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This past weekend was our annual Spring 2 Summer in Guntersville, AL. Our boat sponsor for this year was Russell Marine and they managed to wrangle a G23 to pull the event with. If I heard correctly this was the same boat that pulled the MN Spring Ride the weekend before. Anyway on to the boat! I spent a good hour Friday getting in and looking at all the little in and outs of the boat. I really like some of the things they have done with it! My first impression when seeing it on the water was it doesn't look as big as I thought in pictures. It is a big boat with lots of freeboard though and I wish I would have thought to get a side by side comparison shot of it and my 2003 SANTE.
Being in the boat I did notice one thing that kinda got to me... The base of the tower is so large it makes a pretty big spot from which someone in the boat could not catch the dock or another boat if needed. I'm sure in time this could be gotten used too, but just something to think about. Another thing I noticed was the boat looked sluggish! When we first arrived there were already a few guys riding and I had no idea what engine it had, how much ballast they were running, or how the driver was powering up, but it took much longer than I would have thought to get on plane. Once getting in the boat and seeing it in fact had the 450 and they were running only stock ballast I was a bit disappointed it was not overloaded with ballast making it so slow. They were only running an ACME 1235 (14.5 x 14.25) prop and said they planned to swap out to a 15" prop for the event. It did look and feel stronger the rest of the weekend after swapping out props. They went to a 15 x 12, (I think it was a 2130 or 2310) I don't see it listed on the ACME site though. This boat could run a larger prop as well. There was still a good 4" clearance between the prop and hull with the 15" on. With the 1235 the engine RPMs were way high IMHO. We ran between 4200-4400 RPMs at 23-24MPH. I never got a chance to see what it ran with the new prop though.
On to the wake! It's huge!!! At first I thought it felt and rode like a current model 210 sacked out, just bigger. Later a friend said he thought it felt like a sacked out Malibu wake with a sacked out 210 wake on top of it. I think that is a better representation than mine. The wake felt mellow to me riding up the transition, but then just popped you straight up. The lip was clean even though I was in some choppy water. I usually ride at 82.5-85' behind my 2003 SANTE @ 24.5, but pulled into 80 @ 23.5-24 for the G23. I could have ridden longer I think, but didn't need to. All my tricks felt bigger and I had more time to slow down spins or really hold onto grabs. Unfortunately I only have 2 pics of the wake and none of the boat, but here you go...
Being in the boat I did notice one thing that kinda got to me... The base of the tower is so large it makes a pretty big spot from which someone in the boat could not catch the dock or another boat if needed. I'm sure in time this could be gotten used too, but just something to think about. Another thing I noticed was the boat looked sluggish! When we first arrived there were already a few guys riding and I had no idea what engine it had, how much ballast they were running, or how the driver was powering up, but it took much longer than I would have thought to get on plane. Once getting in the boat and seeing it in fact had the 450 and they were running only stock ballast I was a bit disappointed it was not overloaded with ballast making it so slow. They were only running an ACME 1235 (14.5 x 14.25) prop and said they planned to swap out to a 15" prop for the event. It did look and feel stronger the rest of the weekend after swapping out props. They went to a 15 x 12, (I think it was a 2130 or 2310) I don't see it listed on the ACME site though. This boat could run a larger prop as well. There was still a good 4" clearance between the prop and hull with the 15" on. With the 1235 the engine RPMs were way high IMHO. We ran between 4200-4400 RPMs at 23-24MPH. I never got a chance to see what it ran with the new prop though.
On to the wake! It's huge!!! At first I thought it felt and rode like a current model 210 sacked out, just bigger. Later a friend said he thought it felt like a sacked out Malibu wake with a sacked out 210 wake on top of it. I think that is a better representation than mine. The wake felt mellow to me riding up the transition, but then just popped you straight up. The lip was clean even though I was in some choppy water. I usually ride at 82.5-85' behind my 2003 SANTE @ 24.5, but pulled into 80 @ 23.5-24 for the G23. I could have ridden longer I think, but didn't need to. All my tricks felt bigger and I had more time to slow down spins or really hold onto grabs. Unfortunately I only have 2 pics of the wake and none of the boat, but here you go...
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