First time buyer looking for advice

[KookOfTheDay]

I am looking to purchase my first boat and hoping to get some solid advice here. Budget is under 20k hopefully closer to 15k. From looking around it seems I can Get into a 2001 Air Nautique in good condition if I am lucky. My big question is what is a 2001 capable of? Would we be able to ski, board and surf behind a 2001 with ballast tanks? I found a boat that looks like it would be a perfect fit for me but it has some hull damage (see the picture below). Should I worry about this or does it look superficial. Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[KookOfTheDay]

[bturner]

The Air Nautique is a crossover boat which like most crossover will do most everything good to fair but nothing great in comparison to a boat dedicated to a specific task. It's a proven hull that's been around forever and IMO would be a greater starter boat to get into a Nautique.

From a condition perspective it's always difficult to judge condition based on pictures. From what I can see in these it would appear someone liked to beach it without much care. OCD owners will rarely chance beaching so to me this would indicate an owner that didn't take exceptional care of the boat or use by spoiled kids. I buy or have bought for friends quite a few boats over the years and seeing a hull like this is a red flag to me. It doesn't mean I wouldn't buy it for the right price but now I'm really looking for other areas the owner hasn't taken care of the boat. So back on the hull, I see what appears to be raw fiberglass from a rather large chip and behind it other areas that look to be about through the gel coat. This is not good. The gel coat is what seals, or creates a barrier from the water to the stranded fiberglass structure layer. Not sealing this up will allow water to seep into the fiberglass structure. This IMO needs to be fixed immediately and a very high priority repair before continued used. Repairing the glass and re-gel coating the hull is going to be a couple grand and maybe more depending on your area. In my area shops would typically charge about $2K for the gel work and anywhere between $500 - $800 for a repair that the boat has to be taken off the trailer to repair.

If the bottom looks like this I bet the trailer is a mess as well. I'd look real close at the brakes and areas that have seen damage from storage or arias that need paint work. Same goes for the engine and trans. Ask about oil changes and trans fluid changes and receipts for the work as I'd bet the minimum has been done here as well.

All this said just about any boat can be a deal for the right price. On this one I would subtract $3K off the price of a mint boat and based on the condition I believe the trailer will be in take off another grand. Lastly, you're always going to be better off buying a mint boat over a project unless you're looking for hobby or are very good at doing all the required repairs. Best of luck in your quest......

[hal2814]

I wouldn’t be too worried about the hull scratches personally. It’s an 18 year old boat. I’m not surprised someone started beaching it. That gouge on the spine is a little concerning. I’d probably fill it and put a keel guard on the boat if I bought it. I wouldn’t pay top dollar for the boat though. I think the comments on pricing above are about right. Customary in your area minus $2k-$3k.

From a hull perspective, the Sport Nautique, Air Nautique, Super Sport Nautique, and Super Air Nautique all shared the same hull for some time. There’s a great thread on it here: https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...at-differences

That hull is decent at skiing, amazing at wakeboarding for its age, and can surf. The ski wake will be fine with a little weight up front. The wakeboard wake is a legend. Just get as close as you can to sinking the boat with a 60/40 rear-to-front ballast ratio and it’ll make the steep vertical ramp Nautiques are known for. To surf it needs a LOT of ballast and even then will have a short pocket. In my experience it’ll surf a lot better listed than with a surf gate. People make a big deal of v-drive vs direct when it comes to wakeboarding and surfing but the engine and transmission weigh a combined 600lbs. As long as you account for it when you’re placing ballast you’ll be fine. The biggest thing you give up in a direct drive is seating. The ballast will need to go where the seats are. You’ll need to get creative if you have a larger crew.

Keep in mind that stock ballast won’t get you there for surfing. It’ll be fine for skiing and marginal for wakeboarding. Ideally you can run about 3,000lbs for wakeboarding and surfing. That’s not going to be cheap so budget accordingly.

[Luebowski]

Do you have any pics of the interior? This is one area I find really expensive with my 15 year old boat.
I have some damage to the hull from previous owner beaching but I just live with it, can't see it in the water anyway.

You can do a lot with the 2001 hull, what will your % split between wakeboard/ski/surf?

[KookOfTheDay]

bturner, hal2814 and luebowski thanks a ton for the input. Due to the hull damage and a few trailer issues, I have decided not to go with the before mentioned nautique. The search continues. I’ll be using the boat primarily on lake Amistad in west Texas and I think our split between skiing, boarding and surfing will probably be pretty even considering my wife and I are relatively new to water sports. The boat will be used to get out with friends on the weekends and just have fun on the lake.

From the research I have done and from what hal2814 said, it seems that a V drive boat will be a much better route for us, especially if we plan to have friends with us majority of the time. We don’t want to invest a bunch of money into ballast.

I recently came across another boat, not a nautique unfortunately. This one is a 2001 Mastercraft X-Star and is immaculate. I think this or a similar year V drive Nautique will be better suited for what we will be doing.

[hyperlitep]

Hull looks like that not from beaching but because of steep ramp loading. Notice the keel roller is destroyed.

[WakeUT]

I think the old 210 is the best wakeboard wake you can get in that budget range. I like it a lot better than the GS20 we demoed. Not the greatest ski wake though

[bturner]

bturner, hal2814 and luebowski thanks a ton for the input. Due to the hull damage and a few trailer issues, I have decided not to go with the before mentioned nautique. The search continues. I’ll be using the boat primarily on lake Amistad in west Texas and I think our split between skiing, boarding and surfing will probably be pretty even considering my wife and I are relatively new to water sports. The boat will be used to get out with friends on the weekends and just have fun on the lake.

From the research I have done and from what hal2814 said, it seems that a V drive boat will be a much better route for us, especially if we plan to have friends with us majority of the time. We don’t want to invest a bunch of money into ballast.

I recently came across another boat, not a Nautique unfortunately. This one is a 2001 MasterCraft X-Star and is immaculate. I think this or a similar year V drive Nautique will be better suited for what we will be doing.

I've owned several MasterCrafts and actually the current Nautique is the first I've owned. I also owned a 2003 X Star but only had it a year before the wife wanted something else. The X Star like any other crossover boat will do somethings really good and some not so good. Skiing and wakeboarding will be it's strong suites, surfing will be challenging. It is basically a ProStar 205 with the engine moved to the back for a vDrive configuration. You will have more room in the boat and a ton more storage but it is a very narrow boat and something about the way the windshield lays back made it possible for the passenger to hit their head against it if you were not watching during stops. This happened twice to the wife and the boat was history. If it's a true X-Star it'll have hard tanks that most people remove and replace with bags. Not sure if that year had a manifold ballast system but it would be close. This is another area owners typically upgrade by deleting the manifold and converting over to a reversible pump system like on the current boats.

Other things to watch out for on this year range (2000 - 2004)....

Gauges - They started using a CAN bus system from Medallion that was absolutely junk.I had intermittent gauge issues and fought with the system the entire time I owned it. After a full season of struggling with this system I had it working about 80% - 90% of the time. If you go to their forum you'll see a lengthily thread on how to remove the gauge package and replace the entire gauge system. Nautique had similar gauge issues so no one is clean here but it's just something to be very aware of and a bargaining tool when looking at the boat.

Interior - MasterCraft had horrible vinyl from about 2000 - 2004 due in part to federal regulations on the vinyl production and I'm told the way they were stitching the material. The problem manifested itself buy splitting the seams anywhere there was direct sunlight or foot traffic. It's very rare to find a boat that either the interior hasn't been replaced or needs to be.

Trailer Brakes - In late 99 MC went away from UFP for it's trailer components and went with a company called Reliable. They ran this system all the way up until about 2008 and finally moved away from this system after an outcry for their customers. Reliable actually made some great trailers and components for commercial trailers but their venture into marine components was a disaster which would end up putting their marine component group out of business. Their actuator design wasn't horrible but they had issued sealing the reservoir which in turn would allow moisture/water into the system which would then rust/pit the internal components making the entire system junk in just a couple years. They also suffered from hanging calipers that would burn out bearings and on the early model trailers they used plastic caps on the oil bath hubs that would crack and allow all the oil to leak out and again burn out a bearing. I fixed the system on my 03 and then again on my 07 X2. On the 03 Reliable actually sent me a new actuator and calipers for free. Not sure how long it stayed fixed as I sold the boat the following year. I struggled keeping the system working on the 07 for about 8 years but finally ended up converting the actuator over to a UFP system. If you do a search you'll easily find a retro fit system is made for the Reliable system which should tell you something.

Past the above to look out for it's a very solid boat. It should have the New Dimensions tower which I always liked.

.

[Cadesun]

If you can find a super sport/early super air you will be very pleased with the wakeboarding and surfing. I still prefer my old super sport’s wakeboarding wake to my newer 210. We surfed the old super sport with a 600 in the ski locker and 2 400s in the back and just shifted people to the side we were surfing. A surf wedge will help the wave length dramatically.

[KookOfTheDay]

Awesome thanks for all of the input guys. I think I’ll check out this x-star but if it’s anything short of mint I’ll probably pass and keep my eyes peeled for a Super Air. It sounds like that will really be the perfect boat for us.

[bturner]

Yeah, if I were doing an all purpose early 2000s MasterCraft I'd be looking for a X version of a MairStar. Wider, deeper and more comfortable. You would give up some on the slalom though.

[KookOfTheDay]

Yeah, if I were doing an all purpose early 2000s MasterCraft I'd be looking for a X version of a MairStar. Wider, deeper and more comfortable. You would give up some on the slalom though.

And the MairStar compared to a Super Air for all purpose?

[bturner]

They're both really good boats. On any given day one could be better than the other for a specific purpose. Really hard to go wrong with either. I've had boats from both companies and there are things I like better than one over the other in different areas. Right now I'm love'n on my Nautique but I've had some really nice MasterCrafts as well. The best thing you can do is look at both and see what you think.

I will say those SANs have been around for a long time and if I were looking for a crossover I'd probably go SAN over an older ProStar 205V or X-Star, but that's me. Not sure which direction I would go with an older MariStar X10 though.It would depend on the boat.