Strapless board racks

[xrichard]

I'm looking at buying a 2023 G23 and am wondering if I should get the strapless board racks. In the past, I've had the standard racks and thought they were fine.

It looks like the biggest advantages of strapless are 1. Water doesn't drip inside the boat, 2. if one rack has both a surfboard and a wakeboard in it, the wakeboard is still held firmly in place.

On the downside, I'm concerned about 1. Visibility with the strapless and 2. I'm not sure that they're worth the cost given the standard racks work fine.

What are your thoughts re: pros/cons?

[BasaltRMK]

Lots of strong opinions on this, but I’m a big fan. Love ’em, wouldn’t go back to the standard racks. Easy in, easy out, and hold all shapes and sizes. No problem with visibility.

- bob

[vision]

As Bob indicated (BasaltRMK), many opinions regarding these racks. I do not like them for a few reasons.

- I do find that they obstruct my view
- I find the mechanism clumsy
- Not a fan of the looks
- Not worth the extra cost.

For wakeboards, the PTM clamping racks are perfect. But I am not sure they still make them for the Nautique towers and I would not use the PTM style for surf boards.


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[SANonTellico]

I agree with BasaltRMK, I wouldn’t go back to the standard racks either. It’s a pretty expensive option but everything fits in them (some of my surf style boards didn’t fit in the racks on my previous Nautique) and they’re easy to use. On chilly days, everyone is happy that water isn’t running onto them.

[bturner]

Had them on 2 of my MasterCrafts and really missed them when I switched to Nautique. Not only did the look good (to each his own on this one) but they actually worked really well. I never had an issue with any of my boards but then again I never bought any of the custom "china doll" boards that are out there. I get that there's a segment that love these boards that need to be handled very carefully so to each his own on this as well. Lastly, I'm sorry but the bungie cord racks are not befitting of a boat that is $100K+ IMO. In this price range I would just expect more.

So there are racks I could buy but geez the price is just nuts for me. By the time you're all in at best you'll be close to $4K for the Roswell's and somewhere between $4.5K to $5K by the time they're at your door step for the PTM's. I know there's a ton of big buck guys here but for anyone with a 5 or 6 YO boat that's a ton of jack to spend on an upgrade. Maybe if I could find some used ones in the $3K range but even then.....

[99bison]

Agree with basaltrmk as well, severely dislike the old school style bungee racks. Nothing on the cost of these wake boats is rational, nothing different with the racks .

[charlesml3]

On that boat, they aren't really a huge visibility problem. The problem was on the 2019 G21. In 2019, the power tower was not optional. It came with the boat. The tower base was big, combine that with strapless racks with boards and a shorter boat... It felt like you were driving in a box. It was really my least favorite G back then.

-Charles

[aerojust]

Love the strapless racks. They do obstruct the vision some when pulling wake boarders or tubers, but not sure it would be any different with the normal style rack.

[xrichard]

I ended up going with the strapless racks--though I think either option would work well as I was happy with the standard racks on my 2015. Overall, strapless seems a bit more functional but at a steep price.