I TOOK THE LEAP

[DanB]

Well today I purchased a new boat, an '84 American Skier 18. It will require lots of TLC. I decided not to be afraid of replacing a floor. I just had to have something that I can try to bring back to life.

[backfoot100]

Congrats.

Pics or it didn't happen.

So how is the overall condition?

[RonT]

Congrats on the purchase, call or email with any questions, there is probably more & better support for your new 1984 A/S than any other brand out there.

[DanB]

Since picking up my boat last week it has been parked in my garage. Wasn't sure whether or not I would use it this season (Oct 4 is pretty much end of my season). Decided it needs to be "shaken down" before I start working on replacing floor and any other pressing issues. Well it should be in the water this afternoon. If that goes well, my ski buddies and I are going to use it tomorrow for some slalom course skiing. I honestly don't know what to expect from the wake of an '84 AS. Ski buddies both have Nautiques, one is "98 SNOB, the other is '03 206 (fingers crossed they don't complain about AS wake)

[RonT]

keep it light, & they won't be disappointed. Best slalom wakes are achieved with 1/2 tank fuel, no rear seat, the 18' boat is port/stb. balance sensitive, depending on driver size, observer size you may need to shift weight, but it is very visible in the wakes & easy adjust to. 

[backfoot100]

Based on the fact that I'm nothing more than a hack, I'll give you my .02.
I'm an aggressive open water skier. I run 15 off @34MPH.
I think you'll find the wakes on the A/S will be quite good considering it's 30 years old. I've skied behind several different boats including a buddies 97 and 01 Ski Nautique which are arguably (based on several experts opinions) the best slalom wakes you'll ever experience. That is at shorter line coarse skiing.
At my speed and line length, I'll take my A/S any day but I'm certainly biased. It'll be interesting to see what your buds think if they're totally honest with themselves.

[DanB]

WOW!! I feel much better about purchase. I didn't get a good read on the wakes when I test drove it, but those fears are gone. Dan had told me to check rpm and speed when I test drove. My gps app wasn't working and I thought the tach was goofy. Today with about 400# of people, 4600-4700 rpm and 43.4. That is with a banged up prop and skegs that have been flattened on leading edge( actually I think the front one is bent a bit). So thumbs up!! BTW the boat has a little over 1400 hrs on meter. Motor feels strong to me. Plugs don't look fresh from the outside either, so who knows when last tune up was.

**and yes I noticed the weight sensitivity

[backfoot100]

By the way my sister-in-law and her husband can't wait to strap on a slalom ski as soon as they come down for a visit. They own a 92 Ski Nautique and they like skiing and driving my boat more than their own.

[DanB]

Friends were surprised how well it ran and skied for the price. They gave it the thumbs up.  I noticed the boat seems to be tracking oddly. Anyway, this boat has what looks like a cavitation plate with an approx. 1" "fin" welded under it. I know Dan mentioned it to me but I cant remember what he called it. Well it is bent. Gonna have a look to see how its attached inside the hull. Is it strong enough to try and fix on the boat with say a large cresent wrench? I know I could take it off and heat it, but I don't want to lose the radius of the plate that attaches to boat. Follow? Suggestions?

[RonT]

We were the last builder to move from 18' to 19' hulls and tracking stability was becoming the driving force to lengthen the hulls. Our 19' Advance came out the following year in 1985. To be competitive with the others I had to come up with something else knowing the Advance was still in development. There was political pressures to not allow the A/S 18' to pass the towboat tests which preceded the 1984 model year based on tracking issues from the 1983 model year. The tests were subjective, we did not have anything to actually measure the tracking at that time. I came to the tests with our 18' Skier with a hidden feature that the testers did not notice before the boat was launched. Surprisingly to the test team the 18' Skier I brought them actually scored better than the other guys with their 19' hulls and they were dumbfounded, and passed the boat for the 1984 season. When asked what I did I simply told them I added a tail to the kite. When I pulled the boat out of the water later that day every boat manufacturer, ASWA official, and magazine writer were crawling under our boat to see what I did. The "T" fin was born and remained on all A/S tournament boats since.

It is attached with #10 machine screws with nuts, I have been pretty aggressive with a mallet to straighten these before, you have little to loose by getting aggressive to try & fix it.