I found a Direct Drive at the Charlotte Boat Show

Gentlemen,

Last Sunday, I went to the Charlotte Boat Show titled the Mid Atlantic Boat Show and like has been stated on some other thread, to find a direct drive inboard can be very hard. Nautique had no 200's, Master Craft had no Pro-Stars, no carbon pro's, and Malibu did not display there new response. However, I did find one inboard direct drive that got my attention. It was on display and was calling my name. However, upon second thought I found these NEGATIVE things about this boat at the show.

#1) No Tower.
#2) No Kick Butt Ghetto Blasting Sound System.
#3) No Swim Platform.
#4) No Underwater lights
#5) No Ballast system / Surf System.
#6) No Board Racks
#7) No Perfect Pass, Zero Off or even a freaking Z-Box
#8) It even had a old school carb. I could not find the fuel injectors.
#9) Will not run worth a crap on regular gas.
#10) No trim tabs.
#12) No Links System, just old school Teleflex gauges.
#13) No were did it state how may tubes it could pull.
#14) No heater
#15) No Shower
#16) No Ski Racks
#17) Does not sit 15 of my closest friends .
#18) and no Fram Oil Filter.

I probably could of got a sweet deal if I would of offered NADA less $500.00 as a show special, but with all of the lack of features I could not make myself buy the boat. So I had to pass on the only Direct Drive Fiberglass Inboard at the show.

Sad,

Donald

How about color choice or is that #19 on the list?

#20) No matching dock lines!

Team Red must be missing some inventory.

N0 Glitter Paint! Piece of crap...

Donald80SN wrote: Here are photo's of this Correct Craft, I heard that the owner was out of the country anyway so it would of been hard to strike a deal.

Not one of us or at least I don't recognize the boat? Anyone know the stang and owner?

The show looks pretty dead in that photo, but I bet that boat had a lot of lookers. The Boston boat show had 2 DDs, both the new Malibu Txi and it is butt ugly hideous.

Wait, isn't the rope holding the doghouse open putting a side load on that lifting ring?

I've seen nicer Mustangs being fished out of.

Donald80SN wrote: Riley wrote: The show looks pretty dead in that photo, but I bet that boat had a lot of lookers. The Boston boat show had 2 DDs, both the new Malibu Txi and it is butt ugly hideous. Bruce, My daughter worked the show for Coble's Water Ski Camp in Lillington, NC. She said Saturday was Slammed Packed. I took her to the show Sunday (11AM- 5 PM). That photo was taken about 11:30 AM so the show had only been open 30 minutes. I went home and my daughter said that Saturday was busy all day, but Sunday would be busy for an hour than light crowd for an hour then busy again for an hour. She said it was very strange. Coble's Ski Camp is also a Master Craft dealer and a Master Craft, factory guy came over to the Coble's booth and he said that had already sold 10 boats as of Sunday AM. Cobles did not bring boats only used and their 2016 gear they were discounting to make room for 2017 Ski's and such. I felt that the crowd was very strong. The Royal Flush was at the Charlotte Antique Boat Club display. My camera on my I-Phone 6 did not do it justice. Donald

Gary,

You might want to look up NADA before going all the way up to $175.

#22) White seats make it tough to eat cheese nips, Cheetos, and Cheese Crackers while on the lake, Not kid friendly.
#23) Vinyl floor covering. No Sea Deck.
#24) Trailer does not have rollers for easy loading and unloading. Sometimes before making it too the water.

Donald

There is not one cup holder...🍺

I have nothing against the fine craftsmanship of a wakeboard & surf boat, but it's sad to see inboard ski boats become less of a priority and focus for manufacturers. Seems like slalom skiing has taken a back seat to surfing. To each his own, but I really hope the sport makes a comeback and direct drive ski boats are built better than ever. Would be super cool to bring back the shapes and sound of a classic inboard. I'm still waiting for the day where Correct Craft makes a line of throwback ski boats with dual exhaust, carburetor engines that costs in the $20k range. With a better slalom hull than the classic boats of course. Anyway, take very good care of your classic inboards gents. Ken

In all honesty manufacturers are doing us skiers a favor by still producing the few and way out of my budget slalom tugs. Their ROI can't be worth it compared to the wake barges they make. I'm just glad in 20 years they'll be a 2017 SN 200 I might could aford.

The 3-event scene and maybe to a lesser extent the show skiing scene (though maybe more outboards than DDs for show skiing) is what is keeping the DD's on the production line. CC 200s go right out through the promo network every year and they sell every one of them. These are not folks barefooting, cruising the lake, or seeing how fast the boats go even though that's all fun stuff. They are making sacrifices and working extremely hard for their craft skiing around balls, racking up thousands of points in tricks, and hitting a big red wedge. Support 3 event. Support show and college teams. Ski some tourneys. Get involved and whatnot. THEN complain about DDs disappearing.

Would be interesting to see the production numbers over the past couple decades, We took a factory tour 3 years ago, that day there was only a handful of DD's with just about everything else being ballast ships.