Josh in FLA said:
I agree with the majority of the above comments.
PSG-1 your boat looks well built and designed for its purpose.
The one I linked looks like its built for show instead of go. I'm not too familiar with the wakeboard towers, but I don't even see a place for a tow line to connect. The pricing is definitely out there, hopefully it includes the trailer and the spare PWC for the when the boat tears itself apart. Definitely designed for looks over function.
Absolutely. It's easy to put something together and make it look pretty, but unless something is designed with consideration of all the different forces and loads that will be applied in use, it's not a matter of IF it will fail, but WHEN. Just like the Alindale with the attachment points of the canopy being on the gunwales and nowhere else, no deck plates, etc....those gunwales flexed like they were made of rubber. I suspect it would be the same thing with the wakeboarding tower, except, now we're talking about aluminum flexing back and forth. What happens when you bend aluminum a few times? It breaks. Not good.
I've owned 14 foot johnboats, I know what their limit is. I can remember one time, a friend and myself were both working from my 14 Dura Craft, commercial oyster harvesting. We loaded the boat with 22 bushels of oysters, or roughly 1,320 pounds, not to mention the weight of 2 people, a battery, gas tank and engine. Needless to say, the bow was only about an inch or so from the waterline, we had to idle back to the hill, and if we had been passed by just one boat, it could have been really bad news.
I also know that working from that boat by myself, I could load it with about 8 bushels, or roughly 480 pounds plus me...... with that weight and a 25 merc, it would barely plane off. So, again, that's why I gotta call BS on the claims of this wakeboarding boat.
As for my boat.....I would HOPE it would snatch a skier up on plane, considering the engine is a Yamaha MR-1 high output 160 HP, the same engine they use in the 23 foot Yamaha wake boarding boats, except, this one is in a 16 foot johnboat.
Here's a video of the ski pole being put to use, skiing up the ICW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hykX4wjzRI4