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I’m looking for advice on towing skiers from our R5 tower. We just took delivery of our first Cobalt and this is our first experience with a tower. I’m wondering about how the tow rope and the Bimini top work together? It would seem that the rope would chafe on the Bimini? We have an R5 with an aluminum folding arch with the standard Bimini. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Only tow wake boards or surfboards from the arch. No ski or tubes! Especially if you have a decent slalom skier behind you.

Like Darrell Waltrip told the young racecar driver when asked “can you go wide open into turn two?” Darrell said “you can but I won’t”

MentorPilot wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 6:34 pm I’m looking for advice on towing skiers from our R5 tower. We just took delivery of our first Cobalt and this is our first experience with a tower. I’m wondering about how the tow rope and the Bimini top work together? It would seem that the rope would chafe on the Bimini? We have an R5 with an aluminum folding arch with the standard Bimini. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hey...I've got the R3 with the arch and built in bimini....i double twist the loop over the top of the arch tow pylon....that keeps the tow rope up high on the pylon where the indent is. Yes it rubs on the bimini a little until you get tension on it with someone on a wakeboard or whatever but I haven't noticed any chaffing of the bimini yet and we've got a couple trips out on ours already. Don't tow tubes with the tower....use your tow point off the back for that and you will be fine.

rabiddawg wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 6:39 pm Only tow wake boards or surfboards from the arch. No ski or tubes! Especially if you have a decent slalom skier behind you.

Like Darrell Waltrip told the young racecar driver when asked “can you go wide open into turn two?” Darrell said “you can but I won’t”

MentorPilot wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 6:34 pm I’m looking for advice on towing skiers from our R5 tower. We just took delivery of our first Cobalt and this is our first experience with a tower. I’m wondering about how the tow rope and the Bimini top work together? It would seem that the rope would chafe on the Bimini? We have an R5 with an aluminum folding arch with the standard Bimini. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks... I was aware of the no towing of Tubes from arch, but did not realize that this extended to skiers as well. I kind of presumed that a wake board could pull as hard as a slalom skier. I am not sure I will tow anything from the arch if the tow rope is going to chafe my Bimini!

Elkhunter2372 wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 9:46 am

MentorPilot wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 6:34 pm I’m looking for advice on towing skiers from our R5 tower. We just took delivery of our first Cobalt and this is our first experience with a tower. I’m wondering about how the tow rope and the Bimini top work together? It would seem that the rope would chafe on the Bimini? We have an R5 with an aluminum folding arch with the standard Bimini. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hey...I've got the R3 with the arch and built in bimini....i double twist the loop over the top of the arch tow pylon....that keeps the tow rope up high on the pylon where the indent is. Yes it rubs on the bimini a little until you get tension on it with someone on a wakeboard or whatever but I haven't noticed any chaffing of the bimini yet and we've got a couple trips out on ours already. Don't tow tubes with the tower....use your tow point off the back for that and you will be fine.

Thanks for the advice.... I don't know if the R5 geometry will be any better or worse, but I will give it a try. I would imagine that if this was an issue that there would be some discussion of it somewhere in this forum. So far I haven't found any... Thanks again.

MentorPilot wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:07 pm

Elkhunter2372 wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 9:46 am

MentorPilot wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 6:34 pm I’m looking for advice on towing skiers from our R5 tower. We just took delivery of our first Cobalt and this is our first experience with a tower. I’m wondering about how the tow rope and the Bimini top work together? It would seem that the rope would chafe on the Bimini? We have an R5 with an aluminum folding arch with the standard Bimini. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hey...I've got the R3 with the arch and built in bimini....i double twist the loop over the top of the arch tow pylon....that keeps the tow rope up high on the pylon where the indent is. Yes it rubs on the bimini a little until you get tension on it with someone on a wakeboard or whatever but I haven't noticed any chaffing of the bimini yet and we've got a couple trips out on ours already. Don't tow tubes with the tower....use your tow point off the back for that and you will be fine.

Thanks for the advice.... I don't know if the R5 geometry will be any better or worse, but I will give it a try. I would imagine that if this was an issue that there would be some discussion of it somewhere in this forum. So far I haven't found any... Thanks again.

Correct there hasn't been any issues so far! Go for it!
Or if you're worried get a plastic tube of some sort and slide it over the rope and hold it in place.

I know the R6 Surf has the ability to tow a skier or wakeboarder from the tower pylon, and I'm hoping the R6 (non-surf) has that same capability but I can't find any reference in the R6 owners manual. Does anyone know for certain? I don't want to damage my anchor light and tower.

We surfed last weekend on our R6 Surf from the tower with no issues. Had to run the tow rope through the slot in our Bimini top.

Mine doesn't touch the Bimini with a wakeboard. It looks like it will but at wakeboard speed the nose in in the air. I have a 2019 R5 with aluminum folding tower. My question is how the hell do you tie the rope to the pole easily? I cant reach to pole when the Bimini is up (I'm 6'2"). I threw the rope loop close to the pole and then reached up through the hole to work the loop over the pole. My hand is too big so it was quite awkward. I'm probably missing something super obvious. This whole Bimini is such a pain to work with. Great when deployed or folded up but so hard to go back and forth. Since my daughter started wakeboarding, I've discovered this new issue. Ok - someone please tell me the obvious solution that I missed.