06 Boat Buyers Guide

[TeamAllen]

I just received my Waterski Magazine's 06 Boat Buyer's guide in the mail yesterday. There are 88 boats tested. It is going to take awhile to sort through all that info. I went right to the Tige' section first (it's always last alphabetically).

I was impressed with the scores on the 21i. It was rated high for rec. skiing and wakeboarding, making it one of the highest ranking multisport boats out there. That is where my focus is.

I was also surprised the Tige' models didn't score higher on the adv. wakeboard recommendations.

I know there is alot of dislike for these type of tests and comparisons, but I still like reading about them. Happy reading!

Waterski Magazine

[Andrew]

Team Allen

Please keep in mind that we decided to go with no additional weight or ballast installed on any of these models. All of the boats did have the TAPS system installed.

[Matt Garcia]

Definetly a good magazine, a lot of good boats in there as well.

[Zacky]

I checked out the reviews online. I am not a fan of reviews. You will never get an honest review out of those guys if the products they are reviewing are what's paying the bills. They did however seem to be very impressed with the 24V, saying that "It has the potential of being one of the best wakeboarding boats on the planet." Suprisingly enough, they didn't say that about all of the boats, so they must have really liked it. Besides, what's not to like. That is a bada$$ boat...

Other than that, those reviews are full of errors. Boat pictures do not match the boats they are talking about, the descriptions and specs are off, and those wake pictures are awful. If I was a some of the manufacturers and they misprinted informattion or showed a garbage picture of my wake, I'd be plenty pi$$ed...

[Zacky]

Correct Craft's 210 Team wake looks TERRIBLE... I can't believe they even posted that picture...

[TeamAllen]

Originally posted by Andrew
Please keep in mind that we decided to go with no additional weight or ballast installed on any of these models. All of the boats did have the TAPS system installed. [/B]

Andrew,
Thanks for pointing that detail out. I noticed the SUPRA LAUNCH 24 SSV that they rated so high on wake size mentions, "The wake, powered by huge Gravity III ballast bags...". It seems strange to be comparing ballasted and non-ballasted boats.

Note: I noticed in my magazine there a discount coupon for the L.A. Boat show between pages 130-131. Two for one, any day.

[bfrank]

Man the Svfara sv696 has to be the ugliest boat ever made!!!
And at $56,600 base price........ they are going to be sitting on allot of those cow covered beauties!!!!!

I was supprised the 20i didnt get a better score on the advanced ski rating, seems they feel it is better suited for the recreational skier.

Whats the deal, what is the tige tournament ski boat??
Or is slalom sking a thing of the past????

Also did any one check out the $106,000 Mastercraft X-80 , I can buy three Tige's for the same price!!!!!

[Andrew]

The Tige 20i is the AWSA Record Capable Towboat in Tige's lineup.

Andrew

[bfrank]

You should give the guys at Waterski Mag some crap about not giving you the advanced skier rating !!!!

[Nick Howard]

As many of you have already noted, the boat tests by WaterSki Magazine are very subjective. We are, however, extremely excited about the over-all out come of the 2006 boat tests.

We pride ourselves on our Versatility. It’s the fundamental belief in our engineering philosophy, thus the continued development of our patented ConvexV hull and TAPS2 technology. Boats were rated on four basic categories; Ski Wakes, Wakeboard Wakes, Multisport and Family use. You’ll notice while looking at our competitors test results that they typically peak in only one or maybe two categories. While our boats receive high ratings across every category. Versatility! Could we build a one-dimensional boat that does only one thing very well, but required 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of ballast and/or drag hardware to do it? Sure! Could we build such a boat that also required an 8.1l 450hp motor just to push it around the lake under those conditions? Absolutely! Do we want to? Our customer feedback and our dealers emphatically say ‘NO’!

The inboard industry was extremely slow to respond to the changing needs of its customers when the sport started changing from slalom skiing to wakeboarding. The industry responded by putting a tower, ballast and ‘extreme’ graphics on old boats that were built for 2 passengers, no gear and designed to produce the smallest, flattest wakes possible. Now as our customers demand a versatile boat that allows them to wakeboard, waterski, tube, take their entire family and friends out with everybody’s own gear and have the ability to hang out on a large, busy, open-water lake, the industry is again slow to respond. By continuing to build outdated hull technology, they are required to bolt on bigger options and bigger engines to make the boats do what customers want. Instead, we incorporate innovative technology while engineering our boats to give customers what they want, everywhere from the hull design to the plush, contoured interiors. While we may not have received ‘perfect’ scores in the ‘Advanced’ categories, we received extremely high scores across the board, performance results that show our boats provide the typical wakeboarder with more than they handle. And as Andrew mentioned, with NO BALLAST REQUIRED!!

Another important aspect of these tests to look at is the ‘Engine’ options and performance results. You’ll notice that all of our boats were tested with the Tigé Power GM Vortec 5.7l 340hp engine. We intentionally spec’d our boats like this to show how efficiently our boats perform.

Tigé 24Vé – 5.7l, 340hp
0-30 mph: 5.5 sec.
0-36 mph: 7.8 sec.

Malibu 247 LSV – 8.1l, 450hp
0-30 mph: 6.2 sec.
0-36 mph: 8.2 sec.

MasterCraft X-45 – 5.7l, 350hp
0-30 mph: 7.8 sec.
0-36 mph: 11.3 sec.

We are extremely happy with the results from the 2006 WaterSki Magazine tests. The results support our efforts to build the most Versatile boats in the industry. Boats that offer world-class performance for every member of your family, regardless of whether they prefer to throw an off-axis 540, get thrown 10 feet in the air from a tube or take a Sunday cruise with the kids.

For those of you looking for more extensive performance reports, a great source for objective boat tests is www.boattest.com. They even offer a feature to compare boat and performance specs head to head between specific models. Head to head comparisons truly makes Tigés Versatility shine!

Nick Howard
Tige' Boats
Midwest Regional Product Mgr.

[bfrank]

Wow thanks for the insight. I guess being a slalom head I look for the flattest, softest wake, and in my perception on the test was the advanced skier rating would achieve that criteria.

Any new dealers opening shop in WI. I see we no longer have a Tige dealer.

Also that link you provided would not work. Was looking at comparing the MB 190 , The MC 197 and the 20i.

Thanks
Bert

[Nick Howard]

bfrank,

That link should work. If not, just go to boattest.com. Unfortunately, none of the boats you are looking for have been tested yet. So far, we have only submitted the 22i, 20V, 22Ve' and 24Ve'. MasterCraft has only submitted the X-30, X-45 and X-80. MB Sport has not submitted any of their boats for testing.

As we've talked about, the test results are all subjective. There are definitely some interesting scores given, some that I agree with, some I don't, some higher, some lower (for both Tige' and the others). But again, the WaterSki Mag tests are designed to help boaters narrow down their decision and to get an idea as to what's available on the market, not to make decisions for customers.

Of course the best advice I can give anybody is to test drive and ski/board behind everything you're intersted in. And demo the boat exactly how you'll use it once you own it, including crew and gear.

The 20i, in it's former version as the Switch I, was approved by the AWSA as a record-capable tournament ski boat. In addition, the 20V was approved by the AWSA as a Class 'C' tournament rated tow boat.

I've sent you a PM regarding your Wisconsin dealers.

Nick Howard
Tige' Boats
Midwest Regional Product Mgr.

[bfrank]

Here is the working link

http://www.boattest.com/index.aspx

[Zacky]

That's good info. Thanks for the post Nick.

Information taken from each manufacturers web site...

Tige 24ve
24' length
102" beam
Approx. 4320 lbs.

Malibu 247
24'7" length
102" beam
Approx. 4,000 lbs.

Mastercraft X-45
24'2" length
102" beam
Approx. 4,950 lbs.

It is interesting that the Malibu performed so poorly in the acceleration portion of the tests seeing as how it was equipped with 100+ hp more than the Tige or the MC and it is 320lbs lighter than the Tige and nearly 1,000lbs lighter than the X-45...

[Cheeky]

That comparison, were the other boats with or without ballast?

The Sunscape 24 got to 30 in 5.3 seconds,, versus the 24 LSV that got there in 6.2.

Just trying to compare aples to apples here.