Tower rope always getting tangled in board racks.

[Kelso]

I have the 242 LS with the forward swept tower. We do a lot of watersports and use the tower a bunch. I have rack low on either side of the tower that hold the knee board, wakeskate, and two wake boards. Unfortunately with the forward swept tower the ski rope has a regular tendency to fall down and get mixed up in the racks while turning around to pick up a downed rider, and its getting annoying!

I know @Ronnie mentioned on another board that he had the Fly High rope minder, but he never updated us as to its functionality. Looking at it it looks like it requires a pivoting tow point.

Does anyone else have any ideas? I'm thinking about a foam shock tube, but I dunno..

I can't be the only one with this gripe.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Do you have them on the front tube or the rear? Mine are on the rear about 6" above the flat cross brace. I always have some one standing up holding the rope and pushing out of the racks way.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Are the racks standard OEM equipment? Just curious because if they are OEM, this is an epic fail on Yamaha's part.

 

[robbo3]

You're turning too tight, the same thing happens to me, but my son uses a slightly wider turn and never has a problem. To be honest, my 12 year old is better at bringing the rope to the rider than I am, but I'll never tell him that.

 

[Kelso]

The racks are Krypt racks, but I doubt that makes a difference. They are mounted on the rear tube, but low, where there are dual welds on the tube..

I swing wide and rarely have an issue, but my wife doesn't which means then I have to constantly be on rope duty if I'm in the boat, or waiting on someone to clear the rope from the racks if I'm in the water..

It is riding on my nerves.

 

[Kelso]

And honestly, had I known this would be such a headache I probably would have gone with an AR240.

 

[Julian]

I can see how that might get annoying! Can you move the racks to the forward tube....might make a difference?

 

[sysinu]

I'm contemplating sewing a guide for the rope into the top of the back part of the bimini. We almost always have it out and that would keep the rope out of the racks.

 

[Kelso]

@Julian, if I were to move it to the front tube it would be very hard to get the boards off, its already awkward on thebrear tubes, probably will go to swivel racks eventually do to this.

@sysinu, I too always have my bimini deployed, but how would you make a guide on it that would allow a boarder/skiier to swing out beside the boat?

I may just order the Fly High Rope Minder and be the tester here of it, I mainly just wanted some feedback from @Ronnie to see if he ever tried it out.

 

[sysinu]

Bunch of options. What I was thinking at least for now is to put a loop, like a tag almost, on the center top of the back of the bimini and then use something like a short bungee chord to attach to the tow line. Something that won't hang down but can stretch without damaging the bimini. At low speeds there wouldn't be much tension on the tow line so the bungee will be mostly retracted thus keeping the line out of the racks.

 

[Ronnie]

I just saw this but earlier today I was cleaning up the boat from last weekend and took another look at the rope minder. I didn't reattach it but can tell you it is only 5 feet long at most 6. When i mounted it the first thing that I noticed is that it is very loose around the towers tow point such that it would sag and possibly hit the top of the Bimini or trailing edge of the Bimini. Looks can be deceiving, but the stock Bimini is about seven feet long, so the rope minder won't clear the trailing edge of the Bimini by much if at all. I think I can have tap plastics make an adapter to address the loose mount but can't do anything to address the short length of the minder itself.

On a related note: I have a Sampson rotating rack and was thinking about how to remount it now that I have a Bimini extension with additional hardware on the tower. When it is mounted on the rear tower supports the boards swing over the rear cockpit seats. If the rack is mounted on the front supports the boards can swing over the drivers and copilots seats. I may mount it on the forward support on my side, hopefully I can access the boards easily from this position. However, I also noticed that I could fit three wakeboards in the ski locker with room to spare which begs the question why do I need a rack at all.

 

[Kelso]

Thanks for the reply @Ronnie. Mt concern isn't so much the rope minder clearing the back of the bimini as it is it somehow keeping the rope from drooping over the side of the bimini and getting into the boards, this length should be shorter than the length to the rear of the bimini so the rope minder may just be long enough.

But alas, @sysinu may be onto something. Once the bungee's were mentioned my imagination took off. I'm now thinking a round metal grommet installed back center of the bimini with one of those bungee cord loops with a ball on the end run through it would work.

 

[lashburn1]

We had the Same problem on our 242LS.... Turn to tight it gets caught in the Rack....
Then we got a Mastercraft X-30 with Factory Swival racks....

Guess what? Turn too tight it gets Caught in the Racks.

Solution , don't turn too tight and/or have your crew Pay attention.

As my wife mentioned..... It's a boat , not a magic Rope handler.... Lol

 

[sysinu]

We had the Same problem on our 242LS.... Turn to tight it gets caught in the Rack....
Then we got a Mastercraft X-30 with Factory Swival racks....

Guess what? Turn too tight it gets Caught in the Racks.

Solution , don't turn too tight and/or have your crew Pay attention.

As my wife mentioned..... It's a boat , not a magic Rope handler.... Lol

Yeah . That is my solution for now as well. But it still has me thinking that I might be able to put something together for those times when I turn a little too tight and the wake hasn't fully passed me yet and I spin.

 

[lashburn1]

..... then there always this...
Tell your neighbor the Same Story...
They say " WOW !!! You have a BOAT" I will gladly go with you and handle this "Rope" problem you have....LOL

 

[Rigger]

Well, if you turn too tight on AR 240 - at least me - the rope has gotten hung up on the outside knobs that hold the lower arm of the tower on. This has happened while tubing and skiing. It doesn't happen all the time but if you let the rope get really slack in tight turn it's going to get caught sooner or later. I suppose this may give good warning that the rope was TOO slack and the turn TOO tight, on an AR240 at least, that the rope could be more susceptible to going under the boat.

 

[Ronnie]

Here are some pics of the rope minder installed. Embarrassingly, I don't know if the rope goes on top or below it or if I've got it on right side up or upside down. This looks like it may be headed for the excess / sales pile unused.

 

[Craig]

Came across this one similar to Ronnie's, think it was called Wakejack.