Thinking About A New Boat

[boonecragun]

Bakes5 - I like your style. I don't think I could sleep comfortably in my 24 ve, (although I am willing to try). Those benches on yours look wide enough to enjoy a nice evening gazing at stars. Love falling asleep on the top of the houseboat at lake powell pondering the universe...

[UNSTUCK]

We HAVE to do some kind of Powell reunion! Tons of hotel and/or cove options for sleeping in Page.

[Bakes5]

You would be surprised. First couple nights may take some getting used to but after that...lights out. Secret is to use a pad and then one of those $150 rectangular canvas sleeping bags rated to 20 below. They are huge but sooo comfortable. I spent easily 20+ nights on that boat last year. We kinda go back and forth between a lakeside campground and just coving it. With the campground I still sleep in the boat but sometimes the locals are a little loud. With the cove it's just the freekin owls, coyotes and full moon that wakes me up. This year, gonna simplify things a little so we just cove it more. We have the whole thing down to a science. The only downside of this is that you need storage space...which ballast bags kind of take up.

Anyways, if anyone is in Colorado I'm more than happy to show them how to do the lake right.

[UNSTUCK]

Which lake is it? Sounds awesome.

[Bakes5]

Lake Pueblo. It's like a mini lake Powell about 1hr from my house...and it's one of my favorite places on earth. It gets crazy and down right dangerous on weekends after 1200 but we have been the only one out there from 0515-0830 on many a Saturday. Weekdays we can do what we want until 1130 on occasion. We typically are in eat lunch and swim mode at about 1130 and leave about 1230 when the morning ramp insanity has taken a brief pause. Good thing people are inherently lazy and cannot be bothered to get up early. I typically take a day off once a week and go on most weekends June through August. That gets me an 2 evening sessions, 2 morning sessions, 2 nights and 2 chill out in the cove and eat lunch and jump off the cliffs sessions each week. So many great days and nights out there. If the weather sucks or a storm is a brewin we don't go....that's the beauty of planning 2 trips a week to the lake.

I think that people overlook the "cuddy cabin" ability of the big 23 foot wake boats. It might be less fun out East or Down south with the bugs, humidity and the morning dew, but sleeping out under the stars in the cove on a dew and bug free desert lake in Colorado is heaven....esp on new moon nights. Sure, houseboats are nice, but they are expensive and a pain in the butt logistically. Something about the simple pleasure of going out for a little adventure in your wake boat. Best word I can use to describe it is "Boat Packing."

So that is our not so secret piece of heaven. It can be had with anything from an 18 year old 2200v to a 1yr old Z3. Name of the game is figuring out your lake, enjoying the boat you have, and getting the hours in.

[dakota4ce]

"If your looking at a reasonably priced 23 foot, no list surf boat then you are looking at a Z3 with TAPS 3 and your gonna pay $70-85k. Anything else is just gonna be an expensive experiment. Having seen all the work even getting a proven performer consistently great would give me serious pause about spending 59-60k on something hoping to get a non listed wave. Just look at the GSA experiment going on in the other thread."


There are plenty of aftermarket fittings of GSA on to various hulls that are super successful and have been done. So there is that--keep in mind the 24Ve fitting is the first of its kind as far as I know. And I think it will end up ok in the end. But Ryan at GSA has told me F22s, 23 LSV, X30, X45--all these make killer waves with GSA, and have many examples out and about. So it would be possible to have a cheaper system boat with "data" behind it. And even more grassroots are the older MBs (example 2012 B52 23) with "goose slappers" installed. Waves are great and there are a whole bunch of them out there.

Maybe the one caveat to your otherwise spot on observations. I have under $58K into a 2013 F24 Tomcat with GSA. Its a real peach! But it takes perhaps piggybacking on someone else's experiments.

[Mgigs7]

Dakota, don't forget a killer B52 23 with GSA under $70k


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[dakota4ce]

Apologies Mgigs--that too!

[Mgigs7]

Apologies Mgigs--that too!

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[Dandy]

It looks like there is a guy on the Moomba forum that has a next to new boat (5 hours) for sale due to unfortunate circumstances. Thought I would pass it along
https://forum.moomba.com/showthread....17-Moomba-Craz

[freeheel4life]

That Craz is going to make someone very happy.

[UNSTUCK]

We looked hard at Mojo's, but in the end mama didn't like them.

[sandm]

spent time on a '14 mondo and a '16 craz in wi and neither surfed near as well as a tige. interiors- specifically the dash/drivers seat/ and the goofy open space under the rear bench didn't make the interior feel nearly as nice as the tige.

[freeheel4life]

Sandm,
Do you know what ballast set up on the Craz was??

[Germaine Marine]

"If your looking at a reasonably priced 23 foot, no list surf boat then you are looking at a Z3 with TAPS 3 and your gonna pay $70-85k. Anything else is just gonna be an expensive experiment. Having seen all the work even getting a proven performer consistently great would give me serious pause about spending 59-60k on something hoping to get a non listed wave. Just look at the GSA experiment going on in the other thread."


There are plenty of aftermarket fittings of GSA on to various hulls that are super successful and have been done. So there is that--keep in mind the 24Ve fitting is the first of its kind as far as I know. And I think it will end up ok in the end. But Ryan at GSA has told me F22s, 23 LSV, X30, X45--all these make killer waves with GSA, and have many examples out and about. So it would be possible to have a cheaper system boat with "data" behind it. And even more grassroots are the older MBs (example 2012 B52 23) with "goose slappers" installed. Waves are great and there are a whole bunch of them out there.

Maybe the one caveat to your otherwise spot on observations. I have under $58K into a 2013 F24 Tomcat with GSA. Its a real peach! But it takes perhaps piggybacking on someone else's experiments.

His 24VE is not the first of its kind... as far as I know.

I have been on the GSA website... No doubt I think some boats are doing really well, mainly new hull boats so in that I question the data on those. Some of the results on older hulls are a matter of opinion really which makes the whole experiment , "Well he/she said it would outperform my current wave" so subjective. We all cycle in and out of different boats that friends own etc. and have different opinions on waves. People could be used to riding long super push gate waves and hate my boat, it happens. I see a lot of the market throwing out these wild claims and when push comes to shove who is 100% standing behind them no excuses or questions asked....................Crickets.

I think buying an older hull boat with plans of making it an automated system boat via tabs is a question mark and I think that anyone telling you anything other then that is selling a product. Wayyyyyy to many variables, so I tend to agree with Bakes take.

The other systems out, delta etc (gates) I think have much more finite results.

I dont know where I was going with that exactly but take it for whats it worth...