For all you boat lovers

[Wickedcummins]

I have decided to do MY OWN real boat tests this spring. I am going to give you all real world feed back on everything in these boats and companies. I will then give you the best boat for cost and the best bang for your buck! I will include all pictures and how it performs all around. And weight sensitive will be huge in this because its annoying to own a boat that cant drive straight loaded evenly. I will even add in a part of how each selling dealer treats me from when I walk in. This will not effect the boat grade though. let us see what this brings us =)

This will be from a Husbands view and the Wifes. So two write ups going to be real fun

[gwhite94]

Sounds like a great way to spend the spring Wicked. Can you give a little more information on the following:

A. How your grading scale will work?
B. Are you targeting a specific size i.e. 23ft vrs 22ft

Can't wait for you to start your surveys...

[CarFanatic]

I thought you had a ASR coming?

[Wickedcummins]

I plan to do everything 21 and foot up. My list will be graded from a 0-10 list will be long here is are some major players


Ease of weighting
How weight effects the boat in all aspects
Power
Fuel useage
steering control
INterior quality
Use of space
equipment quality
price of add ons
standard equipment
feel while in boat
trailer loading
quality of lighting..
Latchs used and how long they might last
factory radio equipment

I am going to pick apart every boat we get in. The list I have so far is 220 items

[Wickedcummins]

I thought you had a ASR coming?

Did... Cant see the sense it the price of it! Driven it and rode behind it. I just don't feel its worth 120K+. I do think Id be a buyer at 100K honestly. Living in a state with year round boating I might toss around the idea! The surf wave is better on the Z3 and RZ2 and RZR.. The wakeboard wake was a little better than my sacked out rz2 but it also had more weight and more power to move the weight. Is there a single person on here that can use the potential of the ASR wakeboard wake.. Highly doubt it. If you wanna be the guy the the High dollar ASR then its the right boat for you indeed

[CarFanatic]

ah. ok. gotcha. I guess you sold the RZ2?

[Timmy!]

Good luck! Will be interesting to see what you wind up picking.

[Carter13]

Did... Cant see the sense it the price of it! Driven it and rode behind it. I just don't feel its worth 120K+. I do think Id be a buyer at 100K honestly. Living in a state with year round boating I might toss around the idea! The surf wave is better on the Z3 and RZ2 and RZR.. The wakeboard wake was a little better than my sacked out rz2 but it also had more weight and more power to move the weight. Is there a single person on here that can use the potential of the ASR wakeboard wake.. Highly doubt it. If you wanna be the guy the the High dollar ASR then its the right boat for you indeed

I have not read much about weight sensitivity with the RZ2 wakeboard wake. Can you tell me what you found?

Also, were you able to determine at what speed the wakeboard wake would clean up on your RZ2 with no ballast? I need to know this for my wife.

[Z3CO23]

As some most of you probably seen from previous posts, this is my first inboard boat..... owned I/O's in the past. I would say I have a good knowledge about boating but my wife had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever so we looked at a lot of boats. My little blurb here only refers to the Denver area since that's all I know. Most of this will be me just recanting my wife's impressions of the manufacturer's. I thought it was interesting coming from a person who never had been on a boat. We also boat shopped with the thought in mind it would mostly be used for surfing. We looked at boats at the following dealers:

Tommy's - 23LSV (surfgate), Axis A22 2012 (no surfgate at the time). **** Water Tested both boats
WWS - RZR (boat we obviously bought) ***** Water tested RZR
S&W Performance - 2004 X Star, 2013 X2, 2013 X10 ***** None of the boats were water tested.
Colorado Boat Center - 2013 MB 23 B52 ***** Not Water tested
Island Marine - 233 Enzo, Supreme V226. ***** Not water tested.
ROMBOCCO - Dealer too far way to consider looking at Moomba and Supra.

So...............

Tommy's
We water tested the A22 and were dissapointed in the surf wake right away (this was pre surfgate) so the boat got axed right away. However, the simplistic design of the boat worked really well and the boat drove flawlessly. Room in both the cabin and bow were good and seating depth was not an issue. The wife said it felt like a beginner boat... lol. I really liked it for a budget boat, but lack of surfgate killed it for me.
The 23LSV is a very nice boat. I have to say the wife and I don't agree with some on here that say the LSV feels like your knees are in your chest, I thought the freeboard was fine. Interior is nice but really has a laid back feel compared to the Tige.... it's more lounge style. I did not ride behind the boat so cannot comment on push of the wave etc but from inside the boat, wave had good shape and length.

WWS
We all know why we ended up buying the Tige. For us it was a clean low hour used boat for a price that fit us well. My wife really likes the interior of our boat and when I test drove it, it rode through the windy waters of our Colorado ponds the best of the boats I water tested. Out of the box, a Tige is the best ready to use boat from the factory, hands down in my opinion. On a personal note... I don't have the knowledge to do my own maintenance so tops for me was dealer proximity.... although I was probably a little ridiculous about it ;-) I know that this wouldn't be as big of a deal to some who are more mechanically inclined.

S&W
Very proud of their expensive product. Did my research on the X-star after we looked at it and found it was not a good hull for surfing so we dismissed it right away. The X-2 and X-10 are very nice boats. Very roomy, well built. The X-2 definitely is more roomy than my RZR. X10 was over 100k, X2 in the 90's. Would not let us water test without money down and financing on the table. Walked out and never looked back. A good friend owns an X-2 he bought used from there... and I really like his boat. Doesn't surf anywhere near as good as my RZR. Didn't have any other used inventory we were interested in.... Majorly turned off by dealer.

CBC
Wife said she did not feel safe just sitting in the 23 B52. From my experience, freeboard was the least of all the boats we were in. We never put it on the water so I couldn't tell you if it would feel that way during actual use but my intuition is that it probably would. We were told by dealer there was a deposit and they would call us if it fell through. They never called..... boat is still in their inventory. They had an uphill battle with me anyway because they are a 45 minute drive from my house. I know.... I'm lazy.

Island Marine
Really liked the Enzo and the Supreme. Nothing bad to say about them what so ever. Dealer sells a lot of different kind of boats, non inboards. I have to be honest, didn't give them much of a chance because they are in Fort Collins and an hour away from my house.

All in all we chose our boat..... for me, because of dealer, service, price and surf wave,..... and for my wife, price and interior. They are all good boats... just comes down to personal preference.

[st68]

Nice commentary and point of view.

As some most of you probably seen from previous posts, this is my first inboard boat..... owned I/O's in the past. I would say I have a good knowledge about boating but my wife had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever so we looked at a lot of boats. My little blurb here only refers to the Denver area since that's all I know. Most of this will be me just recanting my wife's impressions of the manufacturer's. I thought it was interesting coming from a person who never had been on a boat. We also boat shopped with the thought in mind it would mostly be used for surfing. We looked at boats at the following dealers:

Tommy's - 23LSV (surfgate), Axis A22 2012 (no surfgate at the time). **** Water Tested both boats
WWS - RZR (boat we obviously bought) ***** Water tested RZR
S&W Performance - 2004 X Star, 2013 X2, 2013 X10 ***** None of the boats were water tested.
Colorado Boat Center - 2013 MB 23 B52 ***** Not Water tested
Island Marine - 233 Enzo, Supreme V226. ***** Not water tested.
ROMBOCCO - Dealer too far way to consider looking at Moomba and Supra.

So...............

Tommy's
We water tested the A22 and were dissapointed in the surf wake right away (this was pre surfgate) so the boat got axed right away. However, the simplistic design of the boat worked really well and the boat drove flawlessly. Room in both the cabin and bow were good and seating depth was not an issue. The wife said it felt like a beginner boat... lol. I really liked it for a budget boat, but lack of surfgate killed it for me.
The 23LSV is a very nice boat. I have to say the wife and I don't agree with some on here that say the LSV feels like your knees are in your chest, I thought the freeboard was fine. Interior is nice but really has a laid back feel compared to the Tige.... it's more lounge style. I did not ride behind the boat so cannot comment on push of the wave etc but from inside the boat, wave had good shape and length.

WWS
We all know why we ended up buying the Tige. For us it was a clean low hour used boat for a price that fit us well. My wife really likes the interior of our boat and when I test drove it, it rode through the windy waters of our Colorado ponds the best of the boats I water tested. Out of the box, a Tige is the best ready to use boat from the factory, hands down in my opinion. On a personal note... I don't have the knowledge to do my own maintenance so tops for me was dealer proximity.... although I was probably a little ridiculous about it ;-) I know that this wouldn't be as big of a deal to some who are more mechanically inclined.

S&W
Very proud of their expensive product. Did my research on the X-star after we looked at it and found it was not a good hull for surfing so we dismissed it right away. The X-2 and X-10 are very nice boats. Very roomy, well built. The X-2 definitely is more roomy than my RZR. X10 was over 100k, X2 in the 90's. Would not let us water test without money down and financing on the table. Walked out and never looked back. A good friend owns an X-2 he bought used from there... and I really like his boat. Doesn't surf anywhere near as good as my RZR. Didn't have any other used inventory we were interested in.... Majorly turned off by dealer.

CBC
Wife said she did not feel safe just sitting in the 23 B52. From my experience, freeboard was the least of all the boats we were in. We never put it on the water so I couldn't tell you if it would feel that way during actual use but my intuition is that it probably would. We were told by dealer there was a deposit and they would call us if it fell through. They never called..... boat is still in their inventory. They had an uphill battle with me anyway because they are a 45 minute drive from my house. I know.... I'm lazy.

Island Marine
Really liked the Enzo and the Supreme. Nothing bad to say about them what so ever. Dealer sells a lot of different kind of boats, non inboards. I have to be honest, didn't give them much of a chance because they are in Fort Collins and an hour away from my house.

All in all we chose our boat..... for me, because of dealer, service, price and surf wave,..... and for my wife, price and interior. They are all good boats... just comes down to personal preference.

[Wickedcummins]

Mastercraft won't even be tested in this. There pricing is flat out retarded. Would not even consider them. The local Mastercraft dealer is ****. And they think they sell gold bars

[sandm]

interesting what you are doing wicked, however(and take it as feedback, not criticism) with statements like the above and the comment about the asr being worth 100k but not 120k, it will turn some off of looking/reading as you are already showing some bias. look at the statements about mc above with pricing(the process should let the boat determine the value or lack of) and 2 comments on the dealer which admittedly in your first post will not play into boat ratings.
should go into each boat dealership with an objective open mind, show the pros/cons of each brand/boat and post a price. let the readers decide if the boat is worth the value. I do agree that they(mc) are expensive but lets face it, so is nautique and I know you are going to shop them. use this process as an independent review to show why one brand is worth the added cost and one is not.

good luck and it will be interesting to read some of the findings on the boats, especially as you note fit/finish issues you find. that would be something I would find very useful in shopping for a new towboat..

[boardman74]

I'm curious how you got all these dealers to agree to let you test all these boats? If you are testing everything 21 and up, thats 4+ boats from most manufacturers. Thats is a lot of time and resources from the dealer. If your not clearing this with the dealers I'm guessing after a demo or 2 the dealers will shut it down.

[M&M]

2000 20ci. Missouri Ozarks. Like what you are going to do, but will you test used boats? We went thru the Dave Ramsey course and I will not borrow money to buy a boat ever. Used boat up to 24k or 30k is all I could afford to pay cash for. I have several boats in my garage and dock ranging from the Wave Runner, canoe, Pontoon, fishing outboard, classic inboard and Tige. I do not feel I could pick one boat and sell the rest. The 20ci I have now was 14k and we want a bigger/ longer model. Testing used boats will really interest me more. I will follow your new boat tests and store the info away for several years till I can afford one. M&M

[talltigeguy]

How will you calculate fuel usage? I don't believe manufacturers on this one, and think that you need a couple hours on each boat to really know for sure. I do believe that Tige hulls tend to be more fuel efficient, but some of the owners here have some ridiculously low gas usage, and I just don't believe it.

It sounds like a fun project to me.