minor hesitation on turn

[bolo]

Greetings from the great white north.

I have a 99 21i with a merc350 tournament ski w/ velvet drive trans around 300 hrs. It has (touch wood) been running beautifully for the 100 hrs we've had it. Lately on hard right hand turns it has hesitated very slightly, no loss of speed, the skier does not feel anything. It almost feels as if the prop loses bite in the water like a cavitation or something. It also feels like it might be sucking air for a split second. Could it be the trans slipping? It happens rarely but is coming with more frequency lately like once a weekend which has me thinking its a fuel issue. It has never happened going straight (yet) which is puzzling. I know the fuel draw is from the right side of the tank so it could be sloshing away from the intake on hard right handers. Any ideas?

[dogbert]

It's probably cavitation. Tiges have deeper V's than most boats so when you turn, it leans over quite a bit. When your prop cavitates, it's basically pushing water that's churned up with air.

[TeamAllen]

How hard of a turn are you making

Just a gradual turn while you are towing a rider or a sharp power turn to pick up a downed rider?

[bolo]

somewhere between what I would call a keyhole turn and a gradual type turn at waterskiing speeds but only on right handers, a function of prop rotation?

Thanks for the replies so far, I'm really pulling for the cavitation!!

[dogbert]

Yep, it's cavitation. That's because you have a left handed prop. It will be worse under load. What's happening is that you end up with turbulence in front of the prop, which causes what amounts to slippage.

[huntingwiley]

I have a 21i as well and it will do the samething turning hard when loaded down. Prop slipage.

[skyski_tige]

I hate slipage...