the water....

Like wise. We will try and find yall this weekend.

Is she hot?

Where the heck do you find 10 foot water at belews???

Over the years I have skied in sanctioned tournaments running in ponds/lakes/rivers/canals often less than 3' of water at low tides. The ideal depth for a water ski tournament lake is 3-4' so it is easy to replace bouys when they get ripped out. I never liked jumping where the water was less than 4' deep in the landing area.