Considering a GS-20

[nenautique]

I am a long-term Malibu owner. I currently have a 2011 VTX which I heavily customized over time so that it now surfs decently. I am thinking about shifting to Nautique - a GS-20. I am looking for informed opinions and people I can ask specific questions to get more educated about Nautique offerings. So far I find that the people I can speak to at dealerships don't really know all that much about the deep details of the boats, the details of how service is done, and the tradeoffs for each watersport.

Just give a little background to understand what I am looking for:

We do lots of watersports: Wakeboarding, Wake Surfing, Slalom Skiing, some tubing (I have to admit), some foiling, and very limited cruising. We typically put ~100hours/year on the engine and we don't do much cruising so most of these hours are towing someone.

In our crew we have a range of levels for each area (including taking lots of newbies out):

- Slalom Skiing - from beginners to consistent 32 off (on very good days possibly 35 off)
- Wakeboarding - beginners to consistent spins, very limited inverts
- Wake Surfing - beginners to novices (mostly regular, a few goofy foot surfers)
- The odd two planker from time to time.

We have a place on a small lake near home and keep our boat on a lift all season.

My wife and I use dry suits to extend our season so we try to go from late March to late October (I installed an electric heater on the heater core and use a bilge heater to prevent freeze damage in the early and late season).

I do most-to-all of the boat maintenance myself and will plan to continue to do so.

With all that preamble out of the way: what can you all tell me about the recent model year GS-20's? How do they do at these watersports? How are they to service and winterize? With them now being close cycle cooled, is it easy to drain the heat exchanger - might I no longer need the heaters? Is there another model I should be considering?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[nukemustang]

The biggest factor in going for a GS series is probably how many people will you take with you regularly? Most of the time, it is my wife, me and then sometimes another couple and maybe a couple kids with them. This is fine size wise, but if we regularly took a crew of 5-6 or even more, a GS22 or 24 would be much better for that. I have been able to do all 4 water sports behind the boat, and it is okay to good at all of them, but not spectacular at any one, some will even tell you it is only a recreational slalom boat. I came from a nautique SV-211, so I knew what I was getting and I am willing to accept that as I will never be a professional wakeboarder/surfer or slalom skier. I love that I can take people (another couple and their kids), there is room for the day, we can wakeboard, we can surf and pull tubes with kids and at the end it fits in my "regular" size garage. This is on my 18, I am not sure what hull changes have occurred in the past 4 years, but I can only see it getting better/more refined and tuned for wake sports.

For wake boarding, I have found the wake to be slightly wider at the same rope lengths than I was used to on the SV211, so to compensate, I just ride 5 ft shorter. I attribute this to the wider beam?

For surfing, the boat seems to like to have even weight and I can tell when we start to run into shallowed water (<10-12 ft) as the wake starts to mellow out and losses push.

For skiing, there is a pretty decent documented HARD bump at about the 28-32' off (at least on the 17/18 years) but I am not running the course behind it.

As for maintenance, the manuals for doing all the maintenance are at the top of the page under manuals. If you did your own maintenance on the Malibu, there will be little difference in doing it on the PCM powerplant. I have changed the impeller, winterized it, drained the block, changed the oil and filters and have only run into a couple sweird issues. The drain tube I had to extend using clear tubing to get out of the bottom of the boat. One if the ballast impellers you have to move the pump to swap, and pulling the raw water pump off to swap impeller is a little strange, but nothing impossible to complete. There is a lot of room in the rear lockers and the panels being removed give great access to the motor.

[nenautique]

Thanks for the information. I am trying to download the 2022 Manual but it isn't working.

I am particularly interested in the winterizing procedures for these closed cycle cooled PCM engines they are using now. With our local very cold climate, it is critical that I get it all correct.

[bturner]

Youtube is your friend when it comes to most all of your questions. A quick search of Nautique GS20 generated pages of results. While many of these are not 2022 specific the hull and engine options have been around for several years and a generic search such as this would certainly provide a good look into how the boat performs for various water activities. In general it's a crossover boat marketed to families. Any of the newer boats from any top manufacture such as the GS20 are going to be a significant upgrade from your 2011. Can you ski it? Sure, but boat weighing 4500lbs dry is not going to ski like a Ski Nautique or a ProStar or for that matter like your VTX especially if you have the Diamond hull. Can you surf it? Sure, and it will absolutely be way better than your VTX but it won't surf like a 6400lb G25 or a Paragon. Such is the plight of a crossover boat.

Winterization and general maintenance items are going to be the same for the engine package across the line up or at close enough for someone with your stated mechanical background. This is after all a PCM power package and not something created by Nautique for that specific boat. Having worked quite a bit on MCs and Malibu's my quick observation is pretty much what you would expect, somethings are easier, some more involved. I personally like the way the water pump impeller is serviced but the fuel system is certainly more involved than either of the older MCs or Malibu's that I've worked on and from what I can see they have been that way for quite some time. Any of the newer hybrid cooling system are about the same. Keep to the maintenance schedule on the close cooling section and follow the rather good and simple process for draining the freshwater side as outlined in the owner's manual and you'll be fine. I believe they're even color coded now which is good as long as you're not colorblind. I've personally found these systems much simpler to winterize.

[nenautique]

Thank you.

It sounds like I will like:

The Surf wake
The Wakeboard wake
The winterizing

It sounds like I will need to see how the ski wake is - I would not buy a boat like this without doing an audition in any case.


It sounds like I will find some things to be more difficult:

Fuel system maintenance
Changing the impeller in comparison to my current VTX (the new Malibu engines look to be terrible in this regard but my current Indmar Monsoon setup is very easy to do this on)
Possibly the oil change (again I will have to look at the detailed layout with regards to access).


A few more detailed questions:

How difficult is it to change the cap and rotor on these engines?

In my current boat I have added significant ballast upgrades (custom-fit stern bags and a large bow bag all on reversible pumps - so now the total if all is full is 3100lbs). Is it likely that I will need to add stern and bow bags on this boat to get a "very good" surf wake (when compared with my slamed VTX)?

I have had to replace the touch screen on my VTX, how reliable are the screens on these Nautiques? Is it common to need to replace these screens after a number of years?

I have had to replace the actuators on my "Power Wedge" wake shaping device. How reliable are the actuators on the NSS wake shaper system? Is replacing these actuators a common issue after a number of years? Same question for the actuator on the trim tab plate on the bottom of the stern.

[nukemustang]

No cap or rotor, it has coil packs on it for spark, like a chevy LS motor. https://www.planetnautique.com/Corre...18/18477ti.pdf this manual is what I use to find a lot of the maintenance info.

[bturner]

Most models have options to add above the standard in floor ballast with names like the "pro ballast" so if you feel you're a "pro" level rider there is that option but even then this will not be enough for some. Adding ballast past the manufactures options to any of these boats is a personal preference. I look at it much like changing the wheels/tires, the air intake system or adding a catch can on a modern sports car these days. Will you get more performance out of these updates? Sure, maybe, sometimes but sometimes you'll screw something up or make the car less reliable. Ballast systems in current boats should suffice most but there will always be people that will demand more and will swear by the results. Search the posts here and you'll see people adding lead to G23s and Paragons. Do you need it? I guess it depends on personal preference but I would probably say no. If you can't pull your move off with a fully optioned G23 or Paragon you may want to search somewhere else or as the saying goes "don't blame the bow, blame the Indian".

Reliability wise Nautiques are without a doubt one of the premiere boats on the market. By most any measure they are as close to a hand built custom boat as you're going to get that the masses can afford, or could before the pandemic anyway. At the end of the day though the components they use, for the most part are sourced from the open market which all manufactures pull parts from. Actuators from Lenco, screens from Murphy, hardware from the likes of Perko or Attwood or bigger systems like power packages coming from PCM. All are going to have similar MTBF ratings with the only wild card being as to how they might have been engineered into the environment they were placed.

One difference I have noticed personally about Nautique is parts availability which for me has been exceptional. Nautique Parts stocks a lot of parts for older boats and is easy to work with. If you have a newer boat you can even order interior parts like seats or options that didn't come on your boat that you may want to add later. C&S marine has patterns for older boat interiors and since they outsource their towers to Roswell many times you can get parts or tower upgrades directly from them.

Not to knock Malibu as they do very well in the market they serve but of the boats I've owned from the big 3 both MC and Nautique have be a step above overall on fit/finish, materials and build quality. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying here as they are a far step above some of the other so called top tier boats but of those 3, the Malibu's I've worked on have been a bit of a disappointment in the areas you don't see. If you've been in boating for some time and turned a wrench a bit it doesn't take much looking in places like under the dash to spot the differences. But then again to each their own. If I were looking for another boat tomorrow barring a screaming deal, there are only 2 places I'd personally be looking especially in the used market where quality tends to make a difference after the warranty has expired.

[nenautique]

Thank everyone for these very thoughtful comments.

Is it clear why PCM calls for such frequent maintenance of the fuel system and the impeller?

None of my previous boats recommended changing both fuel filters every 50 hours and, while I change my impeller each year, Indmar only recommends it every two years. If I am to stick to this every 50 hours interval, I will need to do these items 2x every season. Is this how often people who run 100 hours per year really do these service items?