What is going on in the water ski boat world.

With the ever raising price of gasoline (gas was $1.86 a gallon when President Obama took office) it seems like skiers buying new Dyna-Ski boats are planning for the future as 17.6 Open Bow sales are way up this year.  We are even building a 17.6 Open Bow with a two stroke three cylinder 75 hp Evinrude E-Tec engine for a customer.  The Dyna-Ski will be on a lake that only allows up to 75 hp. motors. The engineers at Evinrude say that it will perform very close to the 90 hp Evinrude E-Tec engine that I tested a couple summers ago. I'll have pictures and testing info on this unique boat come summer.  We are going to lighten up the boat slightly and install a smaller gas tank to improve performance of the combination. A small custom boat manufacturing company like Dyna-Ski is able to do this fairly easily.

Smaller engines use less fuel and oil. The only exception is if the motor is having to run to hard or the load is to high to do the task at hand.  With boats sometimes going to a smaller diameter or lesser pitch propeller will increase the RPM's of the motor but also increase the fuel economy as the motor runs in a more powerful and fuel efficient range. As long as you are not over-reving the motor and can get the top speed that you need you will be fine and usually get the best acceleration also. Modern outboards like to operate in the 2000 to 4000 rpm range for best fuel economy as long as the motor is not lugging along.

Water ski boats motors need torque more than top end power. With outboard powered boats it is pretty easy to change the motor on the boat.  Dealers are always happy to get customers that want to repower their boats.

My lake neighbor bought an outboard water ski boat that isn't a Dyna-Ski.  He had bought the boat without realizing that I owned Dyna-Ski Boats and would have made him an awesome deal!  After a couple years he told me he needed a bigger engine as the 115 was not powerful enough for their water ski needs. I told him he should try a different prop first.  I looked at the prop on his boat and gave him two other ones to try.  He bought one of the props from me as it saved him from buying a new larger motor.  I may have screwed up as I could have sold him the new motor most likely, oh well . . . . . . . I'll sell him a new Dyna-Ski eventually.