Towing a PWC.... how much rope to be safe ?

[jfboucher]

Thinking of towing a PWC (Sea Do Wake 155, about 450kg) with my Sundancer 320. How much tow rope should I use to be safe ?

 

[Ididntdoit]

Try a Toadster - a lot of people seem to have good luck with them - make sure you install a shut off valve for the water intake too

 

[RichardS]

Is this a long tow, or going to be an "all the time" tow? Or just a one time thing? If so, can someone ride on the ski during the tow? I'm asking all these questions because I had to tow my ski once and I had a friend sit on the ski while we towed it. (Used about 30 feet of line), but it worked out fine because when we stopped he kept going of course, even though we were only at idle speed, but he was able to grab a line from someone waiting at the dock and they pulled him in. (As you know there's no steering without propulsion) We had keep him right behind us until we approached the dock, then turned to port and stopped, allowing him to move towards the dock without hitting us. It was something we had to do, but not something I wanted to do, or would elect to do.

Anyway, that's what we did, but it was a short, one-time tow.

 

[JimG]

I use two 10' pieces of 1/2" SHD40 PVC with nylon line through the center. Attach and end of each to the tow eye on the PWC and the other ends to the port and starboard tow eyes on the boat forming a "V". This keeps the PWC off of the boat when you slow down. This setup will not work while on plane but you can run at ~1500 RPM just fine. Slip a half section of a foam "noodle" over each PVC section to make them float.

Very similar to the "Towdster" in design but allot cheaper.

 

[bankyf]

I spliced 2 loops on a <>20' piece of 3/4" Poly line from home depot as a V bridal to the two rear cleats and then spliced 2 loops on a <>70' piece of 3/4" poly as the tow line. We tow a Yamaha waverunner almost every weekend with it and have never had an issue. All the PVC pipes, etc are unnecessary. The ski typically stops in about the same distance as the boat, so we rarely even get slack in the line when coming to a stop. When coming and going from the marina we clip the waverunner directly to the bridal. When we get to the end of the no wake we let out the 70' section. Even when clipped to the bridal we have never even come close to it hitting the boat, though obviously you can't go in reverse with this setup. I looked into the toadster and you really need the tri for $640 and I still don't like it that close the boat while on plane. My solution was roughly $80 in rope.

 

[trflgrl]

Try a Toadster - a lot of people seem to have good luck with them - make sure you install a shut off valve for the water intake too

This is critical!

We use a rope tow bridle fastened to each of the side transom cleats, looped through the eye of a dock line that's tied to the PWC bow cleat. The dock line slides freely across the bridle; all together, the PWC is about 30' or more behind the boat. Once inside the no wake zone (when returning to the slip) or near where we're rafting up, we pull in the PWC, then either use the ropes to direct it, or mount up and ride it to its final spot. When it was disabled once, we entered the no wake zone, retied it sidecar, docked at the courtesy dock, then moved/docked the PWC so we could slip the boat and come back to trailer the PWC.

Use caution if you decide to have someone on the PWC while towing, whether a "have to" situation like RichardS described or another. Although some scenarios call for a rider/pilot to stay on a towed vessel, I'm not sure all LEO would view it the same way when it's a PWC vs. a larger boat. Probably depends mostly on how many idiot stops they've made that day!

 

[fc3]

I found the Towdster the best solution. I tried using line from 30-75 feet and typically flipped the ski when the wake reached its bow. Every boat will be different, but 75' off my stern allowed me to reach about 18-19 knots before the wake reached the ski. At 22 knots, the wake reached back far enough that the ski would definitely roll over. The Towdster solved the problem as it kept the ski tucked in close to the boat inside the wake and the rigid PVC kept the ski from running into the boat when slowing or stopping.

If you do choose to tow with a long line, use polypropylene line, not nylon. Poly floats and nylon sinks, so with a nylon tow rope you're more likely to wrap the line around a propshaft, which make for an afternoon of little fun.

 

[h_gerry]

Also check what the PWC says about towing!! Mine says on it to NOT tow above 5mph!

 

[Quint4]

I tow mine every weekend short distances (5-10 miles) on an inland lake.

I only tow at 8 mph with 60 feet of floating ski rope bridled to my port and starboard back cleats.

If towing any faster, you need to close water intake on waverunner and consider what others have said about rolling it over.

 

[RBB]

I found the Towdster the best solution. I tried using line from 30-75 feet and typically flipped the ski when the wake reached its bow. Every boat will be different, but 75' off my stern allowed me to reach about 18-19 knots before the wake reached the ski. At 22 knots, the wake reached back far enough that the ski would definitely roll over. The Towdster solved the problem as it kept the ski tucked in close to the boat inside the wake and the rigid PVC kept the ski from running into the boat when slowing or stopping.

If you do choose to tow with a long line, use polypropylene line, not nylon. Poly floats and nylon sinks, so with a nylon tow rope you're more likely to wrap the line around a propshaft, which make for an afternoon of little fun.

Do you use the towdster that they call the trister. It has one coming from each side of the boat to a single going to the ski?

 

[vector4]

I've towed a jetski at off plane speeds before with 20' of rope and been fine. I've towed my dinghy with the same 20' of rope on plane and felt it was definitely not long enough of rope. So reading here that people use 70'+ of rope seems to me like it would work for the jetski. Just gotta keep it way back there.

 

[RBB]

Vector I have a towdster tri coming. Can’t wait till summer to try it.