WAKE BOATS REAL DEAL OR COPY WHICH IS BEST

 

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WAKE AND SKI BOATS? THE REAL DEAL OR THE EVERY ONE BUILDS ONE

From our quick Toronto Boat Show 2016 review:

The Ski and Wake board sector has some awesome new additions to their breed. Malibu with fully digital dashes and surf gates for one example. These boats are really advanced and the fit and finish is second to none. I love that the wake boats have a lot of color and models to choose from, this is a sector of the pleasure boat market that knows its buyers needs and is developing product to meet all the requirements the buyer has. It works, they are not cheap but I am certain that very few buyers bitch about the disappointing performance of the boat they buy.

I know it doesn't say much but I want to be careful here as these to me are utility boats and I say this with the up most respect. There seems to be two different trains of thought in this group. The real deal and the everyone has built a boat with a wake bar, I want to know if there are any not so built specific boats that are really good. Or are they just boats with the fancy gear on them to look cool and go tubing behind. This breed of boat is designed, marketed and sold with the purpose of providing specific goals to the boat owner. However that seems to be only a small part of the story. I would think that the true test of any of these brands (built specific boats) is the reaction for the guy or girl not on the boat at all. I read several reviews of this class in the Boat Test 2016 Magazine and was alarmed to see that the reviews seemed to talk a little about the brand, short to no detail about the boat, but worst of all there was no one behind the boat!

FOUR WINNS

Many years ago my shop was an authorized repair center for American Skier and Master Craft. Back then we knew that the skier and wake board rider played a larger role in the boat owners decisions than the boat owner himself (EVEN IF IT WAS THE SAME PERSON WEARING TWO HATS). We had to have the highest standards of repair or the boat was right back. Today these boats are way more advanced hell an old ski boat would be hardly recognized next to a new one. All the additions of ballast, surf doors, location of the bar and wedges are for the rider are they not so how do we know if a wake boat is really any good?

Malibu

I am trying to catch up with todays wake boat and learn all I can, to be able to judge the calibre and abilities of  these new more advanced boats. I feel that these boats deserve top billing for design, engineering and technological advances in what a boat can do for you. The fit and finish on the top names is remarkable. Some of our old repair and maintenance technics still apply but that's about all. I love the freedom this breed has had to really open the minds of designers, unlike other power boat lines they have a refined not over done feel when you look close.

I don't think any power boat tester can really pass judgment on these boats unless you get someone behind one to tell you if they really are all they are built up to be. Looking forward to the experience of doing more than looking and driving one like a runabout again!  We want to hear from as many Wake Board and Ski Boat enthusiast as possible to design reviews and tests that will be truly informative.

 

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