Thoughts and demo rides of wake / towsports boats: Moomba Max, Axis A22, MB Sports

[haknslash]

Thanks for the info again @OrangeTJ . BTW you should post more pics and vids of your boat more often . What is your current ballast setup? Have you ridden in any of the 2016+ Moombas to compare ride quality? I know your hull is completely different and boat weighs different than the Moomba but how's your fuel usage been on the Raptor 400? The Moomba uses the same engine so I'm curious (in a rough ballpark) what it may do. Seems like a lot of boat brands are using that engine and I haven't seen any alarming issues from glancing research. Being a Raptor derived engine I can't imagine it not be up for the use and abuse.

 

[OrangeTJ]

I haven't been on the water in a Moomba. However, those that I have checked out have had a pretty deep V like my MB (and also like Supras). From what I have read, they ride well in chop. I run about 6 gph in normal non-surfing use. About 10 gph fully loaded and surfing. The Raptor is a very popular engine right now and is in use in many brands of boats. My buddy has the same powertrain in his 2017 Malibu 23 LSV. It's a stout setup. It's a bit noisier than the GM powerplants I've experienced in other wake boats and runs at a bit higher rpm, but it pulls hard.

My ballast setup? Well, the boat came from the factory with 2800 lbs in sub-floor tanks and an 1100 lb bag in each rear locker. I also have 250 lbs in "lead wakes" bags in the boat to move around depending on how many people are aboard and where they are sitting. Generally it rides under the bow seats. In addition, I have a 650 lb Sumo Sac bow bag. My current preferred setup is the 2800 lb hard tanks full, the 1100s about 50% full, 250 in lead all the way forward under the bow seats and the Sumo Sac filled to probably 400 lbs if we have a light crew. So that's about 4500 lbs or so on top of the boat weight of about 5000 pounds full of fuel and gear. I run about 12 mph with that setup. The wave is powerful and long, and can be ridden from the edge of the swim platform to about 20 feet back - probably further for a non fata$$ like myself. If I fill the 1100s all the way, I also need to fill the 650 all the way and run a touch faster - 12.2ish. That's 5900 lbs of ballast. Wave is huge like that but not as pretty and I have to "ride the brakes" on the board to stay off the swim platform. Frankly, I think it's too much weight and not really as much fun for me, although the boat will pull it.

 

[BigN8]

Being said most of those wake boats do have great attention to detailing for interior and outside graphics.

So I looked at the pics again and saw it stated pop up cleat is included? Damn everyone boat should have that included. Without cleats how you suppose to dock and all? Just dumb in what they state is standard. Cleats shouldn't even be talked about. That should be mandatory. Suction cup mirrors should be stated standard lol.

I have several buddies that have wake boats. One has a Malibu the other has a Supra. The Malibu actually did not come standard with cleats. When he would come out to tie up we used the transom tie down and bow eye to attach his boat to ours. Those boat builders just don't look at cleats like we do. He latter had cleats added to his boat.

 

[FloJet]

I have several buddies that have wake boats. One has a Malibu the other has a Supra. The Malibu actually did not come standard with cleats. When he would come out to tie up we used the transom tie down and bow eye to attach his boat to ours. Those boat builders just don't look at cleats like we do. He latter had cleats added to his boat.

That's crazy. I couldn't imagine not having cleats.

 

[haknslash]

Got the return call from a salesman at Skiers Marine dealer today. Turns out the guy I spoke with at the show was the VP of their company but you wouldn't have known it from speaking with him. We set up a demo ride for Feb 10th. I will see about taking some GoPro or cameras with me to record some footage of the boat underway,

 

[OrangeTJ]

That's crazy. I couldn't imagine not having cleats.

Can't say that I've ever seen one without cleats. However, some only have aft and midship cleats. On my MB, I asked them to build it with forward cleats as well and they added them at no extra charge. I agree that it is an odd thing to be short of.

 

[haknslash]

Charging the GoPro tonight. I have a demo scheduled for 10am tomorrow morning. I'll post some vids once I return and give you my thoughts on the boat.

 

[Scuba_ref]

Can't wait!

 

[JBehrens]

Charging the GoPro tonight. I have a demo scheduled for 10am tomorrow morning. I'll post some vids once I return and give you my thoughts on the boat.

Let me know what you want for the 192 once you fall in love with the Moomba!

 

[haknslash]

Just got home from the demo. We started at 10am and finished up around 1:30. Skiers Marine was an outstanding dealership and Greg the salesman who has been in touch with me for weeks was so helpful, patient and knowledgeable about everything. Really awesome guy and the entire facility and workers were real cool. He took me around to meet loads of folks and the different areas of their dealership. I have a lot of footage to edit and post while we were on the water with the boat. It will probably be the most footage of this boat on the internet . The boat handled unbelievable! It really blew me away with the handling and power! It was a rough windy day so it was perfect to see just how the boat would handle in crap conditions from docking to driving fully ballasted. Having all that freeboard we would catch a nasty crosswind and it was interesting seeing how you use the rotation that naturally occurs with these boats to your advantage. He even made me retrieve the boat by myself so I could learn how to do it and see that they aren't as scary to drive as I had thought it may be. I am not going to spoil more and will let the video speak for itself. This boat is unbelievable how much potential it has for surfing and Wake boarding its crazy! To top it off the boat we demoed was the color scheme and options I would have went with when I was building them on the website. It was huge and sexy with that metal flake red and black scheme!!

 

[haknslash]

Here are some screenshots from the video of the surf wave. The GoPro fisheye perspective really flattens out just how big and powerful this wave was in person. It was HUGE especially when you consider it was just two men and stock 3,000 lbs of ballast. The wave looked to have a ton of push and power! They asked me to grab a board before we left but the water was too cold for this southerner but man after I saw the weave I just wanted to jump in and play on it no matter how cold and windy it was!





He showed me just how much capability and flexibility you have at your finger tips for tailoring the surf wave or wake exactly how you like it. From tall and super steep for airs to long and mellow for playing in the full wave. In these pics below we played around with speed and the center wake plate to make for a super long skim style wave. As I mentioned the camera perspective kills just how far back this wave and pocket was but trust me it was a lonnng ways back there!!

 

[haknslash]

Let me know what you want for the 192 once you fall in love with the Moomba!

Yea there will likely be a for sale posting on it at some point

 

[OrangeTJ]

Awesome! Your post reminds me a lot of the one I posted after I demo’d my MB! These boats really are impressive, aren’t they. Wake/wave tuning and ride & handling have to be experienced to be understood. Sounds like you had a great day! That color combo looks gorgeous, by the way.

 

[Scuba_ref]

@haknslash did it have the Auto Wake feature?

 

[haknslash]

@haknslash did it have the Auto Wake feature?

This one was not options with Auto Wake. I did ask him several questions about if it he felt it was worth it or not. He said it's great for people who don't want to fiddle with dialing in the wake perfect but that that's nothing auto wake does that you can't already do with the manual system. He did mention one of the best things about auto wake is that if you have people or kids onboard that often move around its perfect for them and the driver since it will automatically account for them moving on the boat and will adjust ballast and plates accordingly to maintain the desired attitude (pitch and roll) of the boat.

 

[haknslash]

Awesome! Your post reminds me a lot of the one I posted after I demo’d my MB! These boats really are impressive, aren’t they. Wake/wave tuning and ride & handling have to be experienced to be understood. Sounds like you had a great day! That color combo looks gorgeous, by the way.

Yea it was really eye opening. It will be tough now that's for sure. Don't get me wrong I love my Yamaha but man I think I know what my next boat will be. When we throttled up and did a real hard turn I couldn't believe how hard the boat hooked and just tracked like it was on rails. I thought my 192 turned on a dime but it made me feel like my boat just slides by comparison lol.

 

[Scuba_ref]

He did mention one of the best things about auto wake is that if you have people or kids onboard that often move around its perfect for them and the driver since it will automatically account for them moving on the boat and will adjust ballast and plates accordingly to maintain the desired attitude (pitch and roll) of the boat.

That is what makes it so cool, it constantly measure the boat and make auto adjustments to keep the wake the same as conditions change. I wonder what the option price is for that - the Max I was looking at had a $69,000 boat show price but it had everything. If I remember correctly, your boat show price was less than that. The shipping out here is also going to be a lot more.

 

[haknslash]

Auto wake is only like a $1400 option IIRC. I would love to have it but honestly this thing threw out such a nice wave from the get-go that dialing it in wasn't a big deal. A few taps on the plate lever with your fingers by the steering wheel is all it takes and it really changes the whole dynamics of the wave back there. You can literally watch it change and get the type of wave you're looking for without a lot of fuss. You can see the whole pocket stretch out or shrink into a steep mountain if you want it or flatten it out for a long skim style all within seconds. Changing waves sides was a flick of a switch. I was wondering how a boat would feel when you switch sides and if it makes you have to grip the steering wheel hard but it was nothing. Real smooth. In fact the whole steering was effortless but felt solid. Hard to explain. Completely different than how our jet boat steering feels. You hit lock to lock steering on our boats real quick but on this boat I never did and it turned and handled very responsive. Almost felt like 1:1 steering input, zero delay. Hope you guys ill enjoy the video.

 

[haknslash]

Alright here is the video from today's demo ride. I apologize in advance for the GoPro being sensitive to the pole mount and the wind at times. It's a long video (22 mins) but he goes over a lot of aspects about the boat explains what we are doing each run and messing around with the plate settings changing the face of the wake or surf wave.

If you don't feel like sitting through 22 mins of video here is a condensed video of just the wake and surf wave action with some music so you don't hear the GoPro popping or wind.

 

[MattFX4]

Odd question, but how is freeboard on the interior of the boat? It looks huge from the outside but in the video it looks like the interior is shallow if that makes any sense. The drivers seat seemed low and it still looked like the salesman was sitting up above the windshield. Does it feel like you are down in the boat when sitting/standing? For example in my boat it feels like the sides of the boat wrap around you when sitting. Hopefully this makes sense lol.