Let's hear your inboard biography

[Richard-Howell]

Inboard Biography

Ok here goes, I learned to ski on a Boston Whaler at the age of 8. Our family had 3 outboards the last of which was a 1985 Glastron Carlson CVX-16 with a 115hp evinrude. The wake was small but the 750 pound boat felt like a small dog on a leash while pulling a slalom skier.

In addition to skiing on the glastron I occasionally skied on a friend's early 70's 16 foot Century Straight Inboard (had to power up coming off plane or had serious water coming over the bow). In 1986 he upgraded to a new Supra Comp. The same year I was selling boats at a small lake Marina and we traded with another CC dealer when we had interested customers. This was my 1st dealings with a Nautique. I even did a major boat presentation in a College Marketing Class on the 1986 CC line. I campared inboards with I/O's (we used to say I/O stood for I owe the bank lots of money and still can't ski), and outboards.

Anyway the 1986 Supra Comp was impressive powerwise, the interior was awesome for it's time and had a very quality build. He still owns in now but wants to trade it for a Mallibu.
I was never that impressed with the wake and the ride was terrible in any chop at all. While sitting in the observer's seat we would lean forward crossing wakes. In fact when I'm not driving today (not often) I still lean forward in my 1996 CC out of habit to avoid the back punishment that the Comp used to provide. It's just out of habit as you can't feel them in the CC.

Working at the Marina I had a chance to drive and see every type of Inboard imaginable but always wanted a CC.

In 1996 we made the move trading the old Glastron (I ripped three Casad ski pylons out of the softening floor during the last 2 years) for a closed Bow SN. My Dad (who paid 1/2 but doesn't use it) and I narrowed it down between a Mastercraft and CC. We didn't like the seats on the MC. They seemed low and uncomfortable for whatever reason. I still remember my Supra friend asking me if I considered the Supra before buying the CC. It was 10 years after he got his Comp and they still hadn't redesigned the hull.

I expected improvement over the Supra but the 96 CC far exceeded my expectations with regards to wake, quietness, room and lack of spine damaging rough water (relative on a small lake) characteristics.


It has been 10 seasons, we have added 3 kids and a (Portuguese Water) dog. As much as we still love the 1996, we traded it for a currently being built 206 limited. We chose it over the RLXI for 2 reasons. The seats in the 206, especially driver's, are far more comfy and functional. The 2nd reason is that in 10 years we'll have 3 kids in or close to College age and I believe this boat will last and cost less to maintain than the Malibu beyond those financially strained years.

The 96 was/is flawless and could have satisfied us for many years to come. We replaced the steering cable and re-upolstered the seat cushions but the GT-40 runs as great as when we got it. Hopefully the Excalibur treats us as well.

We won't take delivery of the 206 until late May or early June.

[efox]

My Uncle and a friend all had boats on Berlin Reservoir. It was fun to go out, a real treat but I never really caught the bug. Flash forward to college and a girl I was dating (now my wife of ten years) asked me to go to her families lake cottage...nothing special she said. Well it was heaven to me as we'd have her whole family around on the weekends and would fish, swim, boat, and at night either watch baseball or play Euchre and have some cocktails. We would go to the lake on Thursdays after the summer classes were over. You could always hear the older inboards fire up and drive across the lake. Lots of Tiques, 2001's, mustangs, and the like. Williamstown is a bit of a CC archive!

At that time, there was a CC dealer, Reb Stacey, at Williamstown. One friday he cruised in front of the dock with a new 92 Sn and asked if we wanted to ski and drive it for fun. I am sure that little did he know we would buy a 92 one day. There are only 3 nautiques on our lake. More wakeboarders than skiers so some of the other brands are more popular since they have wakeboats under 20'. We bought our 92 in 2003 and we are hooked. As my wife says about our neighborhood: "There are two types of people. Pool people and lake people...we're definately lake people!"

Eric

[ScarletArrow]

I thought this post deserved a bump...

My inboard story began back in the early 80's.

My dad had a 1972 MFG Gypsy. It had a tri-hull and a 120 hp OMC I/O.

I learned to ski somewhere aroung 3rd grade and in my little kid mind thought our boat was the corvette of the boating world.

Then I went to Sea World in Aurora, OH (it's no longer there) and watched the water ski show.

Liked the show, loved the boats - Ski Nautiques.

I couldn't believe how many skiers they could pull at the same time, how they could turn on a dime, how fast they were!

At one point, I'm not sure when (grade 5 or 6) - I got to see a SN 2001 up close...touch it, look inside (I was dumbfounded the engine was in the middle of the boat), and hear it drive away...it just oozed "cool".

I began telling my dad from that point forward that someday I was going to have my own Nautique - and now, I do.

[Richard-Howell]

I forgot my family had a 1973 tri hull closed bow with 75 hp bright orange Johnson called super something-worst riding boat in the history of boatdom!

[DavidF]

My inboard boating experience started out in college with a '67 (I think) Chris Craft runabout that I restored. My buddies and I had a blast on that boat ('82-'88) but always admired the Ski Nautiques and said "some day". After I graduated, I sold the high maintenance wood boat (and said never again) and purchased a '77 Martinique that I immediately started restoring before even putting it in the water. I owned and used the Martinique until April of this year when I sold it. Upgraded to a '93 SN that needed restoration before use (would not even float). We love the extra space!

People always ask why an inboard? I say because:
1. It is more reliable and cheaper to own/operate as they do not have the complexity of the outdrive unit. Basically just a ultra-reliable engine with a prop stuck on the end.
2. Better wake, better handling, low freeboard, more power, more cool, more everything....

Once you go inboard, you will never go back!

[Flux]

Mine is probably not as illustrious as some here, but I love inboards so I will tell it. I grew up fishing and spending alot of time in the summers on the lake or on the bay. We never had a boat, but had some canoes and I spent all day at the water's edge fishing or swimming. I simply loved being outdoors and loved the water. After college the lure of Colorado mountains hit me and I moved to Vail and snowboarded for 4 yrs. Eventually i went back to school and took a full time job in Socal. A few years into it I hired this guy from my school to work with us in the Engineering department. He had grown up on a lake and was a wakeboarding nut, from Grand Rapids MN.

That fall he started talking about a getting a boat. I was like "yeah, sure, cool". A few weeks later he shows up at my house with it, needing to keep it there. A 92 sport with low hours, really nice. Well after a few trips out wakeboarding it finally clicked with me, I got hooked and really started to love it. A year or so later we talked about getting a V-drive and finally pulled the trigger on an 02' SANTE.

I think the biggest reason for getting into it was simply the love of being out there with friends and family. Glassy mornings with only the birds around and the fish jumping. It gives us something to rally around, all our fun memories are tied into the boat. Seeing my boys get up for the first time on a wakeboard affirmed it, we will always have an inboard. While I doubt I will ever have a primary residence on a body of water, I will always chase that dream of having a place to boat and wakeboard. And I can pretty much guarantee I will have a Nautique sitting some place waiting to have fun with.

[G-man]

My inboard obsession began in Jr. College. We skied behind a 68 ski nautique. My friend owned it and his dad felt those that used it should help with maintaining the engine and wipe down the boat at the end of the day. Fortunatly for all of us we learned how to change the oil and wax the boat. My friend also had us buy the beer and gas since he was making the payments. That was in the mid-70's.

Fast forward to 1991 and I bought a Ski-Brendella open bow for the family unit. I had it 2 years and saw a Red 93 Stars & Stripes 190. I had that boat 12 years then sold it for $2500. less than I paid 12 years prior.

For some reason I decided to get a Nautique 206, it is a great boat but not for me. My dealer made me a great deal on an 06 196. I think this boat will be around a while. Everyone loves skiing behind it and think it is the best boat to drive in the course. I have to agree.

[M3Fan]

Glad this thread resurfaced. Great topic, if I do say so myself

[jonfo]

I grew up in WI on lake Winnebago and my dad had a 70's Volvo Penta tri-hull I/O, and then got a Sea Sprite I/O in the early 80's. I used to water ski behind the sea sprite a bit but my dad was not a good driver as he was usually sight seeing while i was water skiing. When i moved to WA in 1995 i bought a brand new 1996 Bayliner 2050 SS. I had it less than a year before i realized it wasnt that great and traded it on a 1996 Ski Centurion Falcon closed bow. I thought that boat was the coolest thing ever. It was about then that i changed over to wakeboarding. I got a 10 Foot Pole for it and some fat sacs and by about 1998 i realized it didnt throw a large enough wake. I went to wakeboardcamp in FL in December 1998 and learned my first trantrum behind their Toyota Epic 21 there and was hooked on wakeboarding more than ever. In spring of 1999 i decided i needed a boat that would throw a larger wake and went in on a 1995 Nautique Super Sport with a friend. The reason we chose the super sport is because it was the only vdrive that was 91 inches wide and it would fit on the boat lift at our rented lake house on Mercer island. After we owned it a while we realized it was a good buy due to the quality. We added a nautique FCT to the super sport in 2000, and then kept it until spring of 2005 at which time i got a Black SV211TE 330EX.

[mjg100]

Boating history

I grew up with a lake near by. My father wanted a motor boat but we did not have the money and my mother did not like motor boats. When I was a small kid we got a canoe and used it on the local rivers. I had an uncle that had a house on Stone Lake in Indiana. My uncle had a 17 foot Galaxie with a 140 hp I/O. When I was 12 we went up there one summer and I got my first chance to try and ski. I did not know a thing about skiing. I had never been around it. I got up the first time and stayed right behind the boat. My cousins kept pointing for me to go outside of the wake and at first I did not understand. I crossed the wake and just stayed out there for a while. My cousins kept motioning me to go back and I thought that I had done something wrong so I skied back inside the wake and stayed there for a few minutes until I understood from their motioning for me to go back and forth across the wake. I started skiing back and forth across the wake and had a blast. After skiing four times that day My uncle asked me if I would like to slalom. I said what is that. I was so naive that I did not know that it was supposed to be hard to do. My uncle asked me if I wanted to get up on one or drop one. I did not know what he was talking about. I told him that I already said that I wanted to try one ski. It took several attempts, but I actually got up and slalomed the first day that I learned to ski. Over the next 14 years I only got to ski 20 or 30 times.

In 1970 my father started a contracting business and after a few successful years he bought a sail boat. I enjoyed sailing if it was windy, but I still wanted a motor boat. One day my father came home from a trip with a sailboard and an article on how to sailboard. I read the article and self taught myself how to sailboard. In 1986 at the age of 26 I bought my first boat it was a 1978 Galaxie I/O with a 140 hp motor. In 1986 or 87 I saw a video of a Skuffer and I decided that I had to have one. For several years I was the only guy on our lake that rode a wakeboard. I used to barefoot behind that Galaxie by sitting on the Skuffer and then planting my feet.

In 1987 I bought some lake front property and built a house on it. I had a dock right behind the house and we skied and wakeboarded all summer and fall every year. I really enjoyed slalom and wanted a real ski boat. In 1992 I bought a 1984 CC 2001. I loved the way this boat drove and I loved to ski behind it. At that time I did not know the differences between the various direct drive boats. There were only a select few competition ski boats on our lake and there were no Ski Nautiques. Everybody had Master Crafts or Ski Supremes with the occasional Supra. I ended up getting more into wakeboarding and at the time I did not know how good I had it by owning a CC 2001 hull. I still have and use regularly my 1984 CC 2001. Everybody that sees the boat thinks that it is a 2001 year boat since it is in such good shape. During the summer it sits on a boat lift behind my house. This boat has almost been trouble free from the time I bought it. I added a tower to the boat to give us more room. My 6 year old boy wants to learn how to wakeboard so I bought him a board and I am in the process of finding a barefoot boom. My 12 year old girl does not have much interest in skiing. At times I think about a newer, larger boat, but I seem to have less trouble with my boat than my friends have with their newer boats so I keep talking myself out of it. I can not imagine not living on a lake and boating on a regular basis.