SeaDoo Sportster towing.

E

eastont

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I have just purchased a SeaDoo Sportster with the intention of using as a tender.

We had a dinghy previous, but the admiral did not like it one little bit. She felt very unsafe and on the very rare occasion she would ride in it she was so scared she never stopped talking.

So after going to the local boat show and looking around she decided that the SeaDoo Sportster or Challenger would be stable enough for her to both ride in and actually take control of herself.

Enough of all the why, I have a question; Towing the Sprortster behind a Carver 3607 that rarely goes above 10 knots.

What should my maximum speed really be?

How long should the tow rope be...20' 40' 60' 100' etc.

What type and size of tow rope...1/2", 5/8"....double braid, no braid etc.

It is a single engine and I am aware of putting in a valve to be sure the water does not enter the motor.

Any tips you might have that would help me, will be greatly appreciated.
 
I've towed my Saedoo GTI for the past 6 or 7 years. I realize that's a bit different than a Sportster but I'll tell you what I've learned. I also towed a 14' johnboat last summer with the same rigging, btw.
- I installed reinforced u-bolts thru the transom for towing.
- I built a V harness out of PVC pipe, 3/8" poly line, and 3 snap hooks. I got inspiration from the Toadster.
- I use 3/8 " poly line from the PWC, thru the center hook of the harness, then to a stern cleat onboard. I use poly line because it floats, and I chose 3/8" because it should be the first thing to break in event of a problem. I keep it out of the sun when not towing and so far so good.
- at idle, I tow with the line tight. The PWC stays right against the harness. When throttling up, we first let out about 20' then adjust it so the ski rides just behind the V of the boat wake.
- the first few times we ran conservatively and assigned a crewmate to constantly watch the tow and report any issues. None occurred.
- after awhile, I experimented with speeds to the point of running at full speed without any problem. Even large wakes could be taken with little adverse effect.
- we always pull the PWC to our beam when anchoring.
- as my confidence grew, I discovered we could actually back into a slip with it attached and tight.
Good luck and stay frosty, especially when towing!
 
I have made a similar harness that arks1 described and have towed my sportster behind a Carver 466 for about 7 years with no problems.
 
FYI...hull speed on that 3607 is right around 7.5 knots. You're going to be wasting a lot of gas just adding an extra knot or two to your speed. For best fuel efficiency, keep it at hull speed or less.

If you ever have the need for speed, get it up on full plane. Running a boat in between hull speed and full plane is very inefficient.
 
Years ago, there were warnings about towing some "jet ski" type boats. Something to do with needing to clamp off the water supply hose or you could flood the engine. Probably not needed today with the new cooling systems on those type of boats.
 
I always heard that too but always towed without doing it and never had a problem. It was in the owners manual as well.
Jim
 
When we had our first boat in Florida, we towed a wave runner dozens of times from our house to upper captiva. A few things to keep in mind. 1. you must clamp or valve the water intake or you will hydrolock the engine. We added a valve. 2. We used a 100' line with a bridle that was slightly weaker under the assumption that if the wave runner went under, the bridle would snap rather than the line and whip forward and hit us. 3. we added red ribbons every 30 feet to warn people we have a tow. One time some yahoo tried to cut in between our boat ant the wave runner.

I hope this helps.

Ken
 
100' of line sounds like a bit too much. It welcomes people to cut between the boat and tow.
 
We towed a dink that weighed in around 850 lbs. I used 5/8 Samson MFP and had no issues towing. The line was easy to work with and they have videos etc. on how to put eyes in it. Probably two thousand miles traveled from SWFL to Great Exuma and back a couple of times. I had two lines back to the hawser which had a SS clip permanently installed in the eye. So I could lay out the bridle clip in the hawser which then went to a bridle on the dink that connected to the tow eyes on each side of the bow.

Make sure the tow eye on the seadoo is reinforced as well as the cleats on the boat.

The manufacturer of the dink recommended using a tow line that was 4X the gross weight of the boat. So this line is not adequate for your Seadoo. You might think about Dyneema. That stuff is incredibly strong and it floats.

Don't forget chafe gear on every eye. AND, find some kind of cushion/protection for your transom. When you slow down the seadoo will make every effort to ram it and eventually it will.
 
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