On Wed, 4 Apr 2007 10:30:50 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I wonder if part of the reason is tradition. I remember as a kid living on
a lake during the summer the boat used for competition skiing and ski
"shows" was an inboard powered Ski Nautique. I don't recall ever seeing an
I/O configured boat on this smallish lake ... the rest were all outboards.
In those days a "big" outboard motor was a 75 or 100 hp Merc or Evinrude and
they usually struggled to pull up one slalom skier. The Ski Nautique often
towed five or six of us with girls on our shoulders.

Master Craft has been around for a long time also and they were always
inboards if my memory is correct. I'd guess that the inboards were
cheaper to run and had more power than the 2 stroke OBs available in
those days.