1999 Air Nautique

[hornsfan]

I'm a boat/Nautique newbie. Never owned a boat and wanted to find out more about the one I just bought which hs a 1999 Air Nautique. Is this boat not very common cause I cant find a ton of info on it. Rare maybe?

[Quinner]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

In 99' the Sport, Air and Pro Air were very similar boats, biggest exception being the hull, Pro's typically had a TWC hull and Airs/Sports had the TSC, outside of that they are pretty much the same boats, should be quite a few out there. You may still be able to obtain the owners manual through CC or could even be on this site, CCFan has brochures for 99' in the reference section.

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

Yep, we have the manual here on this site.

http://planetnautique.com/index.php?...q=getit&lid=93

[Chexi]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

Feel free to search for my posts. I have one that I am restoring right now.

They were only made for a few years 1998 - 2000 I think, after which time they were replaced by the Super Air. The hull is basically the same shape as the Super Air, it just has the motor in the middle. The price differential might appear to indicate that the Super Air is superior to the Air. However, in my opinion, there are only a handful of differences. In no particular order of importance:

First is seating arrangement, which strongly favors the Super Air.

Second is ballast for surfing, which favors the Super Air also, as it is easier to add more weight to the rear end (especially on 1 side only) with the larger rear hatch areas.

Third is the cross-over ability, which strongly favors the Air.

Fourth, the Air should plane out faster and have better handling due to the mid-engine placement.

Fifth, I personally prefer the flatter transom on the Air because I am short. I find the slanted transoms much harder to get my boots on and off.

Sixth, you can get more ladies on the sunpad of the Super Air than the Air.

Seventh, less storage in the Air rear hatch area.

Everything else I believe is exactly the same or nearly the same, and I believe that this includes the wake. There are different schools of thought on ballast and wakes, but having the weight of the engine in the middle and lowering the entire boat intead of just the back end is not necessarily a bad thing. The Air wake is darn good with no ballast at all. With just the stock tanks full and a sack in the locker, it is very nice. That's the most I have done on mine, but this year I will be adding about 450-500 more pounds in the rear hatch for total of 850-900 and probably also an under the seats bow sack as well.

Note, you can't just add the ballast in the back on top of the factory tanks. You will crack them. Most people will recommend ripping them out and putting in a sacked custom ballast. I may do this next year. but for this year, I built a support system and 3/4" epoxy-covered floor to go over the factory tanks and protect them. I will post pictures once I finish it, which should be within the next 2 weeks. Epoxying multiple layers takes way too much time.

All this said, these are only my opinions. Others may believe differently any one or more of these points.

Hornsfan, are you in Texas? If so, where? I'm in Dallas and use my boat on Cedar Creek.

[hornsfan]

Re: RE: 1999 Air Nautique

Feel free to search for my posts. I have one that I am restoring right now.

They were only made for a few years 1998 - 2000 I think, after which time they were replaced by the Super Air. The hull is basically the same shape as the Super Air, it just has the motor in the middle. The price differential might appear to indicate that the Super Air is superior to the Air. However, in my opinion, there are only a handful of differences. In no particular order of importance:

First is seating arrangement, which strongly favors the Super Air.

Second is ballast for surfing, which favors the Super Air also, as it is easier to add more weight to the rear end (especially on 1 side only) with the larger rear hatch areas.

Third is the cross-over ability, which strongly favors the Air.

Fourth, the Air should plane out faster and have better handling due to the mid-engine placement.

Fifth, I personally prefer the flatter transom on the Air because I am short. I find the slanted transoms much harder to get my boots on and off.

Sixth, you can get more ladies on the sunpad of the Super Air than the Air.

Seventh, less storage in the Air rear hatch area.

Everything else I believe is exactly the same or nearly the same, and I believe that this includes the wake. There are different schools of thought on ballast and wakes, but having the weight of the engine in the middle and lowering the entire boat intead of just the back end is not necessarily a bad thing. The Air wake is darn good with no ballast at all. With just the stock tanks full and a sack in the locker, it is very nice. That's the most I have done on mine, but this year I will be adding about 450-500 more pounds in the rear hatch for total of 850-900 and probably also an under the seats bow sack as well.

Note, you can't just add the ballast in the back on top of the factory tanks. You will crack them. Most people will recommend ripping them out and putting in a sacked custom ballast. I may do this next year. but for this year, I built a support system and 3/4" epoxy-covered floor to go over the factory tanks and protect them. I will post pictures once I finish it, which should be within the next 2 weeks. Epoxying multiple layers takes way too much time.

All this said, these are only my opinions. Others may believe differently any one or more of these points.

Hornsfan, are you in Texas? If so, where? I'm in Dallas and use my boat on Cedar Creek.

Chex
Thanks for the info. I live in Houston but the in-laws have a lake house close to New Braunfels the boats stays in Lake McQueeney. I'll be honest with you, I'm a total newb when it comes to boats and especially wakeboard boats. Right now I should probably spend my time figuring out what people mean by ballast, transom, locker, tanks etc....

As soon as I have some pictures I'll post them up. I have the Gray/black color scheme with the "Air" in Red and Black

[Quinner]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

The Air is really an appointed sport, sport has been in the line-up for many years, the 99' was pretty much the same boat from 97' through 02', in 03' the line-up was changed, sport/air was dropped, adding the 206 and 216, 206 being a slightly smaller version of the sport or along the lines of a SNOB and the 216 being about 6" longer then the sport.

Generally speaking, the V-Drives would fall into the "Wake" boat category while the direct drives are the "Ski" boats.

[Chexi]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

I forgot to mention 1 more difference. The Air should be a little easier to work on the engine than the Super Air.

Listen to Quinner, he knows. He used to own the virtual twin of my 99 Air, except the 1st owner of mine put on a Gen 2 Flight Control Tower. Other than that, they were identical.

Don't worry. I was (and maybe still am) a total newb when it comes to boat ownership too just a short time ago, but thanks to the folks on this forum (with special thanks to Quinner, Wakeslayer, Mikeski, and Jaybird who have basically held my hand walking me through stuff), I now consider myself to know enough to at least be respectable.

[hornsfan]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

"I now consider myself to know enough to at least be respectable." My fear is that I get to the point to where I know enough to be dangerous.

[Chexi]

RE: 1999 Air Nautique

That's the next step. Just don't do anything electrical for a while (and without running it by those who know), be sure your blower is working, your blower hose isn't shredded (like mine was), and that you use it, and make sure you put those boat plugs in before you head out. Those are things most likely to kill you or cause a total loss.