I/O vs. outboard for a multi-use boat that will be best for water-skiing

Rebman99

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Mar 13, 2018
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I'm in the market for a boat. 90% of what I do with my boat is entertaining people and pulling kids on tubes, but I love to water ski but it's not my primary function. So an actual ski boat is not realistic for me because of limited seating (unless I want to spend over $75K on some of the new crossovers - which i don't) so I've been looking at newer deck boats. What I want to know is an I/O better or and Outboard better for the water ski component of my boat use or does it matter at all. I have asked several dealers and the overwhelming common answer is that whatever boat they are trying to sell me at the time is better for water-skiing, which is not helpful at all. any light you can shed on this would be great. Thank you!
 

alldodge

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Howdy

Your asking for more opinions, so here is mine. Water skiing is best with a ski boat, flat bottom, unless you like to jump wakes with skis. Outboards are in the way getting on/off the boat, but also provide more room in the same size boat for folks.

I/O boats have more room to get on/off boat and I like them
 

Scott Danforth

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Buy an older well cared for ski boat
 

jimmbo

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A 2 stroke outboard will pull a lot harder than a 4 stroke outboard, I/Os tend to have weaker hole shot that outboards, especially 2 strokes, their heavier weight tends to create a very annoying wake too. True Inboards like the Ski Nautique or Malibu, can be exceptional ski tow boats, except for the Wake Monsters
As AllDodge said, a boat with little or no Deadrise(Vee) will be better for skiing, also a wide transom will more easily tow skiers than a narrow transom
 

oldjeep

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I'd find a shallow v 19-21 ft I/O for your purposes. That is what we had for years before we bought our ski/crossover boat. The wake can be every bit as good behind a light I/O, the main challenge is tracking as a strong skier will pull around a runabout regardless of outboard or I/O. Older ski boat is fine if all you want to do is ski, but they are a pretty useless multi purpose boat or boat for choppy water.
 

Leardriver

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Everyone is different. I have been slalom skiing since I was 8, and I can't stand the flat wakes that a tournament boat puts out. I do like the power when skiing behind one, though.
We use a Sea Ray 270 Sundeck, a giant I/O, for all water sports. I like to look up and see a wall of water over head when skiing, wake boarding, tubing, knee boarding, and especially surfing. We also end up with a great rough water boat for cruising.
 

redneck joe

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​​​​​ welcome to the forum. If your primary is Chilling.......deckboat. Either motot option will work I like io for swim deck size.
 

skibrain

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Some good comments above.

The things that are helpful for waterskiing are hole-shot and wake size (smaller).
Power to weight ratio (less weight to accelerate and plane) + a lower dead-rise (shallower "V" in the hull shape) displacing less water, are helpful. I think Deck boats in general tend to have a lower dead-rise, so that is great.

The typical I/O package is going to be 400-600 lb heavier than an outboard. So my preference would be the largest rated outboard or at least an upgraded larger displacement V6 instead of the base-size outboard in whatever model you're looking at.

Fewer people and gear in the boat is always a great way to keep weight down for skiing, but it sounds like your boating style has a full boat.
 
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What Scott said. Buy a well cared for older ski boat - an open bow Nautique or Malibu would be my recommendation. We had a Response LX for years and it was absolutely wonderful. You could fill it up with guests - I remember one day in some pretty snotty weather when we had about 10 onboard and it would still hop up on plane and go like a boat is supposed to go. Or you could run with just a driver and have a dead flat wake. We had a training boom and lost track of how many kids we taught to ski. One memorable weekend we took a 12 year old nephew from "never skied in his life" to deep water single ski starts - in one 3 day weekend. He was a good learner but try that in any deck boat and then come back and tell me how it didn't work. Our Response had one of the early wedges so we could turn it into a reasonable facsimile of a wake boat and most of the kids quickly abandoned skiing in favour of boards. The kids got to where they didn't have time for tubing but pulling a tube from a wake tower is pretty sweet and often late evenings would turn into tubing events. There's something magic about kids and boats. That boat is still in the family but one of my boys does the maintenance on it now. I'm sorry but deck boats are for fishing and drinking beer. Nothing more.
 

skibrain

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bobofthenorth Read the OP as to balance of use. No question that the RLX is a sweet ski boat - I ski behind one 4-5 mornings a week, but 10 onboard? In snotty weather? That's overloaded and taking water over the bow.
 
Joined
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bobofthenorth Read the OP as to balance of use. No question that the RLX is a sweet ski boat - I ski behind one 4-5 mornings a week, but 10 onboard? In snotty weather? That's overloaded and taking water over the bow.

It was a bad day that started out good and we definitely should have stayed on the dock but we wanted to get home. My point was that you can put a lot of people in a ski boat and more importantly that you can't do water sports behind a deck boat. And you're right - the bilge pump ran steady although with sufficient power you can do a lot to manage trim - you just have to time the power and watch the water. Just to be clear I absolutely agree that it was a bad move and the only defense I can offer is that we were young and invincible.
 

SkiDad

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I love my Malibu, but I vote deck boat with an outboard. 2 reasons I would go outboard is weight and ease of maintenance - no worrying about winterizing (just store the boat in the winter with the engine vertical and change the oil once a year). The Hurricane with a 150 outboard is a really nice package and will do everything you want. Don't go with a 115 though b/c it will not be enough power for a deck boat unless topping out around 35 mph is enough for you.
 

zellerj

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Dec 13, 2017
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Depends - is your boating area flat water (like a river), or choppy? If choppy I would stay away from a ski boat. I have a 19 ft bowrider with a 4.3 I/o and it pulls me fine from the hole - and I am 210 # - but I have to use a wide "old man" ski to get up. Personally I don't like to ski behind a tournament boat because hitting the wake is like hitting a wall. The wake may be small, but it is solid.
 

mickyryan

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I would say I/o or inboard, outboards no matter how much folks like to push them are a pain to get around when getting in and out of a boat where as a nice full swim platform makes things a ton safer.
 
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