Looking for 1st boat - Opinions on a couple finds

Looking for our first boat. I posted here a year or so ago with a 1 owner 79 Ski Nautique a friend was selling for their father. Missed that one. Missed a low hour 2 owner 1985 Mastercraft. Not much else of interest has come up.

Fast forward to this year. Mrs. Poorhouse is tired of waiting around. Kid is 6 now and fired up to get on the lake. Budget increase to low teens. Looking for something with an open bow, fuel injection and no wood stringers.

Gentleman in our neighborhood is selling a 1998 Malibu Echelon open bow.
586 hours. Moonsoon 5.7 EFI, in nice shape.
He is the second owner, its stored inside every winter and at their lake house for a couple months every summer.
Asking $14k.

Positives are it is local, it is a known good boat, it is basically what we are looking for.

Negatives, not a walk through open bow, Malibu seems to not be as well regarded as Correct Craft. Boat has very low free board. I've read these can take water over the bow and swamp. I'm a new boater and may be blowing that out of proportion.





My top choice from doing research and enjoying the '79 Nautique we looked at is a Sport Nautique, up to 1997. One came up recently across the state.

1997 Sport Nautique, 615 hours. GT40, 2 owners. Always stored inside until this year. Sellers kids grew up and he downsized. No room for the boat so it spent the winter outside and he is selling. Said it is showing some slight wear on the upholstery.
$14.5k with all his skiing, wakeboarding and boating gear.
Pics aren't great, he is going to shoot some better ones this weekend.
He's had the boat 5 years and has done nothing but oil changes.
Said it runs perfect and has never needed anything.

http://billings.craigslist.org/boa/5467062333.html




Looking for opinions on these 2 boats.
Price, condition, configuration, etc.
Open to other ideas or suggestions.

Also wondering about my swamping concerns. Am I blowing this out of proportion. We will be on small mountain lakes mostly. Not a whole lot of other boats or wind.

Once I drove an Air Nautique (open bow). I scooped up a few buckets of water by accident, wasn't the end of the world. It happens when you go thru wake without throttling up.   If you are 'on it' the whole time, it shouldn't be a problem.    Might be some ongoing education needed if you have other drivers too.

I own a Malibu and think they are nice boats. I'd disagree about poor quality until the early 2000s. They're decent boats, maybe not quite as good quality as a Nautique, but still decent boats. I'm not up on prices as I have no interest in buying another one, but as nice as that boat is, I think the price is way high. Probably just under $10k is tops for a '98.

P.S. I have nothing against Malibu. My second favorite behind CC.

If you want to talk to some guys that are just as crazy about their Malibus as we are about
our Correct Crafts, then check out themalibucrew.com.

BKH

pretty tough to beat a few of the last interesting c lists finds boats listed today. both beautiful and well cared for boats for the $

Well, apparently Malibu has done some weird sh-- just as we've seen from CC.

I did some digging and found this on the Malibu forum:

Echelon LX was walk a through for years 93-97. In1998 it shared the Reponse LX platform with the step over open bow.

So, maybe that is an Echelon for 98, or at least a Response in Echelon clothing.


BKH

Not sure what to think about the hour gauge in the dog house?? Check the dash hour gauge as well, iirc it should be a display window in the tach or speedo.

That BU will probably have a better slalom wake but gives up tracking vs the CC. Tower on the BU is fugly, CC looks like factory or new dimension tower, much better looking. May just be the pic angle but the axle on the BU trailer looks pretty far back instead of directly under the motor, where it should be. Neither boat has what I would consider optimal bow seating, the BU probably has a forward facing bench and step over, the CC is a playpen and the cushion is missing in the pic?

As far as driving an open bow, throttling over wakes works but is not your best option as it just chops all the water up, not good for your skier. If you simply shift to neutral the boat should just roll with the wave. A little practice and it's not that big a deal.

Of those 2 boats based on the pics I would choose the CC for sure.

Another thought is what motors/hp in each??

Response looks to have brand new interior... the tower is an eyesore but can be removed... maybe you can trade it for a pair of cleats or correctcraftfan decals to cover the holes! Not sure if the Scarpa Suppression Plate fits the 98 response. Improves table if you barefoot.

For a family boat, the Sport is hard to beat! Is that the original engine in the Sport?

Don't be in hurry and watertest... you will know which to pic if any.

I'm partial to Sport's, you'd love that boat. There's one just posted in the Craigslist thread, a '94, can likely buy for under 10 grand but it's carbed and needs an interior, figure an easy 4 grand to do it right. If the '97 Sport has a decent interior that you can get some years out of that might be the better choice IMO, You should try to look at a "93-'97 Sport and then a "98 up so you get an idea of the difference with the flat back and trunk on the later models. For hauling a bunch of gear that trunk is extremely handy.

Forget about NADA

If I HAD to get a bu... and it had to have a tower... and had to be open bow...

Sunsetter: 98 Sunsetter

Looks like a nice drive


But then again if a 98 Sport in same condition within $3 grand was available... I'd go that route.

1997 Sport came up a few hours away.

https://missoula.craigslist.org/boa/5535897661.html

Looks like a carb motor?

To wrap this story up, I bought a boat over the weekend.

Didn't end up with any of the boats previously mentioned.

Found a 1 owner 1986 Supra Sunsport with 585 hours in Boise.
Always stored inside, original interior in excellent condition. Engine looks near new.
And what sealed the deal a, $7k receipt for stringer replacement.
I couldn't pass it up for $5k.
Boat was in Boise. Had a shop check it out last week. They said they would buy it if I didn't.
Drove 800 miles Friday night and Saturday to get it home.
Had it on the water Sunday.
So much fun.   

After spending significant time researching boats on the Mastercraft, Malibu, Supra and CCF forums, I was impressed with the amount of knowledge and helpful nature of CCF.

I'm sure I will continue to search here as I learn about using and maintaining this boat.

Yes, pictures please. Congrats on the purchase, sounds like you found a very good deal.