Parasailing

[td in nc]

Has anyone ever tried to parasail behind their boat? My neighbor has a chute and was asking if it could be done. I think launching would be easy enough it is just the retrieval without getting the chute wet. Concerns/challenges: chute dragging someone under, is the pylon strong enough, is it legal, pulling the person and getting them to land on the boat.
Thoughts?

[korey]

When I was a kid (this would have been the mid-90's) a neighbor of our cabin on the Ohio River outside of Louisville had a parasail that they pulled behind their stars and stripes. I rode it several times. He passed the rope through the rear lifting eye of that boat and to the pylon. We launched from the beach, it was probably 5 or 6 big steps before you were airborn, and he landed us back on the beach, or close to it. It was no big deal to get that chte wet, although it was specificly designed for parasailing. I ahve no clue what that entails, though. IIRC your towing at much slower than slalom speeds - slower even that wakeboard speeds for most riders.

[crystal waters]

Has anyone ever tried to parasail behind their boat? My neighbor has a chute and was asking if it could be done. I think launching would be easy enough it is just the retrieval without getting the chute wet. Concerns/challenges: chute dragging someone under, is the pylon strong enough, is it legal, pulling the person and getting them to land on the boat.
Thoughts?

Your legal liabilities are huge. Check with your insurance carrier first

[MJHKnox]

Do you think you could pull that in by hand? The parasail boats have winches.

What about the force on your boat? I'm assuming there would be 1000s of lbs of force b/c of boat speed and wind drag on the chute. Not sure how much force water sports apply - skiing, boarding, tubing.

I think those boats are designed not to capsize when the wind blows the chute to the side.

I do not think it's regulated by the coast guard. Individual states marine agencies might have some rules. I know FL passed a law that requires 2 million in liability insurance to operate.


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[Hagman]

16789I was one third owner of a parasail back in the mid-80s this is the only picture I can find of it. It was a lot of fun when we were young and stupid. My buddies left it with me most of the summer of 1986. Between the three of our boats the comp was best suited to pull a parasail. After several scary mishaps where someone could've really got hurt I came to my senses and give my third ownership away. The last time I flew it it was a beautiful summer day with a light breeze that would carry the sail right over the beach for a soft dry landing which makes for a fast passenger change. I know we gave over 20 rides that day. The last person I flew was a cute young thing about 100 pounds as I took her out for a ride the breeze suddenly turned into a light wind. I end up having to turn a 180 quickly and chase the sail to get it to come out of the sky. My parasailing days were over.
It takes a rather large area to fly one safely. If memory serves we had about a 250 foot nylon rope . Turning radius is fairly large. And you absolutely do not fly a sale in any sort of wind.
After owning a sail I will say the only way to fly one safely is to have a boat set up just for parasailing. You need a rather large boat that has a landing platform with the winch. And most important an experienced (sober)driver.

[chris young]

I used to work with a guy who owned a lot of boats, and would try such things without properly thinking it through. He got his hands on a stock chute from somewhere, and just gave it a go. Whomever was the "flyer" got dragged quite some distance over the rocks before either giving up or getting airborne (I don't remember the story well enough to know which). I'm a pretty solid "jump in with both feet" kind of guy, but even I wouldn't try this without knowing what I was doing.

[SquamInboards]

A friend of mine had a paraGLIDER a few years ago, and we towed that on a calm day on the lake with my snowmobile. (Winter in NH) You had to release when you got near vertical, or lots of bad things could have happened. Picture the snowmobile being stationary and the pilot being whipped down to the ground while still attached. So yeah, release was key. We had a 400' rope so theoretically, you could get up about that high; really a bit less. Only the owner of the paraglider dared go over 50' up. With a snow-covered ice surface to start and land on, it was relatively safe. I mean, relative to staying on the ground? No. But speeds were fairly low, and the wing is designed to get you down to the ground safely, so that's a nice place to start. And you (the pilot) have control of the wing.

This is very different from parasailing, mind you - just a related stupid thing we tried once. Ha!

[BigCity444]

Have any of you ever seen a kite? The water ski team in my home town has one. 1680816809

[scottschmitt]

Wakekite is one sale if you want to start with a smaller sail.
My river is narrow and has big trees on the banks, so we haven't tried this one.
http://www.activewake.com/wakekite-5-5-superfly-package.html

[jzelt]

Surprisingly, I expected the Corp of Engineers to ban it on their lakes (like the flying tube), but they say "(g) Water skis, parasails, ski-kites and similar devices are permitted in nonrestricted areas except that
they may not be used in a careless, negligent, or reckless manner so as to endanger any person, property or environmental feature."
Rivers around here are too narrow, but some lakes would be ok, just have to pay attention to the wind.