Saw a '13 Xstar on the water, my observations

[Miljack]

Hi all,
just thought I'd share what I saw on Saturday at a local wakeboard contest put on by the local MC dealer. They had Rusty Malinoski in with a new '13 Xstar to pull a double up contest. We missed seeing Rusty ride, but watched while some of the locals had a go @ the double up contest.

1. Wake, we were watching from my boat, and the wake looked ok, didn't notice any of the wash problem, but a couple of times the double up didn't "form" and the riders just had to make another pass.
2. Sound from the prop/engine is weird, to me the boat sounded like an I/O. I'm not sure if that was the exhaust, or if they had the 5 blade prop on there.
3. The bow is still low on the new Xstar, they took a roller at least once while going back to pick up a downed rider.

The boat looks pretty nice, had a big "X" on the side near the gunnel/hull "hips."

[shag]

My honest opinion.... I'm not impressed. I was in the position to hear riders thoughts last year, and of course the M/C riders liked it, but others didn't for the most part. Could be just that they are all sponsored different. In the contests, the wake looked fine to me (I was not behind or in the boat, but on the water)
Also, have seen parts of the boat (handles, knobs) already broken.
I know they are also having problems with the motorized tower lifting system.

[biggator]

I go to demo one.. after demoing a G23 (I currently own a 23LSV). To make a long story short - I got back from my X-star demo and emailed the Nauti dealer for a price on a G23... IMO - it wasn't close.

Observations:
It drove/rode great.. as well as the G.
I didn't particularly like the wake on the Xstar.. big, but not super clean. For surfing, it was awful.
Storage, after adding plug and play, was less than my LSV. Not good.
Why design a boat for 3k ballast and give it 1400 plus 'plug and play' which eats up above-floor storage? Nautique showed with the G that you can put in the ballast under floor.
Fit and finish was excellent.. and it's a very sexy looking boat.