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I've grown up around boats but only outboards and I dreamed I would one day have a true ski boat. This past summer after using our small 16' ski boat with my wife and two kids (one more was on the way) we finally both agreed it was time to upgrade. I spent way too much time every day searching site after site trying to find the perfect boat for us. Fairly quickly we narrowed in on the Air Nautique as it seems to be a good crossover boat for skiing and also had the open bow that my kids love to ride in. We are a big open water ski family but enjoy other water sports too. After months of searching and just missing out on a boat that we initially felt the 20 hour drive too far, we found one even further away at 27 hours.
The boat is a 2001 Air Nautique, 5.8L PCM with 150 hours, and single owner. The owner was a construction worker so summers were always busy and he could only get away a week a year with the boat and kids. Kids grew up, moved away, and boat was used only a few hours each summer for the past 10 years. Boat and trailer matched the criteria and condition we had. Lots of questions and pictures back and forth with the owner. Only "issue" we could find with the boat was it was in Oregon and we were in MN; cue the long drive.
Initially I was going to drive out on my own but I was able to wrangle my dad into going with. Drive straight out 1800 miles, get the boat, and come back home. All in 3 days since he had to work on the 4th day. Since I had seen pretty much every inch of the boat in photos I was very confident I would buy it as long as the water test went well. We left MN on Saturday morning at 4am and made it to the lake in Oregon on Sunday morning at 6:30am local time. Dad and I switched driving back and forth to give each other time to rest but when we got there we both rested until our meeting time at 8:00am.
At the lake there were 4 different landings. We apparently parked at the wrong one and just missed the owner putting the boat in. Coming from a small 16' boat my first thought as I walked up to the Air was "man this is a big boat". Water test went great and the boat looked even better in person than some of the photos I received. Pulled it out of the water and looked over the boat exterior. Over all the boat is in great condition for its age given its low hour usage. It has the original gauges and a fun moment was seeing the hour meter work one drive and the next drive the speedometer and rpm gauges both died. Made a great deal with the owner since he didn't want to winterize and store it another winter. Only concern the owner had was the trailer. Trailer had all new tires and was recently serviced but he still felt something was off with it as he felt it pulled poorly at 65mph. This revelation gave me pause as I knew we'd be going home slower, but not that slow.
Hooked up the trailer, removed all movable seats, swim platform, checked lights, and headed down the road. After a few hours we were feeling quite confident and comfortable with the trailer pulling between 70-75mph without issue depending on the road conditions. Both on the way out and on the way home we hit the Rockies at night which I would not recommend when towing. The night times were the worst for us as neither of us sleep well in the car or even in hotels if we had stopped. We made it home Monday night at 9:00pm to the excitement of my children. We were gone for 65 hours and 62 of those was us driving/filling up/food/bathroom.
We plan to take it out this weekend with the kids for a cold ride but there is a lot of excitement for next summer. This was a long trip and if I could have found a closer boat it would have been preferred, but when you find the one I guess it doesn't matter how far it is. I had a great time with my dad and we don't get time like that together anymore so I wouldn't trade that for anything. Looking forward to next summer and many years of fun.
The boat is a 2001 Air Nautique, 5.8L PCM with 150 hours, and single owner. The owner was a construction worker so summers were always busy and he could only get away a week a year with the boat and kids. Kids grew up, moved away, and boat was used only a few hours each summer for the past 10 years. Boat and trailer matched the criteria and condition we had. Lots of questions and pictures back and forth with the owner. Only "issue" we could find with the boat was it was in Oregon and we were in MN; cue the long drive.
Initially I was going to drive out on my own but I was able to wrangle my dad into going with. Drive straight out 1800 miles, get the boat, and come back home. All in 3 days since he had to work on the 4th day. Since I had seen pretty much every inch of the boat in photos I was very confident I would buy it as long as the water test went well. We left MN on Saturday morning at 4am and made it to the lake in Oregon on Sunday morning at 6:30am local time. Dad and I switched driving back and forth to give each other time to rest but when we got there we both rested until our meeting time at 8:00am.
At the lake there were 4 different landings. We apparently parked at the wrong one and just missed the owner putting the boat in. Coming from a small 16' boat my first thought as I walked up to the Air was "man this is a big boat". Water test went great and the boat looked even better in person than some of the photos I received. Pulled it out of the water and looked over the boat exterior. Over all the boat is in great condition for its age given its low hour usage. It has the original gauges and a fun moment was seeing the hour meter work one drive and the next drive the speedometer and rpm gauges both died. Made a great deal with the owner since he didn't want to winterize and store it another winter. Only concern the owner had was the trailer. Trailer had all new tires and was recently serviced but he still felt something was off with it as he felt it pulled poorly at 65mph. This revelation gave me pause as I knew we'd be going home slower, but not that slow.
Hooked up the trailer, removed all movable seats, swim platform, checked lights, and headed down the road. After a few hours we were feeling quite confident and comfortable with the trailer pulling between 70-75mph without issue depending on the road conditions. Both on the way out and on the way home we hit the Rockies at night which I would not recommend when towing. The night times were the worst for us as neither of us sleep well in the car or even in hotels if we had stopped. We made it home Monday night at 9:00pm to the excitement of my children. We were gone for 65 hours and 62 of those was us driving/filling up/food/bathroom.
We plan to take it out this weekend with the kids for a cold ride but there is a lot of excitement for next summer. This was a long trip and if I could have found a closer boat it would have been preferred, but when you find the one I guess it doesn't matter how far it is. I had a great time with my dad and we don't get time like that together anymore so I wouldn't trade that for anything. Looking forward to next summer and many years of fun.
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