American Skier History

[phil]

This was posted to the old American Skier Group on Facebook. Ron, please feel free to add to it as your time permits. As always, we appreciate it.





Posted by Dan Tanis

as i understand it Ken Elkind started this enterprise in '75
with the first model year as a '76. He called his company American Skier
CC had a model named American Skier......... so don't get the 2 confused
as they are very very different
the basic hull and deck shape stayed the same from
'76 - '84
the 18 footer were known as "American Skiers" we called them 18 Skier
18 Tournament Skier, 18 Lux (Luxery Skier, it had all the fancy coaming pads rear seat etc) the 18 Skier the standard by which all ski boats are still judged.

82(?)- 84 came the Volante closed bow, a very unique hull deck deisign with integrated platform and very driver oriented cockpit, one of the 1st if not the 1st true 7 event static hulls ever made (who can name all 7 events?)
add "Barefoot Skier" to the sides and a Hardin Chevy under the hood and you had a something really special

85 came the Advance it had all the best of each the 18' and the Volante
deck lines of the Volante hull lines from the 18' more interior space and easier to mfg. a few if any Volantes and 18' were produced that model year as that is when Ken move the factory from North Hollywood (Miami) to Ocoee Fl (Orlando area)

86- 2002 the Advance recvd a minor hull change with the spray chine being turned down instead of cut straight out the only real difference between the 85s and the newer ones.

88ish - 2002 Volante open bow , hull & deck pretty much unchanged other than some minor tweaks to the hook the open bow Volante was a clean sheet
approach in which Ron was involved with the design, not the "lets cut a hole in the deck of our closed bow and make an open bow" like others did but a fresh new hull and deck, rides super smooth, has no spray and has great wakes!

late 80s also came the Eagle 24' tip to tail with integrated swim platform and all the bells and whistles, add a 454 and she was all that and a bag a chips
I footed behind the first one, the boat didn't have any interior yet, Ron had to stand behind the wheel. and I footed behind a 89 or 90 just this past summer 44 mph not to shabby!

89 or early 90s came the Legend, it was to replace the Advance (which never died) the Legend had all the bells and whistles too and a very sexy interior design well thought out the hull was a little bit advance , a little bit Volante and it had a really sharp look .......... but some just didn't care too much for the wakes....... me either

Around 93 -94 came the TBX with the help from Lucky Lowe this hull / deck was like a widened Advance in fact from the rear you can see where the advance left off and the TBX begins the earlier ones were a little quirky and Ron fixed them in 96-97 and WOW what a boat! Ron redesigned the deck
around 99 or 00 and it she looks great , I'll take the credit for the all red ones those were the promo boats / Team Skier boats that have perfect pass and a few other tournament goodies......... then the big 3 copied that idea for their own teams.

that's all I have for now

This is Ron Tanis response to a question I asked about if he has ever seen a catastrophic failure of a hull on one of the American Skiers (Original ones).

I got a chuckle when reading the post about rough riding & cracking apart, I have yet to see a catastrophic hull/deck failure on one of our boats & I doubt anyone has pushed them further than I have. It reminds me of the story about our seat bases...in the late 70's early 80s' we had failures with the aluminum seat bases cracking & Ken wanted to change to a molded fiberglass base. He & I argued over the quantity of screws needed to hold the base to the floor, he thought 6 would be enough, I didn't. Ken told me to test the base with 6 & if failed start adding screws until no more failures. So the testing began, I would be the tester since I was a large driver & I was to find the roughest lake I could to test in. 6 failed, 8 failed 10 held so we went into production with 12 #12 ss screws holding the new fiberglass base to the floor! It took another 20 years before the NMMA & ABYC to recognize the need for testing helm seat security and require a lab testing method for all recreation boat builders to adhere to. I think it was around 1998 when we had to use the "new" helm seat test and tested the same seat & base with the 12 screws as determined years ago & it passed easily. Now...I think my little brother went with me on some of those early test sessions on a rough lake...lets see if he remembers where this was...I think you'll find it interesting. RonT.

[art]

I found this additional posting on the history from Dan Tanis @ the correct craft fan site from a few years ago - someone should write this all up for a nice wikipedia entry (which would make for easier education of the newbies like myself - I don't plan to ever sell mine at this point, but a wiki entry would probably help keep the value of our American Skiers up).  I didn't realize what a gem I'd bought, but the more I read about them, the more I am realizing how much I lucked out finding one in my price range in as good of shape as it is. 

Here's Dan T's post:

thanks to a couple of you for letting me in on the secret here @ CCFan, with a little Amskier chat going on ...........Amskiers are great boats and it has been my passion to keep them on the water.



I am glad to see the pics of some the sickest 18's I've seen in while keep them clean.

I also want to note the info in this string is close to 90% accurate a fee holes here and there , but pretty close.
the first models were 18' skiers and 18' lux ( luxury edition)that model was in the line up from the beginning 1975 through 1984. (first model year was 1976) and boat #00000001 is here in the midwest. the other Miami model was the volante (closed bow) and Barefoot Skier

these were 20' and had the platform built in the hull and deck mold , a very cool design but a little too tough to build. they were around from 82 to 84 with a few built as 85s b4 they moved.

The first year Advance was 1985 and was built in the Ocoee Fl plant (Orlando)through about 90ish then the volante came back as ground up new open bow model, and the big 24' Eagle
Both of which Ron was invloved with the developement. The Legend came out to "replace " the Advance as the flagship tourny boat. then in 94 aided by Lucky Lowe came the TBX

the 18' and the Advance are still very well known for there great slalom wake , and TBX just took it even further. It really is that good.


Ron started as a promo owner late 70's early 80's his first Amskier was Brown and cream, looked yummy... he opened Midwest American Skier soon after. He moved on to Fl 87-88ish, he worked as VP of MFG and what ever else Ken wanted him to do. They took different paths in the early 90's and mid 90 Ron bought the company back, he built the boats in Winsboro LA for acouple of years then moved the plant to Kentwood He sold out to Ben in 02ish
Ron built the TBX, the Volante, and the Lazer (Advance). always all hand built, Amskier in the Ken or Ron years never OWNED a CHOPPER GUN!

I resurrected the dealership south of Chicago in 96. I also have been gainfully employed by a World Leader in Security Electronics and still am today, Amskiers are my passion not my bread and butter. Today we run the web site, handle parts, and do select mobile service.
We handle what ever parts are available for Amskiers as well as all other Tourny style Inboards. We just started the registry on our site, so far it seems to be going ok.


www.midwestamericanskier.com is for the boat owners, several pics of the older girls

and www.footngear.com is for footers

if you guys need any help, give me a shout

midskier@hotmail.com
219-365-1466


thanks again

Dan Tanis

[phil]

I think I will start a Wikipedia entry that's a great idea. I was actually involved in that post (phospher) and let Dan know that the conversation was going on over there to which he then replied.

[phil]

Ok guys, I spent a lot of time with wikimedia tonight trying to get a American Skier article published...  At this point they will not publish it because I don't have enough independent sources speaking about the boats.

What I need is the Year, Magazine, Magazine number, pages etc... Where these boats were written about.  I need to prove that these boats are worthy of wikipedia and that they have "significant coverage" and "independent sources"

You can see what I have so far at the link below. I look forward to improving this article and getting it published.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bsdwiz/American_Skier_Inboard_Boats

[RonT]

I have no idea what Wiki is other than it sounds like the outfit that just released Top Secret documents I watched in the news lately. I did open the site & noticed the absence of the WESMAR owned years, they built the 1991-95 models in Ocoee Fl, then moved it to Cape Coral Fl, then moved it to Giddings Tx. I bought it in 1995 & moved the molds from Giddings to Winnsboro LA.

[phil]

Thanks Ron.  You never heard of wikipedia? Google any encyclopedia topic and it's likely to be one of the first hits that comes up. Check it out: wikipedia.org then search a topic. You will see Correct Craft and Mastercraft both have postings in there.  You are talking about wikileaks.org which uses the "wiki" software to run their website. Or for a great explanation of wikipedia check this link out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

[art]

Here's a Popular Mechanics article Dan T. linked to in another post:

http://books.google.com/books?id=euMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=American+Skier+Advance&source=bl&ots=qTXrClWdNv&sig=lAMr1pMyTNRgPBvzcyceGmMDysg&hl=en&ei=NyN8S57_O4z-Ncr9xbwF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAgQ6AEwATg8#v

[phil]

Art, thanks so much I forgot about that one!!!

[phil]

wow, this is turning out to be quite the project.....

[phil]

Is it true that a magazine rated the American Skier Advance boat of the decade at one point?

[phil]

Oh, guys..............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Skier


We got it, now I need it proofed by Ron. Let's make it better and more accurate. 

[art]

Nice work Phil!

[RonT]

You guys are really putting me to work now, I found the wiki site & made a couple adjustments with more to follow, I spoke with Ken this afternoon & he will read it, review it & he & I will compare notes over the weekend & I will forward the information.

[phil]

Awesome Ron. Keep in mind the more independent sources and references the better. So anything that can verify what you say is very helpful.

[hockeyhall]

I have a closed bow barefoot skier with the platform built in and I purchased it from Ken at his Miami shop in 1980 so I think the production date must be sooner. He told me at the time it was his prototype.