Ahhh yes, the day I learned to surf. I think we put the tube out there behind the craft in tow that day too.
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Ahhh yes, the day I learned to surf. I think we put the tube out there behind the craft in tow that day too.
Maybe!
I now recall why my assumptions about the rings came to mind. Back when I had an I/O boat with its towing ring on the stern, I took a good look at the reinforcement backing the towing ring and the tie-down rings. The fibreglas transom was thinner than my XLV's for sure. This made it visible and quite obvious that the backplate for the towing ring was much larger than the tie-down rings. While the XLV is not the same design, one can see what would be in the mind of the designer: a shearing force right along the surface doesn't require nearly as much reinforcement as a perpendicular force.