Best Crossover Boat - Nautique, Tige, Malibu, Mastercraft

[Zeda]

Donnie B.....

Tige does not put Ballast in the hull. However, they have massive storage to begin with, so it isn't too big of a deal if you put tanks or sacks in the compartments. The Tige ballast system consists of tanks. You may be shocked to see the price of the 2007 Tiges. I dropped my CC220 off for its 20 hour service and my dealer told me the new 22ve is around 57K. Tige has really stepped up and made the fit and finish of thier boats much nicer resulting in the higher price.

I used to own a 2004 Tige 22V. Great boat all around. The ski wake was marginal at all rope lengths except for 15 off. It's pretty good at 15 off. I would personally go with the 211 considering what you are looking for. I demoed the 211 and it was much more enjoyable to drive and it has a much nicer ski wake IMO. With that said, you would probably be happy with any of the boats you are considering.

[travisr]

i agree with bocephus, weve got a nautique and a sanger(dx2) both very solid investments. as ive posted here before , my friend and i both bought new boats this year. me the sv211 te, him the mc x2. his boat didnt get even a quarter of the ride time mine did and we went to the lake together 2 times aweek. If you want all around family fun on the lake with a huge swim platform, shapable wakes and good cockpit go nautique. we haven't had a rider complain once about the wake this thing kicks. i'll agree, they aint cheap. Neither is a ferarri.

[boatech]

Boatech, just curious, what do you think of Sanger? The V210 is one heck of a deal and will outlast a Tige' easily, I can show you several that have. Sanger is the only other boat manufacturer that I would consider other than Nautique. You learn something when you are in business for over 52 years with the company staying in the same family.

i have only worked on a handful of sangers in the 1995-1998 range they were slalom boats we dont have alot of sangers in my area at all we just dont see them at all really.everyone of the was a transplant to fla. from another part of the country.the ones i have worked on did seem to be holding up ok but i cant say better than a tige,mc or cc. they did have a mercruiser eng. wich i dont care for i think it was one of the best things tige did is stop using mecruiser. they are going 100% marine power now. the marine power engines are nice they have been around for a while and are great motors. what does sanger use now? pcm is a fine engine as well there are tiges out there with pcm eng. they also work well. im gona try and find a dealer near me and ill check them out a little closer. we must not have any though i goto every boat show around me and i never see one. they more on west coast? or up north?

[h2oskeefreek]

Donnie,

It seems to me that you are really going to have to decide between slalom and wakesurfing. You can do them all behind any comp boat, but the fact that you are looking for "buttery" slalom wakes, I think you are going to have to go with a direct drive. If you want "world class" surfing wakes, you have to go with a Vdrive. Any direct drive can be weighted to put out a great boarding wake and decent surfing wake. Think about a 197/x7 209/x9 (not really "buttery" but close), or a CC 206, 'bu rlxi or the 'bu xti's if you want buttery slalom and great boarding wakes. The xti's seem to be a great mix of direct drive/family freindlier boat.

[DonnieB]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I really appreciate it!

[Richard-Howell]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I really appreciate it!

So what did you decide?

[HBSkier]

All of the good info has been covered, so I'll throw in one little piece. The under-seat storage in the 20v is terrible (the RZ2 is much better, but won't be the best cross over).

[skinautique]

Donnie B.....

Tige does not put Ballast in the hull. However, they have massive storage to begin with, so it isn't too big of a deal if you put tanks or sacks in the compartments. The Tige ballast system consists of tanks. You may be shocked to see the price of the 2007 Tiges. I dropped my CC220 off for its 20 hour service and my dealer told me the new 22ve is around 57K. Tige has really stepped up and made the fit and finish of thier boats much nicer resulting in the higher price.

I was in the RZ2 with 11 hours and it was falling apart. The fit and finish was terrible. I personally feel that the Tige in general has way less storage then the 2006 SAN. I don't see the buzz in them at all. I would get a 220 any day over those boats personally.