Given the number of sports boats and bow riders with wakeboard arches and racks fitted, you would be forgiven for thinking that a large percentage of boaters are almost expert level boarders or skiers, ready at the drop of a hat to perform all manner of slides, ollies and grabs, the truth is actually very far from this.
I do not like to draw comparisons between the automotive and nautical worlds but please indulge me just for a moment. Lets say you are in the market for a new car, van or truck, you walk into the dealership, immediately your eyes will be drawn to the best looking vehicle, irrespective if the options were what you were looking for, well, its similar with boats, the dealership needs to draw attention to its shiny new stock boats and, nothing grabs more attention than a large arch on a sports boat, especially when equipped with the ubiquitous racks and for one-upmanship, I raise you a brace of pod speakers ready to provide the tunes for the social media videos you´ll be posting of the backflips on your board.
I am not gong to go all old man and start on about "you young kids" because, wakeboard or watersports towers have some real advantages, some serious disadvantages too, even when not used for boarding and towing.
Plus points
Sun protection, so important when out on the water its so important, some of the larger towers have very large sun shades protecting the whole cockpit. Looking at the photo below, its from a Sea Ray 270 Sundeck, the photo taken from the bathing platform, the arch reaches practically from the windshield going aft to cover the whole cockpit.
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Sea Ray 270 Sundeck with wakeboard arch |
Gear storage, inflatables occupy a huge amount of space, they can be usefully stored on top of the arch out of the way. Lets not forget, board and ski racks, purpose made, some pivot inwards to make loading and unloading easier.
Drying rack, towels, jackets, wetsuits, if you store them away wet they create a funky "interesting" smell, rinse off your gear, hang it on the arch and it will dry quickly.
Sound systems, these can be hugely annoying to lots of people, but, tower speakers when driven by an amplifier can sound great.
Antenna tower, one of the problems when installing a VHF radio on a small boat with now tower or coachroof is antenna placement, using the tower the antenna can be mounted much higher so the radio is effective over a greater distance and also the antenna is out of the way, the most difficult part is threading the antenna coax cable through the tower itself.
Bad points
Corrosion, this is a major problem. In the last year alone I know of four towers on quite new boats that have developed corrosion in the powder coated finish. The only solution is to remove the whole tower from the boat, send in for sand blasting and new coating. The major reason for this is the towers are made of aluminium and the fixings are made of stainless steel, the mismatched metals create a chemical reaction and the corrosion starts. The same problem occurs with the racks, if they are not unbolted and cleaned at least once per season the stainless bolts going into the aluminium will seize solid. Products that create a protective barrier between the two metals are readily available, they do not solve the problem completely but they slow it down considerably and help avoid the dreaded broken bolts problem.
Those speakers, as much fun as they are, they are also a nuisance, they hang low and on more than one occasion turning round a head has been squarely smacked into them, also, there are too many people who go around blaring the most awful music from them, not to mention the battery power required to drive the amplifiers to make them sound their best.
Racks when mooring, this for me is one of the biggest downsides, especially when using Mediterranean mooring. You can often get two or more boats with racks on the towers and they stick out a lot further than you think, they get tangled up in other boats racks like stags rutting during mating season, they hit bimini shades and if alongside a much taller boat, can scratch their hulls.
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Wakeboard racks quite far outside of the boat hull, be careful |
Conclusion
Watersports towers definitely have their uses, but, in my experience actually doing boarding from them is not usually their primary use, unless of course said tower is installed in a purpose built wakeboarding boat, I am talking more about having towers optioned onto more multi purpose bow riders. Before you pay a lot extra for a tower please think carefully about all of the pros and cons. If you are buying secondhand, make sure the folding mechanism works correctly and corrosion hasn't taken over.
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