Centurion Ri217 and Ri237

[markj]

Thought I'd comment on the OP about the Ri237. We demoed one last week with a buddy who was in the market for a new ride. Well I don't have much good to say about it except the wave was pretty good for surf. While it's deeper than the 230 it was also narrower which made for a pretty good ride on rough water. It could help to notice how cheap things were inside. The glove box door was a thin piece of acrylic that just laid over a hole and flopped around the intire time, as well as the helm seat creaking and popping on any move from driver or wave. Every seat was just laid on top of box with no hinges and storage under seats was a joke! The sales guy made a comment about how much more room that it had under seats than prior years. I bet the storage was 8 maybe 10 inches deep under seats. The outside was beautiful but had cheap plastic vent covers with no step stickers on them. Not sure they quite have the safety functions figured out yet either. We took off with cruise on and my buddy pulled back to clear the cruise and then got back on it after turning off and boat come up on plan and the surf tab deploys! Yep 20 mph and a hard list!! My buddy about pissed himself. Set it back down, hit neutral, and took off again with no issues. I couldnt believe the tab would deploy at that high of speed but it did. Funny thing is that you could buy a nice G for what they were asking for this thing and could have bought a really nice used G for what they wanted with all the "discounts" they were offering. To me it's way over priced and should be more like an MB but to be honest I have three friends with MBs and I think they are a more solid boat. Boat has really good appeal but poor execution and engineering. I will say the glass and gel work is awesome and better than Nautique in my opinion. This design engineered and built by Nautique would be sick.

I couldn't agree more with the gel work comment. I'm on my third Nauti now and there is no way you can get the gel coat to look anywhere near what a Centurion or MB does. It doesn't matter how long you spend buffing it out. I still know Nauti makes the best boat, but their gel work has always been hurting. Those other two look like deep automotive finishes. Nautiques always look hazy and there's no way to fix it. Frustrating...

Having said that, I have a relationship with a Centurion dealer where I could get any of their models for dealer cost. No thanks. I'll stick to Nautique.

[Evening Shade]

I know the Centurion makes a solid boat, but I never knew that Centurion and MB had a better finish on their gel coat.

[Neverenough]

I'd say not only is it a deeper look but the gel work is better. The layout and the metallic is laid down so even without any blemishes. As a side note the glass work finish out on MB is so nice. You can run your hand behind any panel and it's smooth as my Nautique will get you a handful of glass shards and cuts.

[Evening Shade]

I'd say not only is it a deeper look but the gel work is better. The layout and the metallic is laid down so even without any blemishes. As a side note the glass work finish out on MB is so nice. You can run your hand behind any panel and it's smooth as my Nautique will get you a handful of glass shards and cuts.

Wow that is surprising to me. I don't get much exposure to a lot of different wake boat manufacturers.

[Neverenough]

MB exposure started with one guy I meet at the lake turned into a good friend and I started helping him with winterization and summer prep. I've been in and around his 15Tomcat and it's a solid ride. Wave for surf and wake is very good and for the money you can't beat them. No bells and whistles just a solid very clean built boat. Interior isn't as nice as a Nauti but who is? If I had to pick on it I'd say interior finish out and bad bow rise while surfing is all I could pick on. After having a boat with fresh air exhaust I'll never go back and it seems loud behind it with dual pipes. Bang for the buck ...... hands down best boat on water. Loaded out on a trick trailer it's was well under 70 I think and his is a 22 that feels bigger than my 230. Since this boat and him joining our group we have added two other MBs.

[Evening Shade]

That really does sound like a bargain for a well built boat.

[NWSurfer]

I've been fortunate enough to demo a 2017 G23, 2017 24MXZ (redesigned for 2017) and 2017 Ri237 in the last several weeks and will say the Ri237 surf wave is phenomenal. It has the best surf wave of all 3 boats by quite a margin. Several buddies on the Ri demo also felt the same, and have ridden the other boats too.

The downside is Centurion is still running 14.5" props on it and the RPMs are 4000-4500 at surf speeds, depending on settings. So it's very loud but the new shaft angle on the 2017's gives them a ton of room to play with bigger props now.