Alright so here is my review of the Axis A22 and how it compares to the Moomba Max now that I've demoed and crawled over both. I made a near 20 miute long video with no music, just the saleman (Tyler) and myself going on about the boat and enjoying life on the water. I kind of let the first impressions speak for itself in the video...
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If you don't have 20 minutes to spare on a boat vid I understand so here's the TLDW version with pics..
Pulling into the marina at 10:30 am....
That blue flake sure does look good and pop off that black. I did this scheme and had built one similar to it on Axis's website where you can virtually build your boat and color it how you like....
Now going back, initially when I went and looked at the Axis boats a week ago I left a little unimpressed nameplate because of the plastic in some areas of the boat. As a whole they're just not as nice as the Moomba boats when it comes to interior finish. The amount of plastic had me concerned it would rattle on the water and the gauge cluster takes up a good chunk of real estate when looking out of the drivers seat. The Moomba Max has the offset dash which really frees up your line of sight which is important when surfing as the attitude of the boat is up in the air. Both of the boats have a flip up bolster and the Axis was a bit better. It was not only sturdier but it was more comfortable. I felt like I could drive for a long time on the bolster and it not make my butt sore or back hurt. The seat in the Axis was comfy as well with or without the bolster up. No problems there...
Visibility wasn't the best as this boat had a PTM mirror mounted right in front of me but if it weren't in the way i wouldn't have an issue seeing. The Axis also has a windshield that doesn't wrap all the way around. Personally I like this as you can easily grab a dock sitting in the seat plus it gives an unobstructed view to the sides. The angle of the windshield is pretty aggressive and slopped back. It took a little bit to get used to but over time it was nothing to note about.
What I really liked about the Axis seat was the metal side swivel and slide mechanism. On the Moomba and Yamaha boasts you have a paddle that is under the front of the seat. This can be kind of a pain to get to especially if you're not tall or have long arms. When I drive these boat and also my boat I often times like to unlock the swivel and set the seat about a 30 degree facing into the center of the boat as it's just more comfortable to stretch out and you can turn around to check on the rider if you need to without breaking your neck. So a good swivel design is a nice feature to me that I use often. You can see the mechanism below....
Another seat I like in these boats is the pullout rear "skybox" bench . The 2018 boats are on rails rather than just like a table leg you manually pull out but either way it's nice seating area and saves you from stepping on the cushions...
So let's discuss the plastic a bit more. Like I said when I first looked at these boats I was not a fan of the plastic and I still do not prefer it to simple gelcoat and fiberglass. BUT....these are indeed price point boats. There will be sacrifices made to all of the brands in this price segment no matter which model or brand you choose, something will give from the big brother brands. That's just the truth and for Malibu to Axis they have clearly decided to put the value in the performance of the boat than into the interior in some areas. Not all of the areas on an Axis feel or look cheap. In fact most of the boat looks great on the inside and feels of quality much higher than my Yamaha. So yes there is plastic on the Axis but to be honest all of that kind of went away the second we pulled off from the dock. None of the plastic panels were shaking around like I had feared they might. None of it was really on my mind other than hearing how quiet yet at the same time throaty the engine sounded
. Here are some images of the helm and plastic areas I was speaking of. Not the ugliest but you can tell this is where Malibu decided to save some money rather than fancy stitched dashed or color matched cockpit speaker areas. Not a deal breaker at all just that it's not as nice as some other boats in this price segment. A lot of it could be dressed up by an owner and I think stainless cup holders would be a good start. The rear cockpit speaker areas had plenty of cup holders and it was tall enough to hold my large Propel water bottle to give you an idea of size.
Going back to when I looked at the boat at the dealership I mentioned the soft touch controls were broken and hanging down. Tyler said he personally fixed this after I left so that it would be good to go for the demo. Happy to report it felt snug and worked flawless. It felt very nice to the fingers than toggle switches. Not sure how it would hold up to UV over the years so that's kind of a concern and the soft touch pads are relatively new.
This A22 was equipped with the Monsoon 409 6.0L by Crusader engine. The boat also had the upgraded 15" 2272 prop which is needed if you want to use a lot of ballast for surfing. It cuts down on the top speed a little but gives you a lot of torque out of the hole and helps you plane easier. It has a nice, deep and throaty sound but not too loud that you can't have a conversation at cruising speed. The Moomba Max with it's Indmar 6.2L Raptor motor was a bit stronger for sure but it was also much louder, especially when you laid into it. The Moomba would be very hard to have a conversation without yelling if hauling ass where as the Axis seemed to just purr away while still having plenty of power. Removing the plastic heat tray on the Moomba Max was kind of a pain and took two hands and almost a third hand because of its cutout around a gas strut where the Axis was simple and comes out with one hand. Here's a shot of the engine.
Storage space on the Axis is pretty good. The rear lockers were optioned up with 850 lb aumo sacs on top of the subfloor hard tanks. It's nowhere near as deep as the Moomba Max was but then again no boat really is. The Max is in a class by itself in terms of shear storage depth in any compartment. The bow bag on the A22 sits below the front middle bow seat, so that space shouldn't be used for any storage. When you fill the front bow bag all the way up it will almost want to push the cushion up a hair, so yea no storage there but I believe under the two bow seats there would still be storage. I forgot to check to be sure but I don't think the front bow bag wrap around and under the side cushions. The A22 did not have the bow back rest that can flip up to access the helm storage which is a shame as that is a really nice thing to be able to grab stuff from storage while sitting in the bow. Here's a pic of the rear locker when we first started filling the bags. I'd say it had about 100 lbs in it at this point to give you an idea of space...
And here is the same locker but with filled 850 lb bag. You still had some room for vests, gear and such plus you have the heating tray over the engine for ropes, towels or whatever...
so does it surf and how does it stack up to the Moomba Max? Well here to tell you all that money saved on the interior of the A22 apparently went into developing a hull and surf system because the wave this boat threw out was so much better than the Moomba! The starboard side was as clean, which is something I've noticed with a lot of these boats and it has to do with the prop rotation according to the salesmen I've spoken with. It's still big but just not as defined curl or lip. It would need to be adjusted with different speed to clean it up a little. We were in the 10.8 mph range I think using cruise control. Surf Gate system really does do delayed convergence as opposed to the trim tab type surf systems using the bottom running surface to change the flow of water. I was worried the boat would pull real hard while driving with the surf tab out like it did on my boat using my DIY surf gate but happy to report the Axis held a straight line. In fact you can let go of the wheel and walk around the boat while surfing and the boat still tracks straight! It has a huge fin under the hull where the Moomba had two smaller tracking fins.
Another really cool feature of the Axis was the surf wrist strap which allows you to control boat speed, surf side and tower speaker volume...
In the end I hope you watched the videos as it shows the waves this thing makes! If you didn't watch it then just know that this was a thing threw a nice wave. Next boat up to look at is the MB F21 Tomcat but that's for another time
