If you’re like me, you’ve seen people try to tow skiers, wakeboarders, tubes, and other sorts of tow-ables with a personal watercraft. Some are successful, while others…not so much. Some of the challenges facing the towing driver are:
- Not enough horsepower in the PWC
- No fine control over speed on the PWC
- Difficulty to achieve smooth acceleration
- Lack of a large wake making for disappointed wakeboarders
You might be able to think of others, but I think this represents the core challenges. Obviously, we want our investment in our PWC to go as far as possible in terms of enjoyment on the water, but many people have tried to tow only to be disappointed with the results.
This is actually where a Waveboat will help, I believe. For one, the wakeboarding tower option helps by placing the towing point much higher above the water than the tow hook on a PWC. This will help by pulling the rider slightly upward and forward instead of slightly downward and forward. Water starts will benefit from that.
In addition, which we’ve already discussed in other articles, the increased wetted surface area of the Waveboat is desirable over that of just a PWC. With the additional hydrodynamic drag, any given RPM output by your PWC will equate to a lower forward speed. This means you will have finer control over forward speed because the ratio of RPM’s to MPH is different than when your PWC is un-docked. This also means you can have smoother acceleration for the same reason.
Most PWC’s have a difficulty maintaining 15-18MPH due to that being the speed at which they plane out. After they plane, their speed usually increases dramatically to around 25MPH or more with little to no change in engine RPM. This challenges skiers and wakeboarders, as they are usually looking for towing speeds in the mid teens to low twenties. Since it’s tough for the PWC driver to hit and maintain those speeds without going faster, the towing experience is hampered at best and painful at worst. When a PWC is operated with a Waveboat, there is a much smoother curve in speed from when the PWC is “mushing” to when it’s planed out. This is due to the much longer and deeper hull on the Waveboat. This enables PWC drivers to have an easier job maintaining a comfortable towing speed without having to constantly fight the throttle.
Obviously, with a larger hull comes a larger wake. Wakeboarders probably won’t think it’s amazing, but it’s at least better than a PWC alone. Just check out the video of the Waveboat in action to see for yourself.
In summary, the Waveboat helps extend the capability and functionality of your PWC in many ways. Useful load, passenger count, amenities while on the water, and now a better towing experience are all within your grasp. We can’t wait to run a number of towing tests while filming so we can post them here for you to see.
Keep your skis on top of the water!
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