Hello all!! Newbie

[Ryan1776]

Hello to everyone!
While I'm a newbie to PN, I'm definitely not to watersports and boats! Been into boating since I was 2. Got up skiing on my 2nd try at 7 and on my 27th try wakeboarding at 12 lol!! In my defense it was on a Hyperlite "Hot rod" directional with sandal bindings. Of course my dad got up on his first try! Currently I ride a 2010 Ronix Viva and have progressed JUST a touch past the "hot rod" days!

Anyway I currently ride behind an 87 Supra comp TS6M, which my uncle promptly laughed, "they spent millions of dollars designing the wake out of that boat and you spend 300 bucks putting it back in!"

I have many questions but lets start here.
I'm looking to get an 01-05 Nautique. My first couple questions are this, please forgive the "newbie" aspects of these. Whats the difference between "Air Nautique" and "Super AN"?

What year did the hydrogate come out? 2004 it looks like. Is it worth it to hold out for one of those years? I'm thinking 25-30k will be my number so those are within my reach and mechanical aptitude. I've got a wealth of engine knowledge, put a new 351w in my supra rebuilt the velvet drive, redid the interior, new tower, audio, transom lights...etc, so "hours" on a boat won't scare me THAT much. Rebuilt many race car engines including my 408 stroker in my mustang.

Ballast options. It seems the ticket is to remove the stock hard tanks and order up the wake makers plug and play systems. 750lbs a side? sounds about right!
What about belly ballast? Did they come stock? How big? Was it only Team Editions?

What other options did Team Editions come with?

What are the main problems areas with these era of boats? Or even characteristics? Wakeboard wake vs surf? I/we all do both. Yes you can weight a supra enough to surf.....it's not fun and the wake is touchy!
I know that anything will be better than what I have but it took me 4 months to buy a 700 dollar laptop, I like to research!

Well, that's my start!
Looking forward to learning and helping where I can!
Thanks so much!
Ryan

[seth]

Welcome! The boat you will want in the 01-05 range is the Super Air Nautique 210.

Air Nautique is direct drive and Super is v-drive.

I dont think the hyrdrogate came out until 07 and it was never on a pre 07 210.

There are a bunch of good ballast writeups on here, just do a search. Basically you want reversible pumps like the jabsco ballast puppys. 750's in the back, rear seat sack in the ski locker and either triangle bow sack (under seat) or about 400-600lbs in the nose.

I dont know of any problems with the 210, its one of the legendary wakeboard wakes! I dont surf but it seems like people have no problem doing it behind this boat.

[Woody_tobius_jr]

Bit of a correction for you Seth, I have an '04 SV211 Air Nautique TE, it's a V Drive with the hydrogate


Sent from my iPad

[79nautiquenick]

The hydrogate started in 04 with the introduction of the SV211, which is a good all around boat, the wakeboard wake with full ballast is nice but not very big, never got to surf it though.

The 210 hull ran from 95-06, just deck changes along the way. I myself was going to get a 210, but anything over 2000 year gets pricey in my opinion for what it is.

Make sure that if you go with early 2000s model 210 (I believe), to make sure that the gauges are converted from digital to analog. Also if someone posts a "low" hr boat and it has the analog gauges, the boat most likely has higher hours since a owner in the boats past changed out the gauges.

I ultimately decided to eat it and buy a 236 air nautique team, its the same as a 230 but with a different prop for a lot less money. the 236 has the hydrogate and only time I put the gate down is to help plain out the boat when heavily weighted, or slightly down for cruising to help stop porposing when everyone is setting in the back of the boat.

The gate does make the wake rampy at wakeboard speed but it washes really bad, im sure it could be cleaned up with some properly placed ballast, but I like the steep nautique wake so ive never tried to clean it up, may give it a shot this weekend though.

so your not missing to much in respect of getting a boat without the hydrogate, the 210 you will love the wake ive never heard one bad thing except for it being kind of narrow. The surf wave from what ive seen/read is surfable not overly big but still enough to have fun with.

If you haven't discovered it yet, check out correctcraftfan.com and click on reference and it has nearly all the brochures from 1949 till 2012. ccfan is mostly dedicated to the older boats

Hope that helps out and if you pick up a new to you boat, post plenty of pictures of it.

[s_kelley2000]

Welcome to the site. The above posters hit on most of the main points. Just to clarify a Super Sport from 95-06 has the same hull as a Super Air or 210 from that era.

[Ryan1776]

Thanks for all the welcomes!
So really, EVERY hull from 95-06 is all the same?! That's very interesting. So basically it would be styling differences and creature comforts inside.
I did forget to add, my sisters still like to waterski, nothing competition or anything but I hear the hydrogate can help "lessen" the resulting wake for skiing? True? To be frank, it'll be my boat, so if the wake is too big, I won't lose sleep! But if it can help why not?

Whats the deal with the gauges?

79-I've definitely perused CCfan for quite a while, and like you said, more geared toward older styles. But I haven't checked into the reference section. I'll take a look.

Now the Super Sport/Crossover, are those the V-drives that have the walk though transom? At first I didn't like it, maybe I'm getting old, but I like the idea, but not a deal killer by any means. But I'd rather a dedicated wakeboard/big wake boat than the crossover versions.

Seth-I will for sure do some searching on ballast and weighting of these boats. One question about it though, do all the Super Airs come with belly tank plumbed, or is it an option, and can it be EASILY plumbed in if not?

Thanks again every one!

Ryan

[seth]

Yes the 210 bottom half is the same 95-06. The top portion changed through the years.

If you are serious about wakeboarding and your sister is a recreational skier I would stick with the 210.

The gauges were digital from 00-02 and were prone to failure, resulting in analog replacement. On the GT40 motor there is no way to connect a scan tool to read engine hours after this switch. So if you are looking at 00-02 with analog gauges keep this in mind, it may help you negotiate price. When I bough my 01 in 08 they advertised it with 33hrs and it had the analog gauges, so obviously it was wrong. No big deal/ I had a compression test done and you can get a pretty good idea of hours and owner neglect by the overall condition of the boat.

The Super Sport is the exact same hull as the Super Air, it just did not come with ballast or tower stock. The 211 and 226 were considered the crossover boats and have the walk through. 226 looks like a bigger 211.

I believe the belly ballast was part of the "team edition" package which was introduced in 2002. It was only about 300lbs and a hard tank. Waste of storage space and hidden ballast space. I would rip it out anyway if I bought a boat with it. I measured out the ski locker and had a custom sack made for it. The ski locker is huge (at least on my 01) and you can fit a lot of ballast in there. Yes it is easily plumbed in. I just removed the floor and ran the hose with the existing hoses/cables right to the ski locker.

[s_kelley2000]

Here is a quick rundown of the changes above the waterline for Super Air/Super Sport/210s

95-98s have a playpen bow and the larger bow rails that stick above the deck

99-01 got a walk through bow with optional filler cushion. They also have much smaller grab handles inside the bow instead of on top. True wraparound lounge seating ended at some point in the middle of 01 and was replaced with an L-shaped lounge through 06.

02-06 Got the new top deck. The biggest change with this is that the top of the gunales was made much narrower so when inside it feels like a wider boat than the older models. The notch in the transom above the water line was removed and it was made more vertical. Also the floor was lowered a couple of inches to make the boat feel deeper. The railings on either side of the sun pad were removed and there was now a wider pad. Also I think this is when the 3 piece hatch took the place of the original 1 piece hatch. Some genius also thought it would be a good idea to enlarge the in-floor locker door so that you have to lift up the passenger seat in order to open the locker....

[Ryan1776]

OH MAN!!!! Thank you both! That's some good info! Love the run down for the years!

Seth-Noted on the 210 and to be honest, I was just asking for confirmation of my thoughts. My sisters just cruise, they really have enjoyed surfing lately.
So 03+ all have analog gauges?

Shawn-B E A UTIFUL!

What is the reason for them to draw away from the full wrap around seating? More room for beer? I completely support this decision, mind you. Looking at interiors now I can see it might actually get "crowded" if that was all full. As far as the in floor locker access being larger, is just the access door larger but the compartment the same size? Would the larger door allow for easier fitment of ballast bag? While I'm with you its kinda odd you have to lift the passenger seat to open it, ah engineers (no offense anyone!) it's not like you get in there often if it's filled with a fat sac.


For bow sacs in the 02-06 vintage boats, do you piggy back em off the belly? Or CAN you piggy back em? OR do run new pumps and lines?

What year/model did the fiberglass swim platform show up?
Also perfect pass same question? Or was it a stock on TE but option on others?

So far it seems like an 03-06 Seems to be right in my wheel house.

Now.....who wants to write my loan!??! SSN # XXX-XX-8392

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my seemingly simple questions.

Ryan

[79nautiquenick]

Glad we could help!

The 211 and 226 have the walk through transom, the 236 that came out in 07 is a "crossover" but the ski speeds in the 236 are pretty big, if I remember correctly the 211's wake at ski speed got pretty flat considering it's not a dedicated ski boat.

And like you I wasn't a fan of walk through transoms, the. As I got older they started to appeal to me a lot better than walking across the vinyl to get to the swim platform. That is probably 80% of the reason I chose the 236 over a 210, I couldn't stomach watching people walk across the vinyl all the time

You would be happy with the 210, just not a whole lot of storage, but the wake will boot you up

[s_kelley2000]

The fiberglass swim platform showed up in 03 I think but possibly 02.

Not sure on the reason for going away from the wrap around lounge, but it does make a good spot for a cooler. I personally like the wraparound better but it does get crowded if everybody is sitting back there. I hardly ever have more than 5 people in my boat so it is nice to be able to have a seat on both sides to help balance the wake and there is plenty of room for 5 adults in the main lounge. A lot of people with the L shaped lounge end up sticking the jump seat over there instead of between the driver and spotter.

No idea on the larger locker door but I think if anything the compartment got slightly smaller because of the lower floor. In the older boats the storage inside the locker is much wider than the door but it's no problem getting a 600 lb sac down there.

As for bow ballast, you can overflow into the under seat sac pretty easily. Unfortunately if you get an 02+ you will need to cut out the mostly useless cooler that is under the starboard bow seat to fit the sac. Search the site there are some threads on that.

[Ryan1776]

Awesome, thank you so much!
So it seems like 02+ is definitely what I'll be looking for.