How bad is the original flight control tower?

[Jeff d]

Most of the Air Nautiques I can afford are in the '98-99 range. About half of those seem to have newer towers on them and I see on here that the original Flight Control towers were prone to cracking.

They also have a very utilitarian look to them which doesn't bother me but doesn't turn me on either.

Should boats with the FC1 be avoided unless the price is low enough to cover potential tower replacement?

[xlair]

in my opinion, the FCT1 will most definitely need to be replaced at some point. They were a poor design and the welds broke easily so if you are looking at a boat with a FCT1 i would inspect all weld points very carefully and make sure it doesn't shake too much. I would also be very careful about putting any accessories on the tower that would create additional stress.

Bottom line- the '98-99 Sport/Airs are great boats but the tower not so much. So I would take into account that you will probably have to spend $2k in the the near future for a NDT.

[bkhallpass]

Hmm. I have several friends with FCT1 towers and they ahve never had issues with cracking or strength.
They are not the most aesthetically pleasing towers ever built, and the singele piece construction makes them a bit of a pain to fold down, but other than that . . . BKH

[Jeff d]

The high folded height isn't a big deal because I have a very high carport. I would like a better looking tower but that's not a requirement.

Is the NDT a straight bolt on install or does it involve drilling new holes and repairing/hiding old holes?

I've been eyeballing a nearby '98 Air that has had the tower replaced. It has an OEM or NDT replacement on there already and the price is right on and he's had it for sale for at least a month. I've been hesitating to pull the trigger on it though because it has 1,000 hrs on it and 300 of the most recent hrs were in brackish water. It appears to have been maintained fairly well (I've seen better and I've seen worse). He's asking $14k for it but I'm still on the fence at that price. For $12k I'd probably jump on it because a rebuild (Does NOT currently need it) would cost a lot less than the additional purchase price of a "better" boat with fewer hrs and no salt water hrs plus a tower replacement.

The others that are in my price range are all $3,000+ more and they all have the FC1 but in general appear to have been taken better care of. So, there's a trade off between fewer hours (Usually 500ish), worse tower, and slightly better appearance vs. cheaper with a better tower.

[GoBig]

My buddy cracked his FCT1 and replaced it with a NDT. He had to have new holes drilled, however, the shop did an awesome job on the gel coat...you couldn't tell at all. I want to say that was around $2K but I don't know for sure.

In any case, the tower is a relatively easy upgrade, do not buy a boat for the tower. Buy the boat for the mechanical and structural (hull) integrity. The rest is upgradeable. You could quickly spend in excess of $2K fixing mechanical issues if you get into the wrong boat that has a new tower.

[Jeff d]

I'm just waiting for that killer deal from somebody who needs fast cash and I'm not really in any rush. I've been looking for about a month and have only found one boat that I was 100% ready to buy ('00 Mastercraft Maristar 230 VRS) but the lady selling it has been completely random in her response and I've been unable to close the deal over the course of 3 weeks.

I don't understand why people can't use craigslist/other classifieds correctly. They leave out key information (Price, hrs, model, engine, etc.), never respond to emails, or don't delete their ads once sold. This is getting pretty irritating. If you aren't going to respond to email don't make that an option and just put a phone #!

I love the ads that are like "Mastercraft boat- Bumpin' system, bad a$$ tower. Holla atcha boy if you want it!" The problem is that I have to respond to these because what if that's "the" deal?

[uwhusky]

Anyone have a pic of "the original Flight Control Tower" they could post?

[Chexi]

Jeff, if you are looking for a wakeboard boat, I don't think you are going to want a Maristar. Everything I have read about them is that they do not have the ability to have a good boarding wake. If you are looking at older Mastercrafts for wakeboarding, you are going to want a Prostar 205V or the original X1, both of which are in the mid to high 20k's. You can generally get a Super Sport or Super Air of the same vintage for less.

Husky, just search for 98 Air Nautique and you will find pictures of the first gen FCT all over the place. Here is a link to one. http://www.boatsville.com/used_boats...m?boatid=43164

[GoBig]

Anyone have a pic of "the original Flight Control Tower" they could post?

There are a bunch in the '99 brochure on correctcraftfan.com. Here is one from that brochure on a SAN...

http://www.correctcraftfan.com/refer...ex.asp?page=16

Click through the other pages of the Air/SAN to see more. There are also a couple in the '98 brochure.

-Big

[Jeff d]

Maristar 230 VRS

I'm not necessarily looking for a "wakeboard boat". The primary water sport will be wakeboarding but it's going to be a family boat. The Maristar 230 would've leaned towards the family side of the equation but I would've set it up like an older X-30. Supposedly the 230 wake is decent if you put like 2,500-3,000 lbs of ballast in there.

It might not be the best wakeboard specific boat but it would have a ton of space for the kids and friends.

[DavidF]

My 1999 Nautique Super Sport has the FCT1. So far, no cracks and it is fairly solid. Only over large waves that hit hard does the thing make noise/rattle.

[jhiestand]

If the tower is in decent shape, I wouldn't shy away from one! I had a first generation FCT and my main gripe was it rattled quite a bit. It also wasn't quite as convenient to "break down" and fold forward as newer towers, but that was easy to live with. Didn't have any issues with welds breaking or anything like that.