New Slalom Tugs at the Show

Yeah, and they wonder way slalom skiing is becoming a lost art.  Thing is, you dont need a $180,000 boat and a $2,000 ski to have fun or even be pretty good. They just dont want you to know it.

As far as Will skiing 41 off.  No small feat.  Not sure of the exact status, Paid somewhat close attention in 21, but not so much in 22 but, only, I think it is, 12ish skiers have ever completed 41 off.  It might be more now, there were a couple of very good performances last year.  When you think about it, that's the same number of people who have walked on the moon.  Nate's record of 2 1/2 at 43 off has stood for about 10 years.

When the latest iteration of the Ski Nautique came out in 2019, it was the ridiculous price of $120,000 and the "price point" 200 (supposedly for clubs/camps/teams) was a mere $80,000.  The 200 base price is now $106,000.  A camp a friend of mine is associated with just bought a 200.  Not anything special or lots of options and it was $120,000. List (base) on a new Ski Nautique is $155,0000 so Im sure it doesnt take too many bells and whistles to get it up to $180,000.  Good thing we are skiers and not fancy pants surfers, a Paragon g25 starts at 395.

Feels out of whack though -- like something has to give.  

Do ya really need that $100K plus slalom boat to run the same bouys you ran with the $40K boat?

its all a big scam and miss direction within the competition  boat  aspect of the sport. Wakes are really no better then most of the mid 90's and early 2000's hulls in comparison to these new engine sleds that these manufacturers are calling boats.

there are rumors in the world that there will be one of the three manufacturers discontinue building three event boats altogether..

I know at Nautique they have far more mouths to feed then it really takes to manufacture  and produce a boat. 

skis are posted as scary prices but in reality they are not. Goodes have been $1000 plus for nearly 20 years. The prices of skis have been held relative low in respect to how much boats have been jacked up price wise.

 

Keep in mind what many are missing is that watersking is not declining, its the competitive organization known as AWSA/USAWS that has diminished greatly.

rebel skier wrote: Feels out of whack though -- like something has to give.

My dad and grandpa both spent most of their working life at a luxury boat manufacturer (think 30-60' fishing and pleasure craft). These stories from the boat shows give me 2006-2007 vibes... Eventually you run out of people who can pay, but by the time you realize it you are already 1-2 years beyond the demand/price peak and the factory is competing against an excess of unsold "new" or lightly used inventory. Recipe for disaster. The builder my dad worked for barely survived the '08 crash, and had to turn their fiberglass skills to far less nautical pursuits (e.g., building large windmill blades) to get through. It took them close to a decade to recover, but they'd lost the majority of their workforce in the meantime. It is risky selling a luxury product that the uber rich don't bother with and the average joe cannot afford.

Re: newbies dropping a mortgage on a boat they don't have the first bit of skill to use I can only say, "The poor craftsman blames his tools."

 Another neighbor owns a Moomba and surfs a lot. Always extends an invitation to go with him and a couple other neighbors who surf. He sees us diehard slalom guys go out all the time and finally took me up on an invite to slalom. Took him about 3 tries to get up but finally got it. The smile on his face was worth the price of admission and when he got back in the boat he said" Man that was fun! That was an adrenaline rush! He bought a slalom ski this winter as he wants to swerve with us more and get introduced to the course.

 The prices of these new ski tugs makes the 99 I just bought last year makes me even happier that I did it and you couldn't slap the grin off my face with a 2x4 every time I see the MSRP on a new ski tug. The guy who sold it to me was selling it to get a pontoon. It's all just Freaking crazy. Guess now I know why CC has branched out and acquired other mfgs. I think they are protecting their brand when/if the bottom falls out.

Don't see me selling any of the Morfleet EVER! They are probably an investment!

A few more of the Mexinautique to keep ya smiling and reminiscing Bill.

Here's my take.  $50,000 pickup trucks are now 75k, 65k ones are hitting 100k.  I hear people saying "nobody will buy them" but obviously they are leaving the lots, in fact have to be ordered in many cases due to lack of availability.  Yes things go up and down and maybe interest rates and other economic factors will drop sales and create inventory, we'll see.

Boats are even more inflated, but I think we frugal do-it-yourselfers tend to underestimate the amount of people on all our lakes that have stupid amounts of money.  You'd be surprised how many of these surf boats are bought for cash, and replaced after 3-4 seasons for no reason other than a desire for new and shiny and status.  I think many here mention that people think they need the latest most expensive model to surf or wake or ski better, but if you really delved into it they need the latest for status, not because they really think it will make a performance difference.

What does surprise me a bit is that there isn't a Bayliner type option for ski/wake/surf, someone making a lower quality boat that competes with the expensive ones geared to sell to people of more modest means. You'd think it would sell.  But maybe the build out and marketing effort needed is so expensive that only a current big manufacturer could roll it out and they have no incentive to do so.

Ahhh, but there is....

Larry, in a lot of way I couldn't agree with you more.  Do we need a new boat for what most of us do in or behind the boat, absolutely not. Depends on the setting.  Unless you're skiing in the course a ton and getting into short line.  I doubt you'll see a major difference.  

Having the opportunity to spend 40-50 hours a year in new Nautique Promo's and newer "other brands" over the past few years, I have to say the experience drastically different both in and behind the boat.  Is it necessary, no.  There is a huge difference when you're pulling hours on end with a wide-variety of abilities and ages at a tournament or ski school.  Pulling a clinic or tournament in an old rig can be exhausting.  The new Nautique is a WAY better experience when swapping skiers every 10-15 min and turning islands at each end.  

Then there's the PP/ZO conversation.  At our former club lake, the older / PP (StarGazer) boats struggled to get up to speed and not overshoot before the 55's at 34 & 36. Being a big dude, skiing at 36mph at a short lake was almost impossible - 55's were slow, gates & 1 were consistently fast, 2/3 was slow and 4 ball typically flew by at mach-speed with the boat trying to catch up.  Most times, I didn't care but our TC's and our better drivers were always frustrated with Stargazer.  ZO creates a more consistent ride and certainly helped my progression behind the boat....once I learned how to stand on the ski the right way.  

At the end of the rope, skiing faster speeds and shorter lines behind the new Nautique is a completely different feel IMHO.  The only way I can explain it was what I called the "the swing set // underdog feeling" coming off the second wake.  If you can stay connected to the handle off the second wake it feels like you're getting a nice push in your lower back making it really easy to get up on the boat without much input from the skier.  We don't experience the exact same feeling in our re-powered 409/ZO 01SN.  

Then there's the driver input conversation.  A bad driver can make the best boat feel like sh*t.  A good driver can make an old boat damn near the same as a newer/ZO boat.  That's a different conversation.

Long story short......are the new boats necessary, no? Am I glad they keep making them so I can buy one in 10-15 years, you bet!

  

To build a sub 20' boat is not financially conducive for most all current boat builders as the shear cost of materials has increased substantially across the board. manufacturers  have to profit on their investment in these materials. fiberglass resin by the gallon or pound, bigger boat bigger profit margin. Gadgets!! it;s not like the Auto industry where a half a million units are available and supported for many years. less then a 100 direct drive boats built by a manufacturer that the other 90% is big barge platforms. this drives the cost of the electronic gadgets sky high and support three years down the road....Replacement Linc unit near $5K.

Again many of these manufacturer's have a lot of mouths to feed.

A smaller boat company like Sanger might be able to pull off a sub $70K tournament boat but for some money is no object! bring on the $200k slalom tug!