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Hi all,
I’m a relatively new poster on PN, but have trolled here for a while, researching before we bought our last Nautique, and for some assistance after.
When I was growing up we always had outboards. Summers in Western Canada are relatively short, but we made the most of them. We used to put the boat in the lake within a week of the ice being gone (~2nd week of May) and pull it out when it started getting close to the freezing mark around the first or second week of October. It was getting time for a new boat a few years ago, but we were forced when we had some motor issues that we had issues tracing without major investment. We couldn’t complain, as the hourmeter on the boat showed about 2400 hours and we bought it new.
Today, I have a young family with three boys ranging from 1-7. I also have a few nieces in the same age range. The kids aren’t sure what they want to do, so we needed something that could be a jack of all trades – ski/board..even tube. We have a cabin at the lake, and draft is an issue. Our needs for a boat are a bit different than a lot – our lake is small. We leave the dock for a ski or board run and get dropped off back at the dock again. Our lake is about 1.5 miles long by about a mile wide. We rarely spend much more than a couple of hours at a time on the boat.
I knew the day was coming where we needed to find a new boat and I was looking forward to it. I researched and researched for probably close to 2 years. For our needs, we didn’t need a huge boat. I still like to ski and board. I was quite set on finding a nice and newer MC X1. I found a nice one and went out to take a look at it. It was smaller than even I felt we could deal with and started searching again and opened my search to a Bu VLX, Supreme 212, a Moomba Outback V, and a Nautique 211. They all had to be in the 2003-2008 age range as that was our budget and for how short the summers are, you can find a number of boats up here with 200ish hours on them in that vintage.
First boat we took a good look at was a Nautique 226. Big boat, had a ZR6, which was nice, but seemed tough to get the wake dialed. Stole a few rides behind some neighbours at the lake with a Moomba and a Supreme. I know they have a reputation as being “cheaper”, but in all honesty, for our needs, no issues.
As a bit of a surprise, I found a Nautique 211 in fall. Fella didn’t want to store it and he was only 5 miles away from me. Boat ended up being in really good shape, but was missing a few things I wish it had. Price was right though, boat was super clean and the money allowed me some upgrades. So, end of 2018, we end up with a 04 SV211. Boat has an Excalibur 330 in it and no ballast, but previous owner spent some money on bags and audio. Boat travels on a single axle Ramlin, which I sort of hoped would have been a tandem, but we don’t tow very much/far and it’s made it this many years without issue.
Before taking it out to the water, I find the boat came with a 380 prop. After doing some research, I found an excellent condition 644 here on PN at a great price in the classifieds. Get the prop figure out it’s keyed. Didn’t have a 3 or 4 jaw puller that I felt comfortable with, so built my own puller at with on the CNC.
Get the boat on the water, find we are missing a speed reading on the Perfect Pass. Luckily for me, previous owner had issues with the gateway box and had to do a full gauge upgrade with included PP Stargazer. Right off the bat, found a dead antenna. Dealer who completed the work was awesome and swapped it out without issue and we’re back in business.
I’ve had some trouble finding information at times while doing a few things on the boat and thought it would be worthwhile to start a thread that may help others out. I’ll detail some of the work I’ve done to the boat over the past year and for the next few months.
I’m a relatively new poster on PN, but have trolled here for a while, researching before we bought our last Nautique, and for some assistance after.
When I was growing up we always had outboards. Summers in Western Canada are relatively short, but we made the most of them. We used to put the boat in the lake within a week of the ice being gone (~2nd week of May) and pull it out when it started getting close to the freezing mark around the first or second week of October. It was getting time for a new boat a few years ago, but we were forced when we had some motor issues that we had issues tracing without major investment. We couldn’t complain, as the hourmeter on the boat showed about 2400 hours and we bought it new.
Today, I have a young family with three boys ranging from 1-7. I also have a few nieces in the same age range. The kids aren’t sure what they want to do, so we needed something that could be a jack of all trades – ski/board..even tube. We have a cabin at the lake, and draft is an issue. Our needs for a boat are a bit different than a lot – our lake is small. We leave the dock for a ski or board run and get dropped off back at the dock again. Our lake is about 1.5 miles long by about a mile wide. We rarely spend much more than a couple of hours at a time on the boat.
I knew the day was coming where we needed to find a new boat and I was looking forward to it. I researched and researched for probably close to 2 years. For our needs, we didn’t need a huge boat. I still like to ski and board. I was quite set on finding a nice and newer MC X1. I found a nice one and went out to take a look at it. It was smaller than even I felt we could deal with and started searching again and opened my search to a Bu VLX, Supreme 212, a Moomba Outback V, and a Nautique 211. They all had to be in the 2003-2008 age range as that was our budget and for how short the summers are, you can find a number of boats up here with 200ish hours on them in that vintage.
First boat we took a good look at was a Nautique 226. Big boat, had a ZR6, which was nice, but seemed tough to get the wake dialed. Stole a few rides behind some neighbours at the lake with a Moomba and a Supreme. I know they have a reputation as being “cheaper”, but in all honesty, for our needs, no issues.
As a bit of a surprise, I found a Nautique 211 in fall. Fella didn’t want to store it and he was only 5 miles away from me. Boat ended up being in really good shape, but was missing a few things I wish it had. Price was right though, boat was super clean and the money allowed me some upgrades. So, end of 2018, we end up with a 04 SV211. Boat has an Excalibur 330 in it and no ballast, but previous owner spent some money on bags and audio. Boat travels on a single axle Ramlin, which I sort of hoped would have been a tandem, but we don’t tow very much/far and it’s made it this many years without issue.
Before taking it out to the water, I find the boat came with a 380 prop. After doing some research, I found an excellent condition 644 here on PN at a great price in the classifieds. Get the prop figure out it’s keyed. Didn’t have a 3 or 4 jaw puller that I felt comfortable with, so built my own puller at with on the CNC.
Get the boat on the water, find we are missing a speed reading on the Perfect Pass. Luckily for me, previous owner had issues with the gateway box and had to do a full gauge upgrade with included PP Stargazer. Right off the bat, found a dead antenna. Dealer who completed the work was awesome and swapped it out without issue and we’re back in business.
I’ve had some trouble finding information at times while doing a few things on the boat and thought it would be worthwhile to start a thread that may help others out. I’ll detail some of the work I’ve done to the boat over the past year and for the next few months.
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