Getting sick, dead tired, but can't sleep. Go figure.

In my experience, Stargazer is a nice upgrade to previous versions of Perfect Pass. I feel that the throttle response is smoother and more predictable, making for a better pull. But it is still Perfect Pass. If you are happy with how your system is working, there really is no need to change. The one big benefit to Stargazer is that you don't have to monkey between passes to get actual times. Although that can also work to the skiers detriment: i.e if the first segment is slow, the final segment will be fast in order to make time. It also has been thoroughly documented that getting Stargazer dialed in can be a bit of a chore, but those brave pioneers are usually willing to help get you dialed in: PP tech support is also outstanding.

The thing is, I don't feel that there is a good way to simulate Zero Off. Some have suggested using kx++. This might be a good idea for yourself. Although to do that, I'm pretty sure you have to use classic, so you'd upgrade the system only to use the old software. I wouldn't bother doing anything different for you daughter: unless her nickname is Stump Puller. With Zero Off, the handle is essentially a gas peddle. The smoother and lighter you are on the line, the smoother and smaller the throttle response will be. She might notice a difference on the first pass or two, but she should be able to get back to skiing like normal fairly quickly.

Last edited by HO410 (Wed, Dec 9, 2009 7:34 AM)

I have a 99 Mastercraft prostar 190.  I upgraded to the stargazer last year.  Once I got the settings dialed in, I skied the same behind stargazer and ZO. I would not buy a boat just to have ZO. The instructions say to make small changes to the segment adjustments.  I did as instructed and it took alot of passes with a skier to finally get it set to pull actual segment times without the boat running..  On normal my settings are 15/10/8 . Don't be afraid of making big changes .

Jody has a conversion for 2002+ Nautiques with the Excalibur. Costs $3500 to $5000 depending on the year and whether the ECM is required to be replaced.  Over the winter he's working on a conversion for the Mastercrafts. Best case is that boats back to 2002 will have a conversion as this is when PCM and Indmar went to the current style of ECMs.

My SG does not make up time buoy to buoy, but it does make up time after 3 ball if its slow. You just have to come into the course after it has settled in (using single mag timing). Not hard. If you have a private lake with all ball timing then non-SG PP is probably sufficient. For those of us running multiple public lakes with single mag or zero mag timing SG FTMFW all the way.

Sounds like the problem I had until I adjusted the segment settings. I run a single magnet. Tweek those settings and the boat will not run on you.