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After having my Nautique Strapless Board Racks by Roswell (AKA the Roswell Triton Board Racks) on my boat for a couple of weeks now, I wanted to do a little write-up to let you all know my thoughts on these racks. I have gotten a few questions about these, and I hope I am able to answer all of those here.
First, the racks are very easy to install. They mount to the standard factory board rack mounting location using four 3/16 allen bolts on each side. It took me all of five minutes to install these. The process is super quick and easy. The racks themselves come ready to install. There is no assembly required.
The racks have a nice anodized finish, billet aluminum tines and stainless steel hardware. They have a good quality feel to them.
These racks have two settings for different width boards. Mine are currently set on the narrow setting, which is for boards measuring 14" - 20" wide. The wide setting can be used for boards 17" - 23" wide. Changing this setting only requires the removal of a couple of allen bolts, sliding the telescopic arm up, and re-installation of the allen bolts.
Inserting the boards is easy and intuitive. Just place the board in the rack, slide the telescopic arm up, pull the board into position, and allow the arm to come down and grasp the board. The racks have 10mm SeaDek foam on the tines, and a stronger foam at the bottom contact points to protect the board from damage.
These racks rotate just like Roswell's other racks, with a simple pull-release from the top. They spin in easily, and even my widest surf board easily cleared my tower speakers.
The price point for the Roswell Triton racks is roughly $1,000 less than other competitive products on the market. I do not currently have pricing for the Nautique-branded version of these racks, however. I will update this review once I have that pricing.
I have been using these racks on my boat for a couple of weeks now, and I am really enjoying them. It is clear that a lot of thinking went into the design of these racks. Nautique has been reluctant to release a strapless board rack in the past due to liability concerns around the towrope getting wrapped around a board during rider pick-up, and then having the driver accelerate to pull the rider back up with the rope wrapped around a board in the racks. These racks eliminate that risk, so they are considered by Nautique to be safer than other clamping board racks. If a rope was somehow to get caught on a board in these racks (which would be very difficult), there is an extremely low risk of the board coming completely out of the rack.
During the time I have been using these racks, which has included some very rough days (including the Shaun Murray world record day at White Lake, where there were whitecaps all day), these racks have held my boards tightly and securely, and didn't make a sound.
The only detractor that I have found for these racks is that under certain conditions, they can require a boat driver to have to look carefully for other boats that may be in the direct line of sight that the boards in the rack may obstruct. I have a couple of pictures below that shows the view from the driver's seat. This isn't a major issue, and simply requires the driver to be aware that he or she may need to look twice for boats in that direct sight path. This is no worse than other racks that stand the boards up, and I gladly accept this extra vision check in exchange for the other advantages of the racks.
Here are some shots of the racks on the 2017 PLANETNAUTIQUE G23.
As you can see, these racks allow any water from the boards to drain OUTSIDE the boat, instead of being directed back into the boat like most other racks. This, surprisingly, is a pretty big deal. It keeps the people in the back seats from getting rained on when wet boards are loaded into the racks. You can see from these pictures how the racks hang the boards out to the sides of the boat.
Here's the view from the driver's seat (as mentioned above). I would recommend placing the smaller boards on the passenger side to allow for maximum visibility.
As for being able to rotate in and clear the tower speakers, check out these shots. The boards in the driver's side rack are a Hyperlite Baseline on the inner tine and a Hyperlite Murray 150 (the biggest one) on the outer tine. They easily clear the Roswell Neptune tower speakers on my G23. I believe the JL speakers are a bit shorter than the Roswell Neptunes, so the clearance with those should be even better. The passenger side racks have a Hyperlite Hi Fi surfboard on the inner tine, and a Hyperlite Murray Jr. on the outer tine. The Hi Fi is my widest surfboard, and again, it easily cleared my Roswell Neptune tower speakers.
These racks definitely have a different look to them than anything else out there. Even if the look isn't your thing, I encourage you to try them out from a functionality standpoint. They solve an issue that has kept Nautique from offering strapless board racks for many years, while at the same time allowing for increased functionality over existing board racks both from Roswell and their competitors. I am definitely enjoying these racks, and I will continue to update this thread as I make additional observations.
Here's a little bit more information from Shawn Watson:
First, the racks are very easy to install. They mount to the standard factory board rack mounting location using four 3/16 allen bolts on each side. It took me all of five minutes to install these. The process is super quick and easy. The racks themselves come ready to install. There is no assembly required.
The racks have a nice anodized finish, billet aluminum tines and stainless steel hardware. They have a good quality feel to them.
These racks have two settings for different width boards. Mine are currently set on the narrow setting, which is for boards measuring 14" - 20" wide. The wide setting can be used for boards 17" - 23" wide. Changing this setting only requires the removal of a couple of allen bolts, sliding the telescopic arm up, and re-installation of the allen bolts.
Inserting the boards is easy and intuitive. Just place the board in the rack, slide the telescopic arm up, pull the board into position, and allow the arm to come down and grasp the board. The racks have 10mm SeaDek foam on the tines, and a stronger foam at the bottom contact points to protect the board from damage.
These racks rotate just like Roswell's other racks, with a simple pull-release from the top. They spin in easily, and even my widest surf board easily cleared my tower speakers.
The price point for the Roswell Triton racks is roughly $1,000 less than other competitive products on the market. I do not currently have pricing for the Nautique-branded version of these racks, however. I will update this review once I have that pricing.
I have been using these racks on my boat for a couple of weeks now, and I am really enjoying them. It is clear that a lot of thinking went into the design of these racks. Nautique has been reluctant to release a strapless board rack in the past due to liability concerns around the towrope getting wrapped around a board during rider pick-up, and then having the driver accelerate to pull the rider back up with the rope wrapped around a board in the racks. These racks eliminate that risk, so they are considered by Nautique to be safer than other clamping board racks. If a rope was somehow to get caught on a board in these racks (which would be very difficult), there is an extremely low risk of the board coming completely out of the rack.
During the time I have been using these racks, which has included some very rough days (including the Shaun Murray world record day at White Lake, where there were whitecaps all day), these racks have held my boards tightly and securely, and didn't make a sound.
The only detractor that I have found for these racks is that under certain conditions, they can require a boat driver to have to look carefully for other boats that may be in the direct line of sight that the boards in the rack may obstruct. I have a couple of pictures below that shows the view from the driver's seat. This isn't a major issue, and simply requires the driver to be aware that he or she may need to look twice for boats in that direct sight path. This is no worse than other racks that stand the boards up, and I gladly accept this extra vision check in exchange for the other advantages of the racks.
Here are some shots of the racks on the 2017 PLANETNAUTIQUE G23.
As you can see, these racks allow any water from the boards to drain OUTSIDE the boat, instead of being directed back into the boat like most other racks. This, surprisingly, is a pretty big deal. It keeps the people in the back seats from getting rained on when wet boards are loaded into the racks. You can see from these pictures how the racks hang the boards out to the sides of the boat.
Here's the view from the driver's seat (as mentioned above). I would recommend placing the smaller boards on the passenger side to allow for maximum visibility.
As for being able to rotate in and clear the tower speakers, check out these shots. The boards in the driver's side rack are a Hyperlite Baseline on the inner tine and a Hyperlite Murray 150 (the biggest one) on the outer tine. They easily clear the Roswell Neptune tower speakers on my G23. I believe the JL speakers are a bit shorter than the Roswell Neptunes, so the clearance with those should be even better. The passenger side racks have a Hyperlite Hi Fi surfboard on the inner tine, and a Hyperlite Murray Jr. on the outer tine. The Hi Fi is my widest surfboard, and again, it easily cleared my Roswell Neptune tower speakers.
These racks definitely have a different look to them than anything else out there. Even if the look isn't your thing, I encourage you to try them out from a functionality standpoint. They solve an issue that has kept Nautique from offering strapless board racks for many years, while at the same time allowing for increased functionality over existing board racks both from Roswell and their competitors. I am definitely enjoying these racks, and I will continue to update this thread as I make additional observations.
Here's a little bit more information from Shawn Watson:
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