![]() Believe it, there is a whole new science when it comes to hull design and what makes a great ski boat doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a great wakeboard boat. They are designed for a purpose, with a shallow deadrise and have tricked bottom running surfaces. Unlike the traditional recreational family ski boat, these boats are not designed to go offshore and are more user friendly in flat calm waters. These boats (now also manufactured in New Zealand and Australia) have become extremely popular and anyone who is seriously into their skiing or wakeboarding would own one by choice. In recent years, however, the ski boat market has also seen the growth of the sophisticated and purpose-built inboard American style of ski boats. There is still a huge amount of skiing done behind the family runabout, cabin boat and even hardtop, and performance ski boats are still popular. With the advent of outboards with sufficient power, one notable example of which was the 655cc 4-cylinder 25hp Mercury Thunderbolt in the late 1940s, outboards slowly increased in popularity for water-skiing, to the stage where in the 1970s almost all the boats used for water-skiing tournaments were outboard powered, many with twin engines. Gradually, boats were designed specifically for skiing. In the early days of water-skiing, inboards ruled supreme – there simply weren’t any outboards with sufficient power! Practically all the boats used were general-purpose runabouts. They are performance recreational ski boats – hot rods on the water. They are not race boats in the true sense, although many are used for racing. But what they do want is a boat that provides speed and performance that pumps the adrenaline with every punch of the foot throttle. ![]() ![]() They don’t even want rod racks, self-draining anchor lockers or fish finders. There are those among us who don’t want rod holders, hardtops or toilets in their boats.
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