Moving Flight Clips on a 2001 FCT.

[RJP56]

Our 2001 Air Nautique has the flight clips mounted on the top of the FCT. Has anyone ever moved them to the side of the tower? It makes more sense to have them there. First you have to climb the tower to slip them in and then they drip all over the driver and spotter. I was thinking of purchasing a couple of 1 7/8" split collars and try to drill and tap them to the flight clips. Has anyone tried this?

[Chexi]

RE: Moving Flight Clips on a 2001 FCT.

Are yours through-bolted in? Most of the flight clips use an oval bracket. But anyway, most people have them mounted on the side bars not the top. The ovals are exactly the same. Those are flight clips on my 2nd gen FCT in my avatar pic.

[Chexi]

RE: Moving Flight Clips on a 2001 FCT.

If yours are through-bolts and not clamped, then measure thrice and cut once. Get some helpers to hold them in place and try filling up both slots with boards and bindings. There are very few placement options that will allow your bindings to fit on the inside rack. I found that mine needed to be most of the way forward to work, otherwise the binding would hit the rear vertical bar. Even so, closed toe bindings tend to be an issue on the inside, so I use wakeskates and/or open toe binding boards on the inside.

[RJP56]

They are not bolted through. The clips themselve have a square aluminum block on them which fits into a square recess on our FCT. Then there is a pin which goes through. Gonna have to look again at mounting. I could see where the bindings could be a problem.

[Chexi]

Are you sure these are "flight clips" and not some other wakeboard rack? Your description of the mounting system is different than the 2 versions I have seen.

[RJP56]

I am not sure if they are "Flight Clips"?, is that a manufacturer or just a general term for board racks? They are definetly stock equipment on our FCT because the recesses are welded and powdercoated with the tower.

[Chexi]

They are flight clips if they look like this (disregard mounting ovals).

My boat came with what looked pretty stock, but was not flight clips. It had a block and pin similar to what you describe, but it was something other than flight clips. There was no recession, however, in my tower.

[DanielC]

Flight Clip mounting

"Flight Clips" is a Correct Craft trademarked term. There were two versions. in 2001, they were not mounted with the aluminum wrap around clamp ovals, they were mounted to the outside of the flattened oval bar with bolts that were installed through a 3/4 hole drilled in the inside bar, and then the hole was plugged with a plastic cap, glued in with an RTV (Silicone Sealer)
Usually they were mounted on the side bars, by the selling dealer of the boat.
The original owner of your boat probably requested the top mounting.
A jig with four holes was put on the tower to locate the four holes for the flight clips, and a 1/4 inch hole was drilled through both the inner and outer sides of the sidebar in the tower. A 3/4 inch hole saw was then used to drill the larger inside hole. The 1/4 screws were than put through a larger aluminum washer, through the flight clip, into the 1/4 holes on the outside of the tower. A washer was then worked through the 3/4 hole on the inside of the bar, on to the screw, and then a nut was installed on to the screw, and tightened.
It is really easy to drop the washer, or the nut inside the bar, and have to fish them out.
I would put the washer on a piece of welding rod, and then put the end of the welding rod on the end of the screw inside the tower, and this would allow the washer to slide down the welding rod on to the screw. Then I would put a small piece of masking tape to hold the nut firmly in a thin wall deep socket, and start the nut on the screw.

[RJP56]

Got a chance to take a better look at our racks. They were not original equiptment. OOPS! They are aftermarket racks made by Skylon. They are bolted through the oval tubes, kind of like what DanielC says, then some kind of cover is put on underneath to cover the screw holes. Cant seem to remove this cover, dont want to break it so I'll e-mail skylon to see if they can give me some info on how to remove them. Thanks so much for the information.