'Air Nautique' vs 'Ski Nautique' 206 (pre 2006) model - ski quality comparison?

[SilentSeven]

For those of you familiar with these boats, you'll likely understand the topic question straight out.

Is there any notable difference between how these two boats ski? Was there any real difference by year (ie 2003 vs 2004 vs 2005)

I know the hulls are the same, mostly it's a question of the impact of the added weight for the tower and tank system. No need to cover running the boat's light,fully aware that you run these boats lighter to get the best ski performance (ie: lower fuel load, not loaded with passengers, no massive speaker setup hung on the tower, etc)

For those you not familiar - here's the difference (for 2005 and earlier 206's; stuff changed in 2006+)

- Air Nautique 206 - 206 hull with a tower and small aft ballast setup (200lbs)
- Ski Nautique 206: 206 open bow version of the traditional closed bow 196 Ski Nautique. No tower, no tanks.

To confuse things further, it appears that Nautique was not really consistent in their marketing. It looks like that some years in the brochure they offered a 206 Air Nautique, other years the tower and tank were just options on the Ski Nautique 206. And then you could get the 'Air' graphic as an option on a 206 Ski Nautique that didn't have a tower or a tank.

In 2006, the whole game changed and Nautique dropped the tank option on the 206 and went to the hydro-gate. Tower of course was still available.

I have skied behind a 2005 206 that has no tank or tower so I'm familiar with that wake.

[functionoverfashion]

Sorry, I have little to add except that this was a confusing series of years for Nautique. There's the 216 in there, too, for some reason. And there's the fact that in 2003 they dropped the "Super" from the Super Air Nautique 210 name, so it was Air 206, Air 216, Air 210 but one was a v-drive... the Super came back into the name later in '03 from what I recall. Derp.

Anyway. I'd bet there's little difference if the hulls are the same and you can get the weight close. But I'd also bet someone here has skied behind both.