Getting your Heritage 261 into Ski Mode
Gear up to ski and wakeboard behind your Sportsman! The Heritage 261 comes with a tow bar, perfect to get you and your family behind the boat. Read our blog post to find what gear you need to get started!
One of the most popular models to hit the market in the Sportsman Boats lineup gives you opportunities to do more than any other boat in its class. With your Heritage 261, you can spend the day fishing, hanging out on the sandbar, and even engaging in a variety of watersports. Today, we'll walk through the gear you need to get behind the boat and utilize the ski tow bar, which is standard on the all-new Heritage 261.
The Heritage 261 was built with family boat days in mind. The idea of the Heritage 261 is to have all the standard features of the Center Console boat model, while adding features that will allow you and your family to enjoy time on the water, comfortably.
We’ll begin at the bow. The 261 comes standard with the actuated sun deck and table. This table is the centerpiece to the bow and allows you to customize it to your liking!
This is perfect at the sandbar to enjoy meals on the water. Moving towards the midship, the captain’s chairs are adjustable, allowing you to move them forward or backwards. This adjustment also allows you to move the chairs to face completely aft. This adjustment allows for a spotter in the event of pulling someone skiing or tubing. There is also a 65-quart YETI cooler, that doubles as your footrest while facing aft. The rear deck also includes edge to edge seating, making for plenty of room at the sandbar with family and friends.
Right behind the edge-to-edge seats is the standard, ski tow bar. The ski tow bar is a telescoping bar that allows you to pull water-skiers, tubers, and wakeboarders. The ski tow bar can also be put back into storage to allow for a seamless rear back.
The edge-to-edge seats also include aft facing rear sets and transom walkthroughs. This leaves for an unobstructed entry and exit to the boat. This is very convenient while switching out skiers and loading people onto the tube.
The side entry doors also have a 180-degree rotation. Which is designed so they sit flush to the back edge of the boat. The side entry doors are essential when doing watersports on a center console. This allows the skier to sit on the edge and put on their ski, and simply slip into the water, without having to completely jump in.
On the stern of the boat, we have also included twin boarding ladders, making it easy for anyone to board. This comes in handy at the sandbar and on the water while allowing for an ease of access for down skiers. The sandbar cooler is also a must on a hot summer day.
The sandbar cooler allows you to have quick and easy access to drinks and snacks from the water.
While towing the skier, it’s important to keep one of the captains’ chairs facing aft, this will allow you to watch the skier or tuber if they go down. This also lets the driver fully focus on handling the boat.
The biggest thing is to make sure the rope is properly attached to the ski tow bar. Make sure the rope is looped twice over so its secure and won’t slip up or down the ski tow bar. It is also important to have signals to use between the spotter and skier. The most basic signals are thumbs up and thumbs down for increase and decrease in speed and patting your head to stop skiing. Signaling the “ok” sign is also a good way to indicate that the skier is okay and comfortable. If a skier falls, its standard to wave an arm to signal that the down skier is okay. While picking up a down skier you want to make sure they are closest to the drivers side, so the driver has optimal view of the skier. This helps get the rope back to them and makes sure they’re picked up in a safe manner.
The Heritage 261 is a great family boat that offers the functionality of a center console with all of the family fun included. For more information on the Heritage 261, check out our website to see more.