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a hypitheticaly stupid question

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Someone once told me that it takes upward of 35Hp on a skiboat type hull too pull up a waterskier. ( average ) Now, Being resonably inteligent ( even though I cant type worth a crap ) I know there are many variables, weight, boat, water conditions, ski's used and on and on and on. But just for the sake of argument. lets use a 200 pound person. Lets say we are using a motor on a magical boat, one that has no weight or displacement, Basicaly just a motor sitting at the end of a tow rope (just like cartoons)

Question 1: How much HP would it take ( apox ) to pull this 200 pound man out of the water and up onto the skies.

Question 2: How slow could this 200 pound man move, and still stay up on his skis? ( average skis, I know that is a variable too ) I know there has to be a certain amount of headway speed too keep him up, and that really has little to do with HP once he is "on plane" I know I could naturaly build skies wider or more boyant, but im talking your average run of the mill waterskis )

These are pretty simple Hypithical questions I have came up with that will answere some other questions I have that are way to complicated to word out properly.

Once Again I will also state I relize it all depends on a giant list of variable,, But I am looking for rough answeres here somewhat grounded to fact. I always welcome opinions, But MOre value a Opinion backed up with some form of facts.

From what I understand,, taking the weight and dividing by the HP will give you a number SOmehting about between 7 and 14 is good, over 14 is worse, under 7 is too much or something like that, but those equations also include boat size,something that is not relivant here.

For some reason I tend to think about 3 too 4 Hp maybe 5, with a min forward velocitey of about 10 mph, But I am just making a guess at it all. I supose that some form of hydrofoil equation would answere my question,, maybe hehe.. Pulling that much weight up out of the water might require much more HP then I am giving it credit for. I have also seen someone waterski down a canale wile being towed by a horse, So the power of 1 real horse could do it, But I also know motors HP is another thing all together.


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Topic - a hypitheticaly stupid question - Ken-Ohki 16:16:00 03/02/03 (6)


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