how many people have you towed behind your boat at once?

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

every year at the end of our lake trip we start back in the cove and pull a group of people behind the boat last year it was six year before it was 7... all skiers or wake boarders. we've used my cousin chapperel 28 ft cabin cruiser before but don't think he is taking it down this year... so we will be using the moomba.
i figured i'd talk to skiers choice too before i do this but how many can i safely tow from the tower, ski pylon, eye hook in the middle and can i use the transom tie down hooks?

[sandm]

I would have to answer this as 1 skiing, 2 in a tube.
I would be interested to know the answer for this from skiers. we have been contemplating renting this big long bannana that 5 ride on at once from the marina for a day. looks like an absolute blast for a hot afternoon of fun for kids, but not sure if it's within the tow rating for the boat..

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

I would have to answer this as 1 skiing, 2 in a tube.
I would be interested to know the answer for this from skiers. we have been contemplating renting this big long bannana that 5 ride on at once from the marina for a day. looks like an absolute blast for a hot afternoon of fun for kids, but not sure if it's within the tow rating for the boat..

well how big are the kids? a had a 260 lb guy on my tube takes a quite a few little ones to add up to 260 and i had no issue with pulling him

[BensonWdby]

We pulled 8 pepople from our 1999 Mobius 5.7L carb. - from the pylon. 6 of the skiers were probably under 150 pounds - other 2 maybe 160-180. All were on 2 skis.
If I were going to do it again I might pull a couple from the back eyes and/or from the center tow line connection on the back. My biggest concern was stress on the pylon. but spreading it out between those back connection points and maybe the tower, I bet I could have gotten 12 people up with not a lot of problem. Wrangling the ropes - that is another issue..

[jmvotto]

back in the day we had nine on a 190 hp sea ray, all were a bunch of 10 to 14 year olds, no boards just skiis and slaloms all from the eye hooks, but that was in the late 70's:D I used to be one of those light skinny kids.

tough to find enough ropes , skiis and jackets. remember the double handles......

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

what is the double handle your talkin about?

yes its usually a once and done kinda thing...just to see how many can make it up and then get a pic its a huge pita to get everyone lined up and the ropes untangled.

we usually just go with who gets up and the jet ski picks up the bum who fell go for a few minutes and everyone lets go at once. its fun and neat but once or twice is plenty

[sandm]

well how big are the kids? a had a 260 lb guy on my tube takes a quite a few little ones to add up to 260 and i had no issue with pulling him


when I say kids, I really mean adults that think they are kids when on the lake :)


realistically, 5 adding up to around 8-900lbs.

[kaneboats]

I think this was the most I ever had back there (this was with the OB though):

[BensonWdby]

remember the double handles......

Ski Master used to make a double handle that interlocked to make a single handle. The double handle definitely helped learning to slalom. Recently I have seen videos of 'top skiers' from the old days using the double handles to take up slack on every turn. Can you say "tail-dragger"?

For a while there were folks that only had double handles. I developed an interlocking grip like holding a golf club so I could use the doubles like a single. I think I even dropped a hand using that method. Had to be pretty precise when you grabbed the handles....

[Waynes345]

I had a buddy of mine in my boat for a tow last weekend and he brought his rope with him. Yep, an old double handle. Said he can't ski with a standard handle and relies on the split handle to pull up the slack.

[dru1974]

When I was around 12 we had 10 of us ,deep water start slalom behind our nautique. We were all maybe 120 lbs though,all the ropes were on the main pilon.

[phospher]

Just make sure you take pictures! I would love to see it.

I would go with 2 on the tower, 2 on the transom eye, 4 on the pylon.

[kaneboats]

Ski Master used to make a double handle that interlocked to make a single handle.

I grew up using doubles and the locking one. My Dad used to lock it together behind his front knee and ski no-handed. Nowadays they'd lock you up for that one (or for hauling a bunch of kids in a station wagon with no carseats). A few years ago I scoured the internet looking for the locking handle but never found one.

[gus 08 mobius lsv]

i see if i can dig up some pics from the past year but since i'll be in the water it'll be up to someone else to take the pics but i'll make sure we get a few! thanks for all your input guys

[bzubke1]

8 people in a brand new two week old wakesetter last night. Thought about taking a picture but i didnt want to add insult to injury. Other than that 2 wakeboarders at one time.

[Hoopskier]

I was at the WI state waterski show tournament yesterday. There is one team that is using a Outback at a tow boat. I overheard one of the members of the drive crew say that they snapped the pylon off w/ 5 slalom skiers doing a 360 around the boat. This is a no tower boat. Just a rumor I heard.

My impression was that the pylon failed in some way as bending and cracking. I don't believe is was a catrastrophic failure where it came flying out of the boat. No damage to the boat itself.

[walb0244]

I know it ain't boards or skiis but I've had 3 tubes behind my boat. We had two single donut tubes and a flat double tube. Had 4 guys back there. Playing king of the hill on tubes kinda. All the guys were probably 180 lbs each.