The Mid-Life Crisis (2009 Nautique 216V)

[briany]

We are loving our new 216V! We bought it this past November as carryover stock from our dealer, and had to wait impatiently for months before we could put her in the water. It is our first Nautique, and we are thrilled we took the plunge! We both grew up skiing, and took up wakeboarding behind an I/O in recent years. We are still learning the basics, so this boat pushes our limits all we need. We really wanted a boat that would allow us to continue recreational slalom skiing, and the 216V fit the bill perfectly.

My only question to the forum is what do you think about the absence of graphics on the side? I love the clean look, but my wife seems to be wanting the diamond graphic added. In the end, she'll get what she wants, but I was wondering what other objective minds thought on the matter. As it is, we get long stares every time we pull into the marina. It is fun to finally have a boat that I know others wish they had! It is like a piece of art (except it can pull my 225# frame out of the hole without any effort!)

Thanks for your thoughts, and I appreciate much of the information I have gleaned from forum members. Also, I would be interested if anyone with real world experience with the 216V could recommend some ballast options to augment the factory ballast for boarding and surfing.

Best regards,
Brian

[surroundsound64]

That looks sweet. Buy her a diamond necklace and leave the boat as is! Ha!!!

[bchesley]

ditto ^^^^^

[chris196]

boat looks good the way it is.
I personally think graphics have gone overboard.
That boat will still look like new in 10 years if cared for. With graphics, not so much.

[cedarcreek216]

We also have an 09 216V and have been real happy with it. We are also older and love to do all three sports, surf, ski and wakeboard. This boat does all pretty well. For wakeboarding the most extra ballast we've ever had on board is all three stock full, a 75o across the rear seat and two 150 # fat sac bricks in the bow. Made a great wake and the very advanced rider was real happy with it. For surfing we fill port side full, belly 3/4 full, 750 bag in the walk through and the two 150# sacs in the port side bow. We line all the passengers the length of the port side to get a pretty good and long wave. Not near some of the waves I've seen posted on here, but we're not putting that much weight so we're happy.

[briany]

Thanks for the input. I'm glad I'm not "outvoted" on the simple and elegant look of Air Nautique without a lot of clutter! I grew up dreaming of a Cobalt (I'm a Kansas boy, and they are Kansas made), so I've always liked understated elegance. The boat should speak for itself! That said, the 230 graphics are amazing and I love the looks of many of the other boats I've seen posted here. The naked look just seems to have an individuality in and of itself.

As for the ballast, I have ordered a 250 for each rear locker and a 155 brick for starters. I wanted to ride with that setup for a while and then add as needed. Probably a second brick, a 300 for the ski locker and a 400-750 for the rear seat to use when my wife and I want to surf but are without a crew. We are not hard core anything, just trying to learn new things and have fun!

[cedarcreek216]

You should be okay to surf with that set up. We have a 2009 Ronix Stage surfer and it's a long, slow board so we need a little bit bigger wave than most. I'm just glad to see another 216V on this forum, it seems I've been the only one around here with one and was wondering if we ever decided to sell it if anyone would have any interest since it's not a 210 or a 230.

[briany]

Yeah, I've been a little dumbstruck by the absence of a larger presence of 216V owners, as I've been lurking on the forum for a while. I just supposed most owners are too busy enjoying these wonderful boats to have time to post on the forum! I cannot imagine selling the boat soon, after all, I just bought her; however, to me the versatility is a strong marketing point. That is why we bought her, and I have not been disappointed. Slalom - check. Boarding - check. Surfing - check. Tubing - well, we won't go there!

If we just wanted to surf and board, then we would have ponied up for the 220 or 230, but we wanted it all, and knowing that my boat is a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none is fine by me. It does everything I need it to for our family, and it has everything we need to push our skills (or lack thereof) as far as we will need. I've clocked 30 hours so far this summer and will probably put another 60 on before fall. I bought this boat to use it, not just to tie up in the cove and look pretty