POWER TURNS

[zepps1]

This is a noob question but I'm going to ask it any way. How do you do the power turns in the moomba, I just can't get it.......

[JoeTechie]

If you are talking about what is normally termed "Bat Turns" - where you power slide the boat in about it's own distance and flip it 180 degrees where it is facing back down it's own wake... then be VERY CAREFUL.

These came very easily to early Mastercraft and Nautique's becuase they were very flat bottomed, small, light, and had very centered direct drives, and only 1 center fin. Most new tow boats are not designed to perform this manuver.

I'd never attempt this in a V-Drive! Even newer larger Direct-Drives have more center fins that can snap off, and convex hulls that will not let this happen. You can very easily destroy your transmission doing one of these as well. Anything on a tower will not be there when you are done, and could actually cause the boat to tip over - dont try this with tower gear.

If you plan on attempting this in any model other than the base moomba - please make sure someone has a picture of what your boat looked like "before" the damage so the insurance company can get an idea of how to rebuild it. ;)

The process:

Remove all exess weight, and loose objects in the boat. People are easily thrown from boats - let them watch from shore.
Find flat water - hitting a roller during this can capsize you.
On a good straight run - hit about 32-36mph.
In one SMOOTH motion - turn HARD right, you are trying to break the back end out. As it starts to break free, bring the throttle to NEUTRAL. Not slow - NEUTRAL. The prop needs to be able to freewheel - if you miss it and hit reverse, or it does not get out of gear - try not to listen to the noise your transmission makes - it creates nightmares in owners.

If you are lucky, you got the boat around, and heading close to back in the direction you came from - now look out - that roller you created, is heading towards you - unless you give it a touch of gas - you are going to get swamped.

ok - now put it back in neutral, get out and never do that again.

-Joe


p.s. - ALL CAPS TITLES LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SCREAMING !!!