Torn... next Yamaha vs an actual Surf boat

[OrangeTJ]

As has been said, go v-drive wakeboat and I doubt you'll ever look back. Don't believe at all that only Malibu or Centurion make great surf waves. I've not surfed a Centurion but I've been behind several Malibus and Axis (very similar wave) boats and frankly I find their wave to be on the softer side. Obviously lots of folks like them and surf well with them. You can get exceptional waves behind a Moomba, an MB, a Supreme, a Sanger and other boats, all without having any exposed ballast bags anywhere. Heck, my 2016 MB F22 came off the showroom floor with 5,000 lbs of built in ballast capacity.

You're going to love the V-Drive life!

 

[suke]

Question for you: did you get the 30% off during Covid craziness or before? I assume you're talking about during but just wanted to check? A couple of the surf boats I've come across (Mastercraft XT24, Centurion Ri230, etc.) would be much more palatable at $125-$130K than they are at $180K+. Thanks!

The closest MC dealer from me has an NXT 24 with 22% off publicly advertised before any negotiation. Normally they never list a price. His is listed with the discount already. Which means there's more room for negotiation.

 

[adrianp89]

The closest MC dealer from me has an NXT 24 with 22% off publicly advertised before any negotiation. Normally they never list a price. His is listed with the discount already. Which means there's more room for negotiation.

And yet Yamaha is already sold out until 2023.

 

[suke]

And yet Yamaha is already sold out until 2023.

It's still 114k and the end of the season. Haha! So I imagine it'll sit for a bit until someone gets a screaming deal on a 2021 leftover. I don't NEED a 24 and I want to do Bimini once, hopefully next year, and then sell my boat for a v drive.

 

[tkeru408]

The closest MC dealer from me has an NXT 24 with 22% off publicly advertised before any negotiation. Normally they never list a price. His is listed with the discount already. Which means there's more room for negotiation.

A little searching and I found the one you're talking about--very nice! You're right, I rarely ever see a price listed online. With some negotiation, that could be had for pretty much the price of a 255XD. I don't think the MC NXT24 would have all the bells and whistles of the 255XD (large touchscreen, etc.), but for a family that truly wanted to surf I bet that thing effortlessly puts out a much better wave.

 

[tkeru408]

It's still 114k and the end of the season. Haha! So I imagine it'll sit for a bit until someone gets a screaming deal on a 2021 leftover. I don't NEED a 24 and I want to do Bimini once, hopefully next year, and then sell my boat for a v drive.

Maybe I'm not seeing the same one. I see the one at Bill's for $113K (MSRP $144K), but it's a 2022 not a 2021 leftover. Beautiful exterior, the mint interior is a bit much for me.

 

[adrianp89]

Link? Just curious what it looks like

 

[tkeru408]

Link? Just curious what it looks like

2022 MasterCraft NXT24 | Bill's Marine

2022 MasterCraft NXT24 MAXIMUM FUN, MINIMUM FLUFF The NXT24 boasts MasterCraft premium waves and performance while offering 24 feet of comfort and room for 16 with convertible seating options throughout. Easily customize your waves with SurfStar, and easily maneuver your big boat with the...

www.billsmarineinc.com

 

[ripler]

It's still 114k and the end of the season. Haha! So I imagine it'll sit for a bit until someone gets a screaming deal on a 2021 leftover. I don't NEED a 24 and I want to do Bimini once, hopefully next year, and then sell my boat for a v drive.

I doubt it's a 2021 unless it was a demo or someone backed out of a deal. The 2021's have been sold out for a long time and my dealer had his entire 2021 inventory sold by August of 2021 and he's been delivering 2022s all this season.

@tkeru408 That's the beauty of the NXT line, no touchscreens and minimal electronics. The big touchscreens look nice until they fail and cost a small fortune to replace and the failure stops your boat from functioning. I engineer control systems for a living and see what the outdoor environment does to electronics daily and I sure as hell don't want a large touchscreen controlling the boat's critical systems.

 

[ripler]

2022 MasterCraft NXT24 | Bill's Marine

2022 MasterCraft NXT24 MAXIMUM FUN, MINIMUM FLUFF The NXT24 boasts MasterCraft premium waves and performance while offering 24 feet of comfort and room for 16 with convertible seating options throughout. Easily customize your waves with SurfStar, and easily maneuver your big boat with the...

www.billsmarineinc.com

That boat has a decent amount of upgrades. I sure hope that black interior is cool feel. I have some black accents on the vinyl on my boat that's not cool feel and it gets hot.

 

[gallobg]

I doubt it's a 2021 unless it was a demo or someone backed out of a deal. The 2021's have been sold out for a long time and my dealer had his entire 2021 inventory sold by August of 2021 and he's been delivering 2022s all this season.

@tkeru408 That's the beauty of the NXT line, no touchscreens and minimal electronics. The big touchscreens look nice until they fail and cost a small fortune to replace and the failure stops your boat from functioning. I engineer control systems for a living and see what the outdoor environment does to electronics daily and I sure as hell don't want a large touchscreen controlling the boat's critical systems.

I agree with this. My next boat needs to have some analog gauges of some kind as a backup to the electronics. Earlier this season my Connext died and without any gauges (speed, tach, fuel, depth) I felt helpless on the water. Supply chain problems meant that although the boat was still under warranty, the Dealer couldn't get the parts and had a 1+ month service backlog to even install one. I was told (nicely, I might add) to essentially go find the part myself and install it, which I did to save my boating season. If I had had some analog gauges I would have still been able to use the boat while waiting for the dealer to make the warranty repair.

 

[PBear]

We're making the jump from our 2020 212X to a 2022 Moomba Kaiyen - just put the order in yesterday We now live on a lake in NH and after this summer the kids have outgrown the base capability of the 212X for surfing, one is goofy foot, one is regular foot, we're tired of moving additional ballast on the back steps, tired of moving the wake booster, etc. Next step is to sell the 212X...

 

[meaningreen]

What about the ones from Chaparral or Regal that have the forward facing stern drives? Personally I've seen a few at the docks, never been on one or seen the wake, but they are lower priced. Chap uses the Malibu gates.

 

[gallobg]

What about the ones from Chaparral or Regal that have the forward facing stern drives? Personally I've seen a few at the docks, never been on one or seen the wake, but they are lower priced. Chap uses the Malibu gates.

I boat mostly in inland lakes, and my big concern with these "prop forward" designs is that it really puts the prop "out there" to hit anything and everything in the shallow areas. I also don't like that there's still a lower unit down there to hit your feet on. Maybe its totally fine in the real world, I just can't bring myself to consider it.

 

[suke]

Maybe I'm not seeing the same one. I see the one at Bill's for $113K (MSRP $144K), but it's a 2022 not a 2021 leftover. Beautiful exterior, the mint interior is a bit much for me.

That's the one! Thought it was a 2021.

 

[4michael]

I just sold my Yamaha and bought a Malibu for the same reasons as this post. In my months of research I decided to steer clear of MasterCraft. Simply because everyone who owns a wakeboard told me that they have poor reliability, wave, etc...

My neighbor owns and surfs behind an Axis (made by Malibu) and it throws an awesome wave with stock ballast. The new Axis models are going to have touch screen controls made by Garmin .

My good friend owns and surfs behind a Centurian. Same as above. I have surfed it and it is an incredible wave with stock ballast. Centurion also has multiple trim levels (Ri,Fi,etc ), each varying in price. I have been told by numerous people to stay away from Supreme branded boat, made by Centurion. My friends is a top-of-the-line RI. However he feels that centurion fi doesn't even better wave.

I've also heard that both Supra and moomba make pretty incredible boats but both require significant more lead ballast distributed throughout the boat to make a great wave.

All that said the surf boats owners that do use extra ballast usually just throw a few lead/steel bags in the lockers and forget about them. Even with that extra ballast they still generally holds a lot more people than any Yamaha on the market.

That being said I loved my Yamaha 242 SE. It was the best boat I could imagine for my family until I started surfing. I surfed behind it for several months but became worn out from moving the ballast around every time surfers wanted to switch sides. Not being able to take a full crew out because the ballast would lower my number of passengers, etc.

If you really want to surf a lot and bring tons of friends, then buy a dedicated surf boat. They all pretty much throw a great consistent wave, carry lots of passengers, and do so simply with a push of a couple buttons.

As far as cost, as with anything in life you get what you pay 4.

 

[4michael]

And yet Yamaha is already sold out until 2023.

Yamaha is a great jack of all trades boat. Maybe the best. But not even close to a great surf boat. Probably sold out to 2023 because it is a boat anyone can afford. Correlation does not equal causation.

 

[MajorBummer210]

Check out ATX surf boats. Good affordable option.

 

[Chillypilot]

I made the jump a couple of weeks ago to a Mastercraft X25. For surfing the boat is definitely easier but there are some draw backs. Manoeuvring in tight spaces is near impossible and if you want to back up you can only turn right unless you’re really moving. I must say the new boat has taken some time to adjust too as did my Jet boat when I bought it. Point is, except for surfing the grass isn’t really that much greener on the other side of the fence.

 

[OrangeTJ]

I made the jump a couple of weeks ago to a Mastercraft X25. For surfing the boat is definitely easier but there are some draw backs. Manoeuvring in tight spaces is near impossible and if you want to back up you can only turn right unless you’re really moving. I must say the new boat has taken some time to adjust too as did my Jet boat when I bought it. Point is, except for surfing the grass isn’t really that much greener on the other side of the fence. View attachment 161376

There's a technique you need to learn for backing and maneuvering in tight spaces. Just involves switching between reverse, neutral and forward and back again to get the boat going the direction you want. Not as complicated as it sounds but takes a couple of tries to learn fully. Once you learn it, your tight space maneuvering concerns will evaporate. After learning the technique, I can put our MB anywhere I want and frankly find it MUCH easier to deal with around docks and obstacles and at low forward speeds than our twin engine Yamaha ever was.