GS 24 questions and is this a good deal...

[Hrlandry]

I have been stalking this site and cannot say thank you enough for all the knowledge and advise everyone shares.

We have a 40 ft cruiser we have been staying on the lake with for the last two years. We made the jump to lake house owners and wanted to get a nice boat that can do everything. After a lot of research, settled on a nautique. We were really considering the G23 but given garage door height and also that this is our FIRST real watersports boat, we landed on the GS series. Our friends bought a demo 2018 GS 24 and we have had fun with that. Kids ages 11 and 8, just starting to wakeboard and plan on learning to ski, tube, surf etc. Thoughts on this? We also live on huge lake and water can get rough during the weekend days, would we be able to get around town with this boat if we didn't want to get the cruiser out?

With all of this going on, we were talking to a friend who had an uncle who had the exact same boat that he was thinking of selling. He bought the 2018 GS 24 new and only put 8 hours on it. He is willing to sell it for $97K with the trailer included and a 6 seater banana boat

Will the G24 on the trailer and tower down fit thru 8 foot garage door? I saw a post about a GS20 fitting in a 7ft garage so thinking this will not be a problem.

i know this GS 24 is sort of a black hole on this site so having trouble confirming this is a good price even in this crazy climate of boat selling.

thank you in advance.

[Luebowski]

For reference, I see 2 GS24's on Onlyinboards for $92K and $93K, both pretty low hours. I will let others chime in on the aspects of the GS24...

[gonefishin5555]

The GS-22 handles the wind slop just fine. I'm sure you would be happy with the 24. The price you might want to look at the build sheet that the buyer got from the dealer and see what the extras are on it. I wouldnt say its a great price cause they are now selling 2021s so in a way its a 3 year old boat so maybe go back to him at 90K. Its not that easy to find a private party buyer on a 100K boat oh wait Covid-19 and people have lost their minds.

[azgeez]

GS is what brought me to Nautique initially. We loved our 2018 and logged about 200 surf hours behind it. It took quite a bit of time dialing in the wave to be what we wanted though. To give you an idea, on top of the factory ballast we had 750lbs bags in both lockers (full) and would run between 300 and 800lbs of lead depending on the size of crew we had out. You can build a great wave behind it, but for the younger/smaller kids, some configuration of the factory ballast and bags should work great - meaning you shouldn't need to add lead weight to get a good, rideable wave for everyone. I'm 6'0 and, depending on what the weekend was like, between 215 and 225 and never really struggled to surf behind it. In addition to surfing we spent quite a bit of time wakeboarding, tubing, and just hanging out - the GS24 is a very good multisport/use boat, in my opinion.

If you're considering the G, it's just a different boat all together.

Things we loved about the GS:

- Driveability - was super responsive, easy to get around the lake, in and out of marinas, etc. even at its length
- Ability to build great waves and wakes
- Great for pulling tubes too, I don't see this talked about much (maybe for good reasons), but with kids of all ages and abilities, we spent some real time pulling tubes, and it's a different experience than pulling behind the G.
- Space - I have three teenagers so we typically had a bigger group with us and having the additional seating was nice
- Transom seats. These are a crowd pleaser

Things we didn't like:

- out of the box wave was good, but not great
- with all the weight we added we had to reprop; also note that we had the H6 engine; which would now be the ZZ6 - which I think is a must on this boat
- low freeboard means lots of spray on windy days. Got caught in on Powell with 25mph winds blowing and whitecaps and I was nervous as ****.
- lack of good storage space - bags in rear lockers and coolers in under seat compartments robbed quite a bit of storage

As for the price, without knowing how it's optioned, it would be hard to say. We just saw a 2018 optioned like ours (just about every available option from 18) go for over $110K.

[jjackkrash]

Its not that easy to find a private party buyer on a 100K boat oh wait Covid-19 and people have lost their minds.

Yup.

It is really hard to say what a "good deal" or "fair price" is on a boat if you want one right now. There's just the "market price" and that price is generally higher than normal, assuming you can find the boat you want at all.

[MBarker]

There are a lot of good comments on here. Few things to consider:

1) The hull on the GS24 was changed in 2019 and it appears again for 2021. Those changes were to improve the surf wave.
2) There are not that many GS24 owners on PN. There appear to be a lot more GS22 owners. Their comments are still very applicable, but you may not get many specific comments from GS24 owners.
3) From the OP's original comments, it appears a GS24 may meet your needs. If you intend to mostly surf and wakeboard, the G would likely serve you better. I'm new to water sports so I am just learning about my GS24's capabilities. For our 3 kids (under age 13) the surf wave has been great. Time will tell how well it meets future needs.
4) Most importantly, water test the boats you are interested in, and see if they meet your needs. That should include the activities you plan to do. For surfing, the GS likes a little weight added, but from what I can tell on this forum, they all do. But Nautique's produce a good wave from the factory.

[Mike B]

I’ve got a 2019 GS24 and after a few kinks and sometime to get used to it, we are really enjoying the boat. We had a Monterey 234SS and did a lot of skiing and tubing and wanted to move into the surfing and wakeboarding. I wasn’t ready to give up skiing, as I really didn’t understand the surfing aspect of it. We have a family of 4 (14 and 20) and at least last year, always had a guests at our cottage and have yet to get to the number that was uncomfortable. This boat is amazingly sensitive to weight dispersion when cruising or skiing. The GS24 has plenty of people space more torque than I we ever thought about (the Monterey was good) for tow sports. You will find that you have to accelerate slowly when pulling the younger kids, as they won’t have the strength to hold on. We got the ProBallast, so storage of skis requires that we removed a cooler and the garbage can on the starboard side. As for the chop, it is a different type of boat, if you aren’t surfing or wakeboarding, this boat wants to get on top of the water and “skates” along the waves. I will say that I am still getting used to it after two years and 120 hours. There will be the occasional splash. Overall we really enjoy the boat, it isn’t quit as plush as our Monterey was and doesn’t handle the chop quit as well, but it is a much more fun boat.