1991 Sport Nautique

[faith7]

I need a little information on this boat...price range...the good the bad ...400 hrs interior is really nice as well as exterior...not to hip on the molded in platform and the observer seat..I like to try a lot of different boats and this one is nice

[georges]

I bought a 91 Sport new and kept it for 16 years. It was an awesome multifunctional boat, with decent wakes. The molded in platform is famous for a little backwash if you stop too quick, with a great back seat. I believe this model has wood stringers. It had excellent gas mileage, and a strong engine (351 4bl Ford Cleveland) for the weight. Resale value was very good. I was very pleased with the quality Nautique put into building this boat. I'm not too sure on market pricing. You might check KBB or NADA for reference. Good Luck!

[faith7]

thanks I'm considering it as well a 1987 martinique as well as a 2000 ski..guilty love them all

[s_kelley2000]

The first generation Sport Nautique is a great boat, especially if you more into wakeboarding than skiing. My family has owned one since new in 1991. I think it was a 91 that was built in august of 90 but my brother swears it’s a 90 but either way it’s the same boat. The ski wake is good for some free skiing but would likely seem huge compared to a TSC Ski Nautique or anything newer. If you are more into skiing you may want to look for an open bow Ski which I think started in 92 or 93. My skiing days ended pretty much as soon as wakeboarding was invented and I stepped on that first compression molded HO Hyperlite. In recent years I ran a 600 lb sac in the bow walk way and another 600 lb sac across the boat behind the motor box. With that set up it throws a nicely shaped wake with plenty of kick for 3’s, 5’s and any of the basic inverts I was working on.
We tried surfing behind it a little bit but could never really get a good enough wave on the port side to be able to ride without the rope for long. To be fair I only tried to weight it for surfing a couple of times before we realized how much easier it was in a friend’s v-drive. The starboard wave was plenty good to ride but the gas vent was too close to the water line for my comfort so we abandoned that quickly. I have heard it is easy to move this vent forward though if you are a goofy surfer or can ride backside.
As was mentioned you have to be a little careful slowing down with this boat because the following wake will want to ride right over the ramped transom (aka Euro transom). I never came close to swamping the boat but if you have 2 or 3 people sitting in the stern seat they will get wet! As long as you don’t just chop the throttle from wakeboard speeds you should be fine, may need to give it a quick little jab of the throttle as you slow to about 8 mph to all the the wake to dissipate a little before coming to a complete stop . Sorry if that doesn’t make sense but you will learn the correct way to slow this boat down pretty quickly so I wouldn’t let that scare you away.
I actually loved the molded in platform! No teak to keep up and after I switched out the grip tape for some soft traction (hydro turf) it was very nice. That platform is the one thing I miss on my Super Sport, my new platform is much smaller and requires maintenance. The molded in platform does sit out of the water a little higher than the wood ones of the same vintage so if there is not much weight in the boat it can be a little tough for kids or some smaller people to get out of the water but that was never a big issue for us. And obviously the other drawback is that you can’t take it off for storage so the boat is a full 21’ when you include the platform
The 91 will have wood stringers but I believe they were encapsulated in glass to aid in rot prevention. I know ours are still rock solid and I have never heard of anybody having to replace the stringers on these boats. I am not sure if that has to do with a better design or simply has more to do with them not being as old as the SN 2001s yet. I know there is a checklist on CCF and there may be one on here too that shows you some tips on how to determine if there is any rot.
I was never a huge fan of the bucket seat for the observer and always wished it had the hinged rear facing seat with more storage underneath. It was nice to be able to spin the seat to face forward when cruising around on large lakes but we didn’t do that more than once a season.
Our 91 has 1850+ hours and is still running strong. We wet sanded it last spring and that Fire Red shines like new again. I’m not too sure on price but I think 8-12K is a pretty accurate range depending on location, condition and hours. Sorry this turned into such a long post but the bottom line is that this was a great boat for our family for over 20 years.