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Aluminum Wakeboard Boat


TEXWAKE

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To be totally honest, I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to do. Aluminum has a lot of benefits over fiberglass/gelcoat, and nearly all of the downsides can be engineered out. I'll be keeping an eye on this one for sure.

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No matter the benefits, an aluminum will never look as nice as a Bu with a good color scheme.

So yeah, reverse chines on a wake boat....I can tell this guy hasn't been into wakeboarding or wakesports much.....

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And you can get it with a Diesel...
Now that is cool. Thumbup.gif

Ya, cause that's what's missing from the "perfect day" at the lake...the smell of diesel exhaust. :Doh:

:lol:

Relax all you diesel fans, I'm just :Tease3: you. :biggrin: Sort of.....

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Those river boats are cool...almost made me want to take up fishing.

I would love a light weight ski boat. Nice aluminum hull and aluminum LS7 weighing under 2000 pounds, that would be a hoot with an tiny wake.

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Yeah I would totally get the diesel engine only problem with it is there are not allot of marinas on lakes that carry diesel. Im going to follow this as well. this will elminate most of the scaring problem that you have with gel coat. Plus you can find more shops that can do a paint jobs on these lowering the cost if you get a huge scratch.

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Yeah I would totally get the diesel engine only problem with it is there are not allot of marinas on lakes that carry diesel. Im going to follow this as well. this will elminate most of the scaring problem that you have with gel coat. Plus you can find more shops that can do a paint jobs on these lowering the cost if you get a huge scratch.

Only major downside I see is that if you hit somthing at speed the boat would most likely be unrepairable if damaged seriously deformed.

Aluminum boat +40mph + tree stump = propeller cuts through hull = boat totaled

Don't get me wrong I like the idea though.

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Only major downside I see is that if you hit somthing at speed the boat would most likely be unrepairable if damaged seriously deformed.

Aluminum boat +40mph + tree stump = propeller cuts through hull = boat totaled

Don't get me wrong I like the idea though.

The majority of the Aluminum boats in the US are built here in Lewiston and they are meant to run upriver through rapids taking the inevitable few bounces off of rocks. They are easier to repair than fiberglass boats and are much stronger. The comments about how light the boat is depends on the gauge of stock used. The riverboats weigh much more than our boats because they are made thick for those rocks, this one may be thinner. Custom Weld here in Lewiston has a wakeboard prototype they have run around here a bit, but it's pretty much just a river jet boat with ballast, tower, and I think it has speed control. It's not that impressive at all.

These boat manufacturers here also throw the maximum trailerable beam width out the window. They are much wider than 102" and they put them on trailers all day long. I don't know how they get around this, it must be don't ask, don't tell! These things are sometimes up to about 30' long and completely dwarf the trucks pulling them around. If anyone comes through here anytime, try to book a tour up the canyon. They load an aluminum tourboat with twin big block jets and run it up the canyon, through the class 3-5 rapids and you see wildlife, Indian artifacts/paintings, etc. It's worth the trip.

As for the reverse chines, take a look at Tige. My buddies 22V has reverse chines that are almost as pronounced as the ones shown on that boat. I'm interested to see how this turns out, it will be spendy, the ones they make around here rival our boats as far as $ per foot go. They start at about 40 K and can go well over 100K. They usually leave most of it unpainted, but today's need for bling is leading to some of them being painted, airbrushed, etc. It leaves the old timer fishermen scratching their heads with all the bling on a fishing boat.

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Yea, those aluminum hulls are a lot tougher than you think. I used to volunteer for patrol boat at SeaFair hydro races (9 yrs) and they used the CustomWelds for medic boats religiously. If a guy got in trouble & the medic needed to get there in a hurry, even if he was on the other side of the log boom (which is miles long, big giant logs), they would just put the bow of the boat up to the log & gas it...... right over the top without even breakin a sweat. They are jets, and have little or nothing under the hull, everything off the stern.

I'm sure a wake boat would have a prop, rudder, skegs & whatever else underneath that could be destroyed if the boat ever hit some rocks. But the hull itself wouldn't be a problem.

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Only major downside I see is that if you hit somthing at speed the boat would most likely be unrepairable if damaged seriously deformed.

Aluminum boat +40mph + tree stump = propeller cuts through hull = boat totaled

Don't get me wrong I like the idea though.

I dunno, I think it would be very repairable.....could be wrong

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The front of that thing looks more like a frog gig than my boat.

That was my first thougt, is ugly at the moment, maybe it is just a prototype and a real boat will be coming soon.

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As far as the reverse chines, it looks like they are high enough up the sides to be out of the water on plane. That means they won't create lift, but may offer less roll during turns. I suspect this is why they are claiming superior handling.

Anyway, you guys are missing the point. Think of all the cool things you can do to finish aluminum:

Engine turning to look like fish scales.

post-12034-12859012605_thumb.jpg

Swirl for the guys that like wraps. Grind in some skulls and you're good to go.

post-12034-12859013988_thumb.jpg

And for the Centurion guys and their Bling-Bling package, polish it out.

post-12034-128590145396_thumb.jpg

The possibilities are endless, and you could change it whenever you want. :crazy:

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Only major downside I see is that if you hit somthing at speed the boat would most likely be unrepairable if damaged seriously deformed.

Aluminum boat +40mph + tree stump = propeller cuts through hull = boat totaled

Don't get me wrong I like the idea though.

:unsure: Or it is as simple as welding some aluminum back into where the hole is. I think it would take a lot more than that to total an aluminum hull. Fiberglas can get into all kind of structural problems with delamination, cracking and stuff like that.

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