I noticed that one team at Nationals used a tandem boat pull to get their pyramid off of the dock. I had some skiers tell me they thought that a tandem pull was no longer allowed. So Judges....what's the verdict on this? Thanks.

It seems to me it is more risky using skiers to pull other skiers, but I, and my club has done neither.
Go to this page, and download the NSSA rule book under "NSSA officials resources":
http://www.usawaterski.org/pages/divisi ... i/main.htm
the answer might be in there.

I'm not referring to skiers pulling other skiers with a harness. I referring to one boat tethered to another to provide the extra pull to insure that all skiers get off the dock. What I saw was one Hydrodyne (not sure of the number of engines) tethered in front of a Twin Rig Hydrodyne. Once the skiers had planed, the front boat was released from the pulling boat.

Ted, I know you were referring to a boat pulling a boat. My comment was that I thought it is more dangerous to pull a skier with a skier rather than a boat pulling a boat.
I have seen this done, I think it was at 1997 show ski nationals. The back boat had the release, the boat to boat tow line stayed attached to the front boat. I think the back boat was attached at the bow eye.
I would think a driver to driver radio would also be necessary.

There are no rules regulating one boat assisting in the pull of another boat. Tandum boat pulls however rare are within the rules.
Thanks for the question.
Duane Snow
Senior Judge

For a good example of the tandem boat pull look at the Backwater Gambler's show at 2009 nationals.

http://waterski.teamusa.org/video

Select the Backwater Gamblers Show.

Tandem pull is at the :50 minute mark

Brent Berrel of the back water gamblers and his other twin driver have perfected this. There is no one in the country that could do this better. I have seen this done by them multiple time 20+. What they have is a custom release mounted where the bow light would be. The loop of the rope wrapped cable goes to it and the first boat pulls out. The boats must be in perfect sync because if the second boat pulls faster then the first boat, slack will form in the tag rope and the pull will fail. Also the rope between the two boats must be long enough so that the prop wash from the first boat won't cause cavitation for the second boat. Once all the skiers are on plane, the second boat releases the first boat and pulls the act. Something else that is done with this act is the turn. There is a cable wench on the back of the boat that moves the point of pull for the pyramid from the center to the side of the boat. This helps the boat turn. Way to complicated to explain. Just look at their boat at nationals and see for yourself.

We (the Backwater Gamblers) have been using a tandem pull for our final pyramid for several years now. Our setup is to use a twin rig pulling another twin rig. It is not a violation of the rules that I know of, and we've never had any safety concerns brought up by the judges for this type of pull.

We pull our pyramid this way for two reasons: 1) because it shows off the coordination and skill of Brint Burrill and Gene Hast, our two tandem drivers, and 2) we don't have a triple rig and wouldn't be able to get our people off the dock otherwise! It should be noted that both Brint and Gene are excellent mechanics and engineers as well as boat drivers, and have designed a system to release the front boat safely after the dock start. KSshowskier described the mechanics much better than I could. If you want to talk to Brint or Gene at Nationals, I'm sure either would be willing to explain how it all works.

Trista Foster
Backwater Gamblers