World Record Tow Boats

I don't often post much about the Dyna-Ski 20' Closed Bow models which are mainly purchased by water ski show teams. These groups use these specialty Dyna-Ski tow boats to pull acts in their shows. The boats usually are powered by two or three large outboard engines.  The number of skiers these boats are capable of pulling is amazing.  In this article you will see pictures of some of the official Guinness World Records that have been pulled so far.

Dyna-Ski 20' Closed Bow with three 350 hp Mercury Verado engines. 

Todd Renn of Twin Lakes Marine built and drives the Aquanuts Dyna-Ski Tow boat. They have three triple motored Dyna-Ski Tow Boats.

 

Dyna-Ski Tow boat that has pulled most of the records is powered by three 300 hp Evinrude G2 engines.  Badgerland Water Ski Show Team in Wisconsin's Dyna-Ski is driven by Jason Hook.

They have two triples and two twin Dyna-Ski Tow Boats.

 Guinness World Record 60 Person Pyramid

 Guinness World Record 30 Barefoot Water Skiers
See the video and many others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGu0laCWFHI

40 Girl Ballet Line

See the video and many others at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=B6FlZ3x_sn0&app=desktop

 

 19 Mixed Double Couples

Beaverland Must Skis 5 High Human Pyramid

While not a world record there are not many ski teams that have done this dangerous pyramid.

Beaverland Must Skis Triple and Twin Dyna-Ski 

Evinrude G2 powered tow boats

The same people that build these powerful water ski boats can build you a new Dyna-Ski Water Ski boat.  All the same types of materials and techniques are used to build all Dyna-Ski boats. We build them strong enough for this extreme use so we can build one for you that will last a lifetime.

Storage Space

Most of the time my topics for this blog come from questions asked by people interested in Dyna-Ski Boats.  This topic is no different than the others.

I don't think much about storage space as I am fortunate to live on a lake and have for many years including all the years that I have owned a boat.  Lake Noquebay is a 2400+ acre shallow lake located an hours drive straight north of Green Bay, Wisconsin.  With a big lake we get large waves including white caps from time to time.  We also ski in fairly shallow water most of the time.  Pretty much everywhere we ski a person can stand on the lake bottom.  It is great to learn to ski on this lake as I just tell people to stand up when they fall eliminating the fear of drowning for some people.  It isn't a good lake to sky ski on.  Oops off topic already . . . . . . .

Storage space for gear is important if you trailer your boat to the lake or if you live on a lake and ever want to take your boat to a different lake. Dyna-Ski Open Bow boats have a decent amount of storage space for the size of the boat.  My trusty 1987 Hydrodyne 17.6 XB (closed bow) does not have much useful storage space.   The storage space of the 17.6 Open Bow and 20' Open Bow Family skier is the same except for the area under the sun deck on the 20' Open Bow Family Skier.  The 20' Open Bow Family Skier has a ton of space under the sun deck alone.

  Son John laying under the sun deck of the 20' Open Bow Family Skier.

The space is as wide as the boat and about 30" across. 

20' Open Bow Dyna-Ski with wrap around interior.

The pylon on the 20' Open Bow Family skier can be 

forward of the sun deck or behind it.

The wrap around interior has more storage space than the regular rear seat does.  All Dyna-Ski Boats can be ordered with the wrap around interior.  There is lots of room for life preservers under the rear seats and other small stuff.

  20' Open Bow with wrap around single color interior.

The wrap around seats are the same in the 17.6 & 20' Open Bows.

The bow seating and under seat storage area are the same in the 

17.6 Open Bow and the 20' Open Bows

The grab handles in the bow can be on top the deck, 

inside on the sides or deleted. This is a three color interior.

There is nothing dividing the three areas under the bow seats so skis, booms, extended pylons, etc. can be stored in this area.  The easiest way to put long things in here is from the drivers and passenger seats in the cockpit.  Access to this area is easier with the passenger bench seat.

  20' Open Bow with three color interior with a front passenger bench seat

The passenger bench seat provides more storage space than the passenger bucket seat and easy access to slide longer items into the storage space under the bow seats.

Passenger Bench Seat Closed (top picture) and Open (pictured below)

All the Open Bow models have two storage bins next to the motor well.

One for ropes and wet stuff

The other one gets the battery and oil tank

The battery and oil tank can be located under this area but access is very difficult if they are. There is so much other storage space that putting the battery and oil tank elsewhere is not something I would suggest. Of course if you have a four stroke motor or a motor that has a built in oil tank the only thing in this compartment is the battery. 

I should point out that the standard rear seat base is different than the wrap around rear seat base. This base under this seat allows longer things to be under this seat because the base is different. The seat base is fastened in the boat with hinges and pins although it can not be tilted forward.  The pins can be easily removed and the seat base can be removed or even turned around. The seat back is attached to the motor well.

Three color interior standard rear bench seat in a 17.6 Open Bow

 Standard rear bench seat in the open position

  20' Open Bow Family Skier with an Evinrude 225 HO

This post should give you a pretty good feel for the storage space in the Open Bow Dyna-Ski Boats. The 20' Open Bow Barefooter and 20' Closed Bow have the most interior room because there are no sun decks like on the 20' Open Bow Family Skier.  If you do not need massive storage space a 17.6 Open Bow may be the hot ticket for your skiing needs.  There are many other differences between a 17.6 and 20' Open Bow so that is the subject for another blog post. 

17.6 Open Bow with front bucket seats powered by a 150 Evinrude

New and Older Dyna-Ski Videos

Well the long awaited next Dyna-Ski Video is on U Tube.  My 15 year old son John is the editor.  Many friends and family are a part of the various video clips used to put this together.  There are other videos John has made over the years and hopefully we can produce more of them quicker.  He takes some direction from old dad (pretty good) but he also sometimes does what he wants to no matter what.  Dyna-Ski is building and obviously selling more boats which is great but it does further divide the time we have to spend on the various aspects of our passion Dyna-Ski Boats.  John goes to high school, is very active with water skiing, hunting, fishing, ATV's, snowmobiles, trap shooting, chores around the house, works for some neighbors and plays high school basketball while my wife and I work real jobs as I call them.  We all still water ski but never as much as we should.  I would never buy a product from someone that does not use the product they sell.  We also listen to our customers.  Check out the video and check back every once in awhile.  Never can tell what he or we may come up with.  I'll give you a hint as a drone is in the near future . . . . . . . . we are about due for a website update I'm thinking. This blogs though is the best place for more frequent updates on information.  Way easier, faster and cheaper than changes to the website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-57lnUbFYV8

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuEE1vOPm84XgVcMeeYyV-Q?feature=em-share_video_user

You can email me at info@dyna-ski.com or call me and leave a message at 715-854-7501 (land line so no texts) with questions, comments and such.  I often check my voice mail message from my cell phone so please leave an easy to understand phone number (say it slowly), don't rely on caller ID and giving me the number twice works much better on my end.  I answer all my emails personally and also return all my calls.  I am fairly quick about doing it all but work, travel, volume, etc. does slow the process some from time to time.  There is no longer a slow season or off period for us.  Some things do fall thru the cracks so asking twice or more is OK. You may get more than one reply also as I have a desktop computer, laptop, I Pad and I Phone which I use to reply and I'm forever figuring out and learning new things often the hard way . . . . . . . . . .

17.6 Open Bow with a wrap around interior

I have been taking more pictures, we are shooting videos and working on a couple UTube videos. 17.6 Open Bow with a three color wrap around interior with snap on bow and cockpit covers

  17.6 Open Bow with a 150 Evinrude son John at the wheel

Cockpit

Bow Seating

There is a lot of storage space with this interior

There is space under all the seats with enough room and length under the passenger bench seat for a boom and hylon.

Drivers side

Optional AM/FM Radio

Passenger Side Bench

Seating area behind the passenger bench seat

Behind the drivers seat

There are two speakers total in this boat

Typical Dyna-Ski Dash

with GPS Speedometer and analog gauges.

Evinrude Recessed Control

The mechanical control with cables and the ICON Digital Control look identical  

3" ICON Digital Speedometer

Almost every boat we have built has a GPS Speedometer

2" Analog Trim Gauge

2" Analog Fuel Gauge

3" ICON Digital Tachometer

3" Analog System Check Tachometer

2" Analog Water Pressure Gauge

 2" Programmable ICON Gauge

Optional paddle wheel pickup has depth and water temperature

The dash can be filled with 4 of these ICON gauges and you can program all of them for different things if you desire. Most boats have 3" GPS Speedometer, 3" System Check Tachometer, 2" analog fuel, trim and water pressure gauges with a 2" programmable ICON gauge or 2" analog voltmeter.

Switch Panel

 3" ICON Tachometer & 3" GPS Speedometer 

Three 2" dedicated function gauges and

 one 2" ICON programmable used as a depth gauge

which requires a transom mounted paddle wheel pickup.

This Dyna-Ski has digital shift and throttle which is only available 

on V-6 Evinrude engines. 

17.6 Open Bow with a 75 hp Evinrude in 2016

 Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow tows easy even with my wife's old Escape.

Several years ago we built a Dyna-Ski very similar to this one.  The water skiers that buy these lower powered Open Bow 17.6 Dyna-Ski Boats often live on smaller lakes with size and/or power restrictions.   The 7' wide boat is US Coast Guard rated for 5 people with a maximum of 150 hp so most buyers go with a 135 HO or 150 hp 6 cylinder engine. This post will be mainly about a 17.6 Open Bow with a 75 hp Evinrude motor built for a customer.

17.6 Open Bow with a two stroke V-6 158 cubic inch 150 hp Evinrude
which looks much bigger than the 75 below because it is.

17.6 Open Bow with a two stroke 75 hp Evinrude
 inline 3 cylinder 79.1 cubic in motor  

We built the first Dyna-Ski boat with the 75 hp motor several years ago but I really didn't have enough time to fully test it out as the owner like most owners was in a hurry to get his new water ski boat.  Once the owner got it I never heard another word from him which is typical.  I guess we did a good job?   Fully testing out a boat now means taking lots of pictures, videos and running the finished combination as the owner will use it so pulling a wide variety of skiers during final water testing.  The owner of this Dyna-Ski was nice enough to give us more time with the boat and motor combination which again is somewhat unique with only a 75 horse power two stroke motor powering it.  This Dyna-Ski boat is headed to Texas.

17.6 with 75 at speed

First of all I wanted to find the best prop with the 75 hp motor for the owner.  The BRP factory suggested maximum operating range of the motor is 4500 to 5500 RPM's.  I like having the boat operating at the upper suggested limit at wide open throttle.  Turns out the best prop is a Mercury Quick Silver Prop that is 13" pitch and 14" diameter.  The part number is QA3832X which needs a hub kit to work on an Evinrude.  The prop gave us a top speed of 36 mph on the GPS Speedometer at 5400 RPMS.  Having the optimum combination on a low horsepower boat is important.  The Evinrude three blade 13" by 13" prop went 32 MPH on the GPS at 5500 RPMs with more throttle available and the 13" by 15" prop went 36 MPH but at only 5200 RPMs. These both were aluminum props as the stainless steel props did not work as well even the four blades.  If you need a new or spare prop I have some good prices on them.

Flo-Torq II Hub Assembly Kit for Evinrude/Johnson 40-140 hp

Most props now require a motor and size specific hub kit for installation

Customers could use a larger selection of props suitable for water skiing in the 12" to 19" pitch range for the 3 cylinder, 4 cylinder and even the 6 cylinder motors.  Fortunately I have a lot of new and some old props to try but I usually don't get the chance to really fine tune a unique combination.  Another option is to have a custom prop shop like BBlades fine tune your prop.  It is not cheap. Their experience can save you time and money vs trial and errors. Most sellers won't take back a used prop.

The removable adjustable mirror can be mounted above or below the windshield

The first thing my primary test team (wife, son and me) noticed is the wake is even smaller than a 17.6 Open Bow Dyna-Ski with a 150.  No doubt the 100 lbs less the 75 hp motor weighs makes for the big difference as everything else is the same weight as a 150 equipped Dyna-Ski.  The smaller prop (or is it the fewer cubic inches of the motor?) seems to make the motor bubbles (exhaust bubbles) almost non existent.  The 75 hp, 320 lbs. inline 3 cylinder 79.1 cubic in motor had good torque and held all the skiing speeds well.  Evinrude uses the same specifications to get 90 hp on a different model engine.  The boat with the 75 hp motor isn't fast out of the hole but remember it is only 75 hp and the people that buy these limited power boats are usually restricted by things they cannot change.  Fuel economy seems very good but we have not been running it hard or at the upper limits of its maximum speed for the bulk of the water skiing we are doing. Note: A person cannot load up a low horsepower water ski boat with people and expect to pull water skiers besides easily. 

It would be interesting to try a Mercury 75 hp Optimax motor as it is also an inline 3 cylinder but it has 93 cu in and weighs 375 lbs.  Mercury uses the same specifications to get 90 hp, 115 hp and 125 hp on different models.  The Mercury 75 hp EFI four stroke is as an inline 4 cylinder 105.7 cu in motor that tips the scales at 399 lbs.  Additional models available with the same specifications are 90 hp and 115 hp.

From my seat of the pants experience four strokes are a little slower out of the hole and on top speed than two strokes.  However horsepower is horsepower and hot rodders will tell you more cubic inches is better as often more torque is produced with more cubic inches and the same horsepower.  Water ski boats like more torque.  Torque is pulling power.  More horsepower usually gives you higher top speeds.  Maybe with time and money spent trying different props there may be no difference in the end.  I've done some testing in the past with an Evinrude 90 and 115 two stroke but have not done any lately largely because no one has ordered a boat with either size of motor or a Mercury 75. 

I have decided I need to more thoroughly water test all the Dyna-Ski boats, take more pictures and shoot more video!  So look for more Dyna-Ski pictures and videos in the not to distant future I hope.  If you make your own videos let me know and I'll share the links with readers.  I also love pictures to put on the blog and website.  I've had almost 67,000 page views in the four years or so I've been operating this little blog.

Lower horsepower boats do not need more expensive hydraulic steering but the boat still has everything else including a recessed control and dash full of gauges.

Passenger Bucket seat has a locking swivel

Passenger Bench Seat is also available 

as well as the wrap around rear seating option

Fuel, trim, GPS Speedometer, Tachometer, Water Flow 

& Programmable ICON Gauge (Left to right)

The oil tank is under the motor cowl so no external oil tank is needed

   17.6 Open Bow with snap on bow and cockpit covers

Notice the grab rails on the deck which is a new offering

Now you know we produce a 17.6 Open Bow model that is a decent water ski boat with only a 75 hp motor!  Everyone's prices go up every year and interest rates are still low.  Our price increases are more than typical borrowing interest rates so buying and enjoying the boat now makes fiscal sense.  Credit Unions tend to have the lowest interest rates and Home Equity loans can be written off on most peoples taxes.  What are you waiting for?