What’s the difference between a wake boat and a ski boat?

And while a wake boat can double as a ski boat, it’s difficult for a ski boat to come anywhere near a wake boat in terms of wake sports.

While wake boats tend to capture the popular imagination, there are estimated to be more than a million people who still actively ski in Australia, making ski boats an important part of the local boating landscape.

But how do ski boats differ from wake boats? Put one of each side-by-side, and the differences are clearly visible.

These differences relate to the job that each boat has to do. Let’s look at what they are.

The primary goal of a wake boat is to displace as much water as possible. Its design, which includes beamy hulls and deep freeboard, is optimised for the job.

Wake is created when the boat moves forward and pushes the water aside, otherwise known as displacement.

You can get more displacement in two ways; making the boat as wide as possible at the back, and making it sit lower in the water by adding weight, known as ballast – as simple as pumping water from outside the boat into a series of onboard tanks that alter the boat’s ride height.

Wake boat makers can also add something called simulated ballast to a boat to increase the amount of wake being produced, but without the need to add more water. This is usually in the form of hydrofoils fitted to the back of the boat that drag the stern down and shape the water flowing around it.

Better wake boat designs tend to rely more on displacing water than using hydrofoils to enhance the effect.

Wake boats also tend to use V-drives, gearboxes that can turn an engine’s drive by 180 degrees, so the big, powerful inboard engines that drive them can be mounted further aft to help create a better natural wake.

Having most of the weight rearward makes a wake boat’s interior quite open, giving almost uninterrupted access between the bow and the stern.

The ability to take on almost 2.0 tonnes of ballast also means the boat can become a party platform for around a dozen people once the day’s activity ends and the night’s party starts.

While the aim of a wake boat is to go big, it’s the complete opposite for a ski boat. The job at hand here is to create as little wake as possible.

Ski boats are designed to displace as little water as possible to provide as flat and smooth a platform behind the boat as possible for the skiers being towed.

Less displacement means less wake, wave and wash.

The main way ski boats achieve this is via a flatter, shallow-sided hull that is designed to sit higher in the water than a wake boat.

It also means the boat does not need to be as big as a wake boat, even though it often needs similar performance from the engine to ensure it is able to keep a consistent speed on the water as the skier moves from side to side behind it.

There is also a big difference in where the inboard engine sits compared with a wake boat. To minimise wash, the engine is usually mid-mounted so that it sits close to the centre of the boat, using a straight shaft drive to turn the propeller rather than the wake boat’s V-drive.

Having the inboard engine in the middle of the hull limits how well the interior of the ski boat is utilised compared with a wake boat.

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