Matteeboy

Bought one of these at the weekend:

Salcombe Flyer 440 - Little boat (14'6") with a 60 Mercury - Good for 35 knots (apparently) so cool for skiing behind.

Took it for a drive and it's very quick and responsive and no CO2 emissions worries!



Pick it up next week after we return from Italy - Splendid

The Zohan

Cool!

60 hp (assuming 2 stroke) & 14'6", you may need to change the prop for if using for sking on the sea, you will lose a bit of top end but gain on accelleration. Should be fine for a single tow.

Make sure you get insured/insurance for 3rd party and enjoy!

SirFozzalot

Matteeboy

Paul - sounds like you know your boats!
It's all set up for skiing (tow rope eyes fitted, correct prop) and has a couple of extra bits - grab rails, stainless steel steering wheel (standard plastic one is minging), mount for a back up engine, etc.

It is a two stroke - Mercury - engine and we'll mostly ski on the Fal estuary.

The Zohan

Not had one since '96 so a bit out of it, little bits of info keep coming back to me. We had two props for ours, one for speed, could crack 55-60knots (according to the speedo. One prop for skiing, used to be able to deepwater start two fatblokes (me and a mate) on the shorter prop no trouble.

Good luck, make sure you get the headphone looking thingies that fit around the motor water inlets so you can flush it clean after use oh, and a decent battery, get a new high capacity on and keep the old one as a spare.

check the trailer is good, the wheel bearings get knackered easily as alway in and out of the water, std wheel bearing grease just diissloves, i think it is lithium grease, ask a baotyard on this, we had to grease ours on a regular basis as we trailered some 20-30 miles (min) each time we used the boat.

Please ask if you need any advice, re reuilt our boat and trailer from the ground up one winter.

Matteeboy

Paul - very handy!

We have a private mooring at a marina who do servicing and stuff and luckily wife's family (wife is an ex waterski instructor) are complete boat fanatics and gave it the once over. It will stay in the water most of the time but come out for the Winter and get a thorough clean and service.

Trailer looks pretty good - Bramber roller one in decent nick.

Should be lots of fun!

Leslie

Sounds like a good buy for yours needs, bet it would not be bad as a day boat for fishing either, I could get a bit further out to some wrecks than I can with mine.

All that advice from Paul is good, and it is well worth the slight extra hassle of flushing the engine every time you use it. Being on a marina there should be fresh water available to do that.

Enjoy

Les

Matteeboy

She goes like stink- Woo hooo!!!!!

Matteeboy

Isn't Leicester even further?!

20 min boat trip to open water for us (was about 50 on the last boat!) - 8 knot limit (ahem) for the first couple of miles then it's speed limit free.

Just need to pick up our ski and wakeboard - splendid!

Nat - How about lakes?!

andythejock01wrx

LOL, that's quite a shopping spree you've been on - just got a bonus from work Mattee ?!

Matteeboy

Andy - nope. Baby due in November so getting stuff while we can!

Sold our other boat for a decent profit so actually not paid much for this one and both bikes on "Cycle 2 work" scheme so more or less half price (we cycle 10m a day and use them for work).

Bought two rather nice paintings in Italy too...

Matteeboy

First ski behind the boat on Sunday - had to buy the ropes and get our ski and wakeboard out of a store.
Absolutley frickin awesome ski boat!

Plenty of power and good "pull" too - Nice little wake for one handed slalom ski action (will get pics soon) - Having always skiied behind others boats, it's SO nice to ski behind our own!

TopBanana

If you get bored of skiing, inflatable toys add a bit of variety - especially for the non skiers / wakeboarders. Take up quite a bit of space on board though.

Wherabouts did you take it out?

Matteeboy

Took it out at Carrick Roads nr Falmouth (we live up the river Fal nearer Truro).
Having skiied mostly at Rock, a mid to high tide only place to ski (otherwise the sandbanks get in the way), it was a real bonus to ski at full low tide and still have 8ft of water below us!

We are getting a pair of learner skis (just got a pretty full on mono and a wakeboard) for others to have a go - not mad keen on inflatables - think we'd get bored quickly and our boat is only little.

Wife used to be a waterski instructor so we generally get learners up and skiing (or wakeboarding) pretty quickly.

Leslie

Sounds like a good 'un then. Glad you are getting some fun out of it.

Les

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Used to drive my father in laws Fletcher Black Max with a 115 outboard, was great fun but god it used some juice ! he sold it as nobody was using it, durr, we had just had two kids and his sons were at uni, remember some scousers asking for a ride in it, I said sorry but no (piracy risk) and they starting throwing stuff from the rocks, so I trimmed the engine up so it was just under the surface and mashed the throttle, the resultant plume of sea water was a sight to behold, so were the bedraggled scousers shouting obsceneties !

Matteeboy

Got a very very bad phone pic of it -Sorry about the balding little man on the left....

Brilliant waterskiing boat!

Matteeboy

Just to the right (as you look at it from the Fal) of St Just on the Roseland.