Pictures of the Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow with a 75 hp engine.

Here are some pictures of the Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow Economy Skier with a 75 Evinrude E-Tec.  Owner lives on a lake in Wisconsin with a 75 hp motor limit.  This boat has several options including a three color interior and the big decals.

Owner bought the boat cover online

Three Color Buckets.  The Observer seat swivels.

New taller dash.

The 75 hp motor seems small but still pushes the boat along at 36+ mph right out of the box.

Propeller is a 3 blade 13" by 13"stainless steel.  RPM's were 5200.

The motor has a built in oil tank leaving extra room next to the battery.

Bow Seat

Side Panel

Lake Dyna-Ski?

Lake North in South Bend, Nebraska is a hot bed for Dyna-Ski Boats. 

Lake North Web Site is http://www.northlake.us/nl/

The 5th Dyna-Ski 17.6 will be headed to the lake shortly.  That may not seem like a lot but I believe there are only about 40 ski boats on the lake.  I should mention that this lake does have restrictions helping make the 17.6 Dyna-Ski the water ski boat of choice for this lake it seems.  The ski boats on this small lake are limited to 135 hp and 18' (I think). This makes the 17.6 Open Bow Dyna-Ski perfect for skiers on the lake.

The 17.6 with a 130 hp engine will pull everything from little kids on trainer skis to barefooting adults. The small wake is ideal for smaller slalom skiers too. The modern outboards are quiet and easy on gas and oil.

Four of the boats are Open Bows and one an older closed bow model.  We did not build open bows when this boat was purchased.  The owner/skier that bought the closed bow Dyna-Ski boat originally sold it to a neighbor and bought a new 17.6 Open Bow for 2011.  I understand that there are also some older Hydrodynes on the lake but I don't know how many of them there are and what they are. 

The 5 Dyna-Ski boats all have 2 stroke motors including 3 Evinrude E-Tecs, 1 Mercury OptiMax and 1 older Yamaha which is on the 17.6 Closed Bow.

Below is a picture of the first Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow on the lake.

Hydraulic Steering

Dyna-Ski Boats normally have hydraulic steering.  On many boats hydraulic steering is an expensive option.

Hydraulic steering is often called "power steering" which it is not. Hydraulic steering does make the boat with it on much easier to steer but there is no power assist like a vehicle has unless the hydraulic steering has the power assist option.

Hydraulic steering makes it much easier to steer the boat that has hydraulic steering on it vs a boat that does not have hydraulic steering.

The smaller the motor size the less the need for hydraulic steering.  Bigger motors and faster boats should always have hydraulic steering.

Hydraulic steering does not give much feedback to the driver so it should not cause the driver to change direction as a result of torque steer generated by the motor's prop turning. Some of the mechanical steering systems suffer from torque steer. Torque steer can be dangerous.

Dyna-Ski Boats with two motors usually have the same steering motor cylinder that single engine boats do plus a tie bar to connect the steering of the two motors.  Three motored Dyna-Ski Boats should have two motor cylinders and two motor tie bars along with a higher capacity helm to move more fluid.  Needless to say if one cylinder works with two motors it is very safe for a single motor.

Adjustable Tilt Hydraulic Steering

Hydraulic Cylinder is attached under the motor

The two hoses carry the hydraulic fluid to/from the helm

Tracking Fins

 Composite Tracking Fin on a Dyna-Ski Boat

Dyna-Ski Boats have a tracking fin.  Normally tournament style water ski boats have a tracking fin. Fish & Ski, Inboard/Outboards, Runabouts, Pontoon, Deck boats, etc. typically don't.

A tracking fin is designed to help the boat maintain a straight line while being pulled from side to side by water skiers and also help the boat turn at higher speeds.

A person with a boat that has a tracking fin should give some consideration to the tracking fin when loading the boat, beaching the boat on shore and putting the boat on a boat lift.  The tracking fin is not long enough to be a problem during normal operation as the lower housing of the motor and propeller are deeper in the water than the tracking fin.  The trailers we sell with Dyna-Ski boats are built with the tracking fin in mind.

Hydrodyne Boats had a cast metal tracking fin on them. Cast metal is old school. We prefer a fin that should break off instead of tear a hole in the bottom of the boat. While a replacement fin isn't cheap it is way cheaper that fixing a hole in the boat bottom.  Below are pictures of an original never been used cast metal tracking fin and a composite fin that we make in the boat shop.  The cast metal one is not for sale.

Things to consider when buying a Dyna-Ski Boat or others

Dyna-Ski Boats really builds boats to order.  It helps keep our costs down a lot.  It saves the buyers money but it means you do have to plan ahead or risk disappointment.

The more different models and options a manufacturer offers the harder it is to try and stock finished products.  Guessing what the buyers want is a real crap shoot.

We used to be able to order fiberglass materials this week, get it delivered next week and the bill would arrive in the mail at the end of the month or billing cycle.  Not any more.  Now we order material this week and sometimes it does not come for 2 or 3 months. Often times now we have to pay for it when we order it or before they will start our order.  Fiberglass materials have a short shelf life so you cannot simply keep more on hand.  Kind of like food in the refrigerator. Storage space is also an issue not to mention holding costs.

Lead time from trailer companies can be 8 weeks in season.  As I'm writing this March 9th, 2012 it is 4 weeks for trailers.  Teleflex (steering) is usually 3 or 4 weeks year round. The hydraulic division is located in Canada so that adds to the time frame.

Companies also have plant shut downs when it gets slow. This adds to the time frame as many of them build stuff only when it is ordered, paid for and they are in production.

Some sales people go on vacation so that can add a week to the ordering and purchasing process.

The US outboard engine companies are pretty good about shipping product.  However even they have supplier problems from time to time and problems at the model year change over which is July first.  Sometimes a particular size of outboard engine may not be available in June.  Occasionally they run out even in May.

Every time that you think you have seen or experienced it all something new comes into play to mess things up.

A new boat is a big expense.  Trying a boat similar to what you want to buy is a very good idea. Nothing worse than having an expensive item that you don't use or like.

At Dyna-Ski Boats with a prior agreement to a visit to test a Dyna-Ski Boat we will reimburse up to $500 in expenses if you purchase a Dyna-Ski Boat from us within one year of the test drive and/or ski. I'm wanting to get a couple places in warmer areas so we can offer this option year round.  My wife and family (mostly the dog really) would not be happy if I relocated to Florida for the winter so I could offer this option myself from Florida.

Interesting 17.6 Open Bow uses & pictures

It occurred to me the other day that people may not realize that a Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow can be used for things other than the usual types of water skiing.  We have a para sail and we have used it behind my 17.6 Hydrodyne although I never have taken any pictures.  An owner of Dyna-Ski 17.6 Open Bow sent me the pictures below. In addition to use as a personal ski boat he uses it as a ski team tow boat.

 

17.6 Open Bow performance with a 115

115 E-Tec Motor Testing
This was the same boat used for testing the 90 hp E-Tec Motor.

The 115 hp Evinrude E-Tec is a 4 cylinder two stroke motor weighing 369 lbs. This motor is pretty quiet and seems to be very fuel efficient.  I had the motor installed with a pair of transom shims to give the driver more usable trim range. The transom shims give the driver additional control allowing fine tuning of the boat and motor combination on the water. The boat wake size increases and decreases by trimming the motor.  The boat speed also changes when the trim is moved up and down.  The gauges in the dash included a Livorsi GPS Speedometer.  The 115 motor is not as tall as the 90 hp motor. This motor weighs 49 lbs more than the 90 hp E-Tec Motor.

The Evinrude motor is very smooth and fairly quiet, very quiet at idle.  I ran a variety of speeds with several props and the motor held them well.  It was hard to get the boat above 44 mph on the GPS no matter what prop was on the boat.  I tried a whole bunch of them and it would appear that the 115 does not have enough horsepower to turn the taller props at the RPMs to get higher top speeds.  The wake was small at all speeds with the light weight motor.  Remember I'm used to having a 150 on the 17.6 models.  A 150 weighs 418 lbs. which is 49 lbs more than the 115 hp E-Tec Motor.


The prop was a three blade aluminum 17 pitch. The combination had good acceleration and speed holding.  My 7 year old was along for the initial speed testing.  The speeds did not change much even with a six people in the boat.

Speeds were   
14 MPH @ 2500 RPMs
21 MPH @ 3000 RPMs
36 MPH  @ 4700 RPMs   (trimmed for the best slalom wake)
40 MPH @ 5400 RPMs  (trimmed down to improve the barefoot wake)
44 MPH @ 5600 RPMs  (trimmed way up for maximum speed)

The boat and motor combination was very good for all types of skiing.  Speed holding was very solid with good acceleration pulling a single water skier up from deep water.  The barefoot skiing pictures were taken with four people in the boat, three adults and one child.  The ropes were 75’ in length.  Pulling the two barefoot skiers out of deep water with one skier on a flip turn ski and the other on a slalom ski along with the four people in the boat was pretty slow but it did pull them up!  The back barefooter weighed 165 lbs. and the other footer weighed 215 lbs.  The two footers were skiing at 40 to 42 mph together. They each did some one foot barefooting going forward and backwards.  They did not do any one foot while skiing together.  I pulled both footers deep water several times but not at the same time. The boat and motor combination was very easy to drive pulling the skiers no matter what they did.

I'd like to test a 17 pitch stainless steel prop but I did not have one available at the time.