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

[haknslash]

Made another docking video while we were on vacation for anyone wondering how to maneuver these boats and dock them, or at least how we do it. My wife is becoming a great first mate and knows to get the bumpers, lines and be in position all while heading into the dock so there is no fuss and smooth as we can make it. Proud of her and my daughter for assuming their roles ! Sure daddy can do it all but he shouldn't have to . Makes boating much more enjoyable knowing I have some help.

 

[BigAbe75]

Got to ride on @trace ’s Supra 450 (SE, maybe? ) this weekend. Awesome wave (and an awesome boat!), and my first time surfing ropeless. I rode for a good bit, too!

I’m not sure how to get that video from Facebook over here, but I’ll see what I can do. Or, maybe he can get it from his wife’s phone and post it here too.

Edit: hopefully I got the model sort of right, I remember a 450 in chrome on the side. Lol

 

[jcyamaharider]

I tried for you Abe...... didn't work

 

[2kwik4u]

Made another docking video while we were on vacation for anyone wondering how to maneuver these boats and dock them, or at least how we do it. My wife is becoming a great first mate and knows to get the bumpers, lines and be in position all while heading into the dock so there is no fuss and smooth as we can make it. Proud of her and my daughter for assuming their roles ! Sure daddy can do it all but he shouldn't have to . Makes boating much more enjoyable knowing I have some help.

I've gotten used to my jet where I come in pretty "off angle" to the dock, then hit reverse and use the steering to control which way the back end goes. This lets me "slide" into position without the fear of dock rash. Get the front where I want it, then move the back in closer to the dock since reverse in a jet doesn't really reverse that great, I use it more as a brake and directional control than reverse.

How does your wake boat compare to that? Looks like you just came in at an angle really close to the dock, then hit reverse like a brake. I assume the rudder setup on a wake boat is different from a jet, where the jet you have little thrust, but good "directionality" and the rudder you have good thrust, but poor "directionality".

Also, give you're kiddo a high-five for the cameo at the end. Well done!

 

[haknslash]

I came in at an angle and brought the stern in. I always dock that way with this boat . My boat being tall kind of obscures that from the video but I never come in directly parallel to the dock as that is a good way to ruin your gel coat as you said. That big metal pole would be a no go for that lol. If you watch closely at the 1:28 mark when i hit reverse there, it asn't so much to slow the boat down but rather to change my angle without creating more forward momentum. Then the boat settles it's approach again and at the last second I will toss it into reverse to slow forward momentum but also walk the stern sideways or slide as you referred to it. Just hard to tell from my boat but that's what i'm doing. I would do the same with my 192 but it took a lot of sawing at the wheel along with throttle modulation. With the vdrive it's less sawing at the wheel since the stern will always pull to the right in reverse so it's easy to use to your advantage.

Yea she likes the camera on her lol

 

[trace]

Got to ride on @trace ’s Supra 450 (SE, maybe? ) this weekend. Awesome wave (and an awesome boat!), and my first time surfing ropeless. I rode for a good bit, too!

I’m not sure how to get that video from Facebook over here, but I’ll see what I can do. Or, maybe he can get it from his wife’s phone and post it here too.

Edit: hopefully I got the model sort of right, I remember a 450 in chrome on the side. Lol

Yep @BigAbe75 you got it mostly right, 2019 Supra SE 450.
I don't have the vid on my phone, but I'll try and get the video from Christy and post it up here in a few days.

 

[haknslash]

Shot some slow motion footage of the wave developing off idle when I added the 750 lb bag in the midship locker. I hate the second half of the video was out of focus (stupid iphone). Pretty cool to see it develop even if it's only 720p.

 

[OrangeTJ]

Wow that formed quickly! Looks like you're getting it pretty well dialed in! Fun stuff, isn't it?

 

[OrangeTJ]

Made another docking video while we were on vacation for anyone wondering how to maneuver these boats and dock them, or at least how we do it. My wife is becoming a great first mate and knows to get the bumpers, lines and be in position all while heading into the dock so there is no fuss and smooth as we can make it. Proud of her and my daughter for assuming their roles ! Sure daddy can do it all but he shouldn't have to . Makes boating much more enjoyable knowing I have some help.

Nice and smooth. This technique works great when docking against the starboard side since on V drives reverse thrust pulls the stern that way. Little trickier on the port side, at least for me. In that instance I coast in at the angle, turn the wheel full to the right and then momentarily engage forward thrust to start the stern moving left. Then arrest the turn with a bit of reverse to end up parallel to the dock.

 

[haknslash]

Wow that formed quickly! Looks like you're getting it pretty well dialed in! Fun stuff, isn't it?

It is fun learning all this stuff. Can be a little daunting at first but I'm slowly understanding what to expect based on settings. I don't know how many hours I've got on the boat now playing with all sorts of surf settings but it's getting on up there now lol. I'm hoping Wakemakers will run a winter sale on the Max upgrade kit in the off season. Should be real nice then!

 

[BigAbe75]

@haknslash SO... I've been watching youtube videos the last few days (you know how those obsessive interests can grab you occasionally) of wake boats. Primarily Moomba and Supra... just for grins.

One of our primary activities that I love about the Yamaha is the ability to just go for a cruise. 30-40 mile cruise to dinner (or just ice cream) and back, etc. Can these boats do this? Are you able to comfortably run 30-35 miles an hour for a sustained cruise (couple hours)? Or, is that just an activity that these boats can't really do?

 

[OrangeTJ]

Cruising speed has a lot to do with prop selection and high cruising speed is somewhat in conflict with ability to get 4-5K worth of ballast comfortably to speed. However, in our MB F22 we find 28 mph to be a nice comfortable cruising speed. 35 is probably a stretch for most of these boats as a cruising speed but the actual arrival time difference between running 28 or 35 doesn't add up to more than a few minutes if you're heading someplace 20 - 30 miles away. I guess it would add up to a bit more if you're talking 60 miles away but we don't have any lakes where that's really an option anywhere near us. Tahoe is our largest nearby lake and it is about 20 miles across. No issue at all running all the way across the lake for lunch, then over to a hang out spot then back across the lake. The awesome straight line tracking and more mellow engine sound makes longer cruises like this more enjoyable for me in this boat than they were in our SX210.

 

[haknslash]

@BigAbe75 We cruise all the time in my boat and love it for that. It cruises very well at it's desired cruise attitude! However I optioned my boat for a larger prop so my top speeds are somewhere around 40 mph or so but I never go that high as the motor is screaming at those speeds! Low to mid 30's is no problem although we typically cruise in the mid to high 20's just to make it nice and smooth with the engine just purring at those speeds and RPM's. These boats are propped for pulling heavy weight so going super fast is not what the prop or boat is setup to do. If you propped it so that you had a high speed in the 40's then you would have a harder time trying to pull heavy weight from idle or get on plane so there is a trade-off there. We don't miss bouncing around on the Yamaha at 49 mph at all. My wife hated when I went fast and thankfully these boats just feel good cruising along where as the Yamaha preferred WOT but not partial cruise throttle and always had to use Cruise Assist if we wanted to cruise (Yamaha throttle slip normality). No issue with the throttle on the vdrive. Just set it and it holds or use cruise control if you want which ironically we never use unless surfing because of how precise it wants to be (always adjusting rpm to hold that speed).

As @OrangeTJ mentioned I find myself enjoying cruises much more in this boat just due to the low noise and nicer ride. I can go all day and not have my ears ringing from the motor! The Raptor sips fuel compared to my 192 at cruising speeds as well.

Some cruising from our last trip and you can hear the motor just purrs even if at surf speeds loaded with ballast.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Delivery day #2 is upon us. She is getting ceramic coated and then I will pick her up. I love that the interior on this boat really feels on par with that of the higher end models, minus the super wimpy 4" screen in a 12" screen world. I am a little tempted to put it up for sale and move up a foot in length to a Craz or maybe an ATX22, but every time I see the ATX tower it just looks like a cheap afterthought.

 

[haknslash]

Yea that ATX tower is a no-go for me and I’m not a huge fan of its gel lines either. The gel lines remind me of Axis from some angles. People are saying they get optioned close to triple figures!

What happened with your first Supreme that put you into the new one? New boat looks sharp and clean!

I am glad I went with a 22’6” boat. Nice blend right in the middle of the 21’-23’ class boats. I don’t feel the need for a larger or smaller boat.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Yea that ATX tower is a no-go for me and I’m not a huge fan of its gel lines either. The gel lines remind me of Axis from some angles. People are saying they get optioned close to triple figures!

What happened with your first Supreme that put you into the new one? New boat looks sharp and clean!

I am glad I went with a 22’6” boat. Nice blend right in the middle of the 21’-23’ class boats. I don’t feel the new for a larger or smaller boat.

I was asked not to publicly talk about the circumstances and details of my trade deal, but I will say that the issues that led to it were of no direct fault of Supreme, I was EXTREMELY well taken care of by both Supreme and River Valley Power and Sport (Dealer), and I would not hesitate to buy another boat from them.

The only reason I would trade is just to be able to load her up with a couple more bodies comfortably. A 22' boat would maximize the garage length, but the issue is that most of these boats will not clear an 8' header now. That is the reason I didn't look seriously at the ZS212.

 

[d_coyne1984]

I took a close look at the Varatti Z22 at the MN state fair and they have done some really cool/smart things with their boat, except!... they put the damn thing on a ski boat hull that is damn near completely flat on the bottom, and sits like 6" above the water line. I don't expect that they will be around long unless they can quickly come up with a great hull with the freeboard that you want to have on a ballast laden wake boat.

 

[MattFX4]

Any of you guys had any experience with the Moomba Mojo? @haknslash did you ever look at one when you were looking for your next boat?

 

[haknslash]

When I looked at them during shopping they had the older dash which I wasn't a big fan of but they updated them to have the offset dash like Helix and Max had so IMO I like them more now. I went with the deepest boat they offered so Max was always highest on my list. The Mojo is a nice boat. I'm not sure how much longer it will be around since it is probably due for a major update (i.e. replacement with new model like the Kaiyen replaced the Mondo). I think it has probably a year or so left and then I think they will replace it but that's just my hunch. I definitely like the bow of the Mojo more than the Craz since it is wider and more of a hybrid design than traditional bow taper.

 

[MattFX4]

When I looked at them during shopping they had the older dash which I wasn't a big fan of but they updated them to have the offset dash like Helix and Max had so IMO I like them more now. I went with the deepest boat they offered so Max was always highest on my list. The Mojo is a nice boat. I'm not sure how much longer it will be around since it is probably due for a major update (i.e. replacement with new model like the Kaiyen replaced the Mondo). I think it has probably a year or so left and then I think they will replace it but that's just my hunch. I definitely like the bow of the Mojo more than the Craz since it is wider and more of a hybrid design than traditional bow taper.

Yeah, I agree with that. The model has been around for a while with small changes. Just curious because came across a ‘19 for what seems like a good deal. I’ve seen a lot more Kaiyen’s pop up on Boat Trader so hopefully will see more action shots soon. Did find this photo of the Kaiyen wave, and the Mojo I found.