New guy in Arizona 1996 Ski Nautique

[AZDave]

**EDIT TO THE SUBJECT LINE** This is a 1998 not a 1996.

Hello all, figured I would introduce myself and ask a few questions.

Intro, I've never owned a boat other than a pontoon. I still own the pontoon which is great for big family gatherings and we do have a big family. The wife and I wanted somethgin for water sports but on a normal people "cash payment" so we were looking at older boats that we could afford. I'll be honest here, I was mainly looking at Malibus due to the availability and cost. Once I found out that the old Correct Crafts were the best of the best I found I just couldn't afford them on my small budget. So I let it go. After looking for a little over a month we actually got lucky on this one and ended up with a 1998 Ski Nautique. I'll throw in a picture or two.






Now, I was looking at the forum and I don't know where to post these general simple questions that I should probably know but I honeslty didn't think I would own a Correct Craft boat so I didn't do as much research as I did on others.

Questions:

1. What model is this boat? Are there numbers like the Ski Nautique 196 or 210, etc? I just want that for search purposes so I don't see stuff from every Nautique around in all years.

2. The entire bottom of the boat isn't carpeted. Parts are and parts aren't. It's not rough like carpet was pulled, it looks like there is a gel coat or something over the blank spots. I would like carpet throughout or something that just looks more complete. The engine cover and in front and behind it are covered in carpet but the sides aren't. Suggestions that don't cost a fortune would be great.



3. What is it supposed to look like in the drivers kick area. Mine is just open all the way to the bow (closed bow). Feels like it should be closed off but maybe not?



I'll keep it to this for now but I'm going to have questions for sure. This is all new to me. Exciting for sure.

Thanks for having me, Dave

[MTRBTR]

So yours is just considered a “Ski Nautique”. No other model numbers in 1996. In the early 2000s they started using the model numbers. I like your boat it looks pretty clean. You should go check out Nautiqueparts.com. Great resource. As far as your floor they will sell the carpet you need. If you do some research you may be able to find some gray marine carpet that matches your original too. It’s not hard to put in, especially with your nice clean floor. Just glue it down and trim and tuck. Carpet is probably a few hundred dollars. If you didn’t want to glue it down you could maybe have some carpet “edged” and make it a snap in style since you have a gel coated floor. You could easily make one if you are handy. The gel coated floor is not original but it gives you more options. Someone may suggest Seadek too but it’s not cheap. I am not sure if that model had a kick plate underneath or not. If it did it would not be hard to make with a piece of wood covered with carpet.

[AZDave]

Thanks MTRBTR! It's actually a 1998 not a 1996, I keep confusing it with others we recently looked at. It's been a process with such a small budget. My wife doesn't seem bothered by the floor so it'll probably stay that way for a bit.

We are pretty handy so I might figure out a snap in option or even wide strips of seadek type material up the edges and leave the center more open because the floor doesn't look bad. It just looks unfinished to me so I want to do something.

Thanks for the info!

[jjackkrash]

A 1996 Ski Nautique is a decent older ski boat. You boat was introduced in the 1997 model year and is known in the waterski world as a "Bubble Butt" Ski Nautique. It is still considered by many to be one of the best 3-event waterski boats ever built. Great driving, great tracking, great slalom wake, great trick table, and plenty of torque to pull jumpers. No gimmicks, no BS, just one superbly designed ski tractor. Enjoy.

[mpost]

Wondering if your doghouse has been moved? On my 98 the little plastic piece I have circled in the picture is on the inside of the doghouse for the hold downs for the lower part of the cover. Also the ski pylon has almost no space between it and the carpet on the doghouse.
Under the dash for the driver it looks like some of the Fiberglass has been removed. In mine there is a carpeted kickplate that mounts to the a fiberglass part that I do not see in yours. . Mine also had a divider between the observers seat and the drivers seat that I removed as it seemed to confining. What does you motor look like? GT40 ?

[AZDave]

Mpost, the doghouse is loose. It's not tacked in anywhere. The top portion just has four clips and none of it has any gas shocks like it shoudl have. So I might be fixing that up as we go but we took it out yesterday and it has some problems. I can't accelerate quickly. If I accelerate slowly it'll get up to speed no problem but if I want to pull a skier or wakeboarder then it's impossible to get a continuous throttle to pull them up. So I'll be doing a fuel pump pressure test, carb vacuum test, etc to try and narrow down the issue. I haven't worked on a carb in 20+ years. I have a lot of remembering to try and do. The more I dig into this thing the more I think it's kind of a mess. I'll get it setup right and then get all of these little cosmetic details dialed in after that. I do wish I had the gas shocks for the engine cover.

[Fast351]

Same interior colors as my boat. Looks nice! Someone obviously cares more about their platform than I do

Later model boats had the forward facing kick panel with a breaker panel mounted to it. That's the way mine is. Your fuses are in the dash, and wiring is simpler. If you need an underdash pic let me know I will walk out to mine and snap one.

The GT40 is a fantastic engine. Built for trucks, they are built like tanks with a ton of torque. Having built and raced them for 15 years, I know quite a bit about them. My day job is electrical engineer, and you will have some electrical gremlins. All these boats do. If you get stuck, feel free to drop me a line. I have every schematic for my year and yours will be similar.

[AZDave]

Thanks Fast 351. I definitely have found some interesting tid bits on this one that don't really add up. I just don't know enough about these Ski Nautiques but I'll learn for sure. Whoever took out all the carpet took out everything under the bow as well. So I did build up a little driver side kick plate to hide the bow section for storage. I moved the battery to behind that kick plate and added a second with a battery switch.

Next will be some engine work. The boat runs fine but needs starting fluid to start most times and if I goose it too quickly it stalls. I can get it up to speed if I go slowly. First culprit for me was the accelerator pump in the carb so I took the spark suppressor off and was going to pull the carb to mess with it and it apprears the flap is gone on the top of the carb. Also, there isn't a choke mounted to the thing at all. At that point I questioned whatever the last rebuild was and what pieces might be missing from inside so I ordered a rebuilt carb. It should be here tomorrow and I'll get that installed Saturday. I won't be able to truly test it for another week likely but hopefully that does it. I might still get the boat out for a test Saturday if I get lucky. Would be nice to see if that's the main problem.

Any tips or hints or comments are always appreciated. I used to rebuild and sell air cooled VWs when I was a lot younger so I understand engines but this is a different beast and it was 20 years ago. Hopefully this doesn't end up being a money pit.

Thanks again everyone.