98 Sport in Oz

Thought I better put a post up on my new import. Finally managed to get the trailer converted to Australian standards and registered. The local authorities are making this very hard now. I had to remove the boat from the trailer and obtain a certified weighbridge ticket as part of the registration process. I was also required to fit a compliance plate stating that the trailer had been modified to meet Australian Standards. It has taken over two weeks to get this done the local authority was not even sure what was required but they made me jump through a lot of extra hoops.

The last import was much simpler. I had to rebuild the trailer totally as it was almost rusted out. I was able to call it a homemade trailer, but you now have to produce receipts for every part of the trailer used in the build. It appears that trailers were being stolen and re-birthed as homemade trailers. Boaters were getting back to the ramp finding their trailers had disappeared while they were out on the boat. Now that would be inconvenient.

The boat ran faultlessly on it's maiden voyage. The GT40 engine is a gem. The OJ 4 blade prop seems to be a bit undersized though 40mph was 4400rpm. The storage and room in this boat is amazing compared to my 89. The ski locker is huge had 4 ski's in there no problem. The rear locker has a huge amount of room.

It still needs a big tidy up some skins need replacing and a some wet sanding to remove fine scratches. The tower is not my favorite item on this boat but it is original . Not sure if I will add racks and a tower bimini or remove the tower and fit a high pole.

Did not get any pictures on the water only had the video camera. Will post some decent pictures next trip out. Only have the pics of removing the boat from trailer two engine cranes made this much easier.

Brian thanks for all your input when I was looking into this boat. It has actually cleaned up nicely. Still needs some work to bring it back to showroom condition but I did buy it as somewhat of a project boat. The price was almost to good to be true for a 98 Sport so I know you thought it may have been beat up pretty bad.

I will pull the 422 off my 89 and give it a try on the Sport. Is this the prop your neighbour has on his boat? I also have a 3 blade 470 that I may try but I think it will run higher rpms than the OJ given the experience on the 89 SN2001.

Looks great Mark.

Really like the looks and practicality of these 98-99 sports. Looks to be a great all around boat. Lewy, since you'll be going straight from a 2001 hull to this sport hull, let me know how nice is the slalom wake is. I know it's not up to par with the new 200 or even the TSC1/2/3 196's, but I'm really only concerned with how it stacks up against the 2001 hulls, since that's basically all I ski behind now.

Mark - HA, nope just a fly high pylon (6 foot extension). But you could do the Super Fly High on top of your tower, and as long as your spending all that money you should get the tower boom that has the electric raise and lower for easy height adjustment    Kurt (Hollywood's brother - screen name: PLBC) also ditched his FCT Gen1, he had a guy fill the holes, the guy did a great job matching the gel, can't even tell.

On the original 422, no telling what might have been done to it, I am thinking that it might have had some thinning or cup work done. I had one of the certified ACME shops do the repairs, so I am guessing it is going to come back pretty close to stock (unless it was thinned). I am also waiting on Mike's reports!

Slalom at 38! I concur the wake is really flat at 38, cause that's the speed I am footing! Good lord man I must be getting old, I thought 32 on the slalom was plenty fast, maybe I need to bump it up a few     I hope your continuing to work on the footing. Still trying to convince Motorola to send me down your way, no luck so far...   

For as many hours as were on that boat, it really cleaned up well.

I don't know if that OJ was the original prop or not. As the boat was run in Lake Tahoe, elevation 6000 feet, it is pretty common to change out props. I don't know. Just guessing.

I don't think there would be engine adjustments made for the altitude. I would assume the computer on the GT 40 would handle that? Again, a guess on my part.

You have not answered CBass' question, yet. I think that Sport is a much better ski wake than the 2001 model boats. Do you agree?

BKH

Mark,

I'm running the 1442 on my '95 GT-40 SN and am getting 46-48@ 5200rpm.
Prop pulls hard out of the hole also, I really like it.

lewy2001 wrote: Steve I made a connection for the boom on the tower. It is nice not having to move around the boom in the boat. Still in development stages but the first prototype is close.

That Tower boom looks really good! Nice work. Now you just need electric winch or hydralics to make it go up and down!

bkhallpass wrote: I don't know if that OJ was the original prop or not. As the boat was run in Lake Tahoe, elevation 6000 feet, it is pretty common to change out props. I don't know. Just guessing. You have not answered CBass' question, yet. I think that Sport is a much better ski wake than the 2001 model boats. Do you agree?

Brian you maybe right about the prop change as the nut loose without the split pin when it arrived. I assume that you would need a bit less prop than the OJ at altitude. I think the original OJ legend is a reasonable prop on this model Sport at lower altitudes. It has cleaned up nicely but is still needs a wet sand and buff before I would take it to a reunion.

I thought I answered Craig's question on a previous post. I will add to it anyway. You can get a reasonable slalom wake out of the 2001 hull if you have at most driver and spotter and no more than 1/2 tank of fuel. The Sport's wake is better even with a larger crew and more than a half at tank fuel. The wake is much softer even with my bad form I can cut thru the wake easily. I have not yet run it with low fuel and minimal crew. I must try this if we can get out again before the season ends.

Justin,
The big advantage of this boat is the amount of extra storage it has over the 2001 hull. The ski locker is a huge bonus getting the slalom ski's out of the way (have had 4 in there), and would easily fit a fully inflated 160 litre bag. When you add the rear locker which is enormous my 69" will fit in there, actually I can get in there myself 6'3" but not with the ski on. We have not set it up for surfing yet but that is where all this extra storage will be nice for putting most of the water bags out of the way. The dog also likes the open bow , and he sits when he is told unlike the kids who want to get up there.

My 2001(standard rear seat) has more room behind the engine hatch than the Sport. But you notice the 7" of extra beam in the Sport.

Tom (Horkn) is on the money here they are a very versatile boat. I have only had one board behind it and the wake was not as steep as the 2001 but very nice I don't think we had any extra ballast just a reasonable sized crew onboard.
I have mainly being swerving behind the Sport. Been nursing a foot injury the last couple of months and the single ski annoys it the least. I am over this getting old caper.

Steve I have to admit that I have not even had a foot attempt on the Sport's boom yet.

dochockey wrote: Mark do you have Piranha's in that lake?

No the Crocs have eaten all the Piranha's.

That sport is very pretty. Looks very familiar...

That's all I've been able to do here, the water is high and freezing!

Hey Mark,

I too like the 2nd gen towers..and used to think the first gen was ugly til I saw yours all done up. It really does look pretty dang good with all the boards and the bimini! We have a tower bimini too in black color.

Tower boom is very cool too, I see us doing that some day...We do have that stock OJ on just like you had. We have only actually had this boat on the water for one single boat ride last fall as we just purchased it last year. From that short water test it seemed the stock prop performed pretty well...I will love to test out the other props we have though.

654 (12.5X15 4 blade)
and the 1442 (13.25X15 3 blade)

I really think the 1442 will be a good performer on it. Right now the river (Mississippi) we ski on is about 12ft higher than normal levels and 2ft above flood stage with a temp at 48 degrees. We have a corn field that we can ski in that floods but we just don't like the 48 degree water temp thing. We're not drysuit skiers so we prefer a little warmer :)

I wish our trailer had your little keel V instead of our roller. I'm not a fan of the rollers...

Steve,

Next time your in Dubuque let me know and we'll grab lunch and talk boat stuff!