Caveat Lector: stream of conscious wakesurfy boat post ahead…
Saturday we celebrated the end of summer with one final wakesurf. Or maybe the first wakesurf of autumn. First and last. So I suppose we were celebrating the end of one surfing season, and the prospect of an even better one next year.
After it rained all summer — yes, that’s an exaggeration, but just barely — we got one last opportunity to finish up the season with mirror flat water behind a towboat that’s a possible preview for summer 2024. One. Last. Hurrah.
I mentioned yesterday that both of our powerboats were hauled on Friday for the winter storage. But on Saturday Terence Fogarty, the owner of Fogarty’s Lake Flower Marina in Saranac Lake surprised us with a test drive. He trailered a 2024 Nautique GS20 to the Westport boat launch and invited us to drive and wakesurf to our hearts’ content. We’ve been talking over the last month about the prospect of trading our ski/surf towboat, a Super Air Nautique 210 that’s about a decade old. Ours has start to show the first signs of its age, and while managing the more rigorous maintenance schedule is one possibility, we’re also exploring other options. Our Nautique 210 is basically a first generation wakesurf boat, representing the earliest transition from wakeboarding to wakesurfing. As Terence explained, it’s basically a wakeboarding boat with some modifications to help sculpt surfable waves. It’s been an amazing vessel, the impetus for many wonderful memories with family and friends, but the technology has changed. Is still changing. This is still a new sport, do it’s still evolving.
Susan and I did not manage to waterski once this summer, but we’re not ready to give up slalom skiing. So the challenge for us is, is to find a boat that works well for both waterskiing AND wakesurfing. In the industry this is referred to as a crossover design, and from what I’ve been able to learn so far, the boat Terence brought to us seems to be the best option available. There are others. Malibu, for example, is a flashy competitor. But we’ve owned several Nautiques, and we have been consistently impressed with the quality design and construction.
I do struggle with replacing a good boat that just need some TLC. But Terence assured us that there’s plenty of demand for our old boat. If we trade it in, he’s confident it will find a new owner promptly. That’s good news. The opportunity to extend the life of this worthy vessel does help me contemplate upgrading to a newer boat. On that Susan and I are aligned. But she really would prefer to custom design a replacement, selecting colors and configuration perfectly tailored to her preferences. Although I understand her wish, the merits of buying the boat we test drove makes sense rather than fabricating a new boat makes especially if he can incentive thus option with enticing numbers for our trade, etc.
We both consider the test drive boat to be a somewhat less than beautiful build. Lots of black. Sparkly green gel coat. But if we can find a sweet spot between the dealer’s desire to lighten his winter floor plan and our desire to upgrade at the most reasonable price, it’s possible that we will strike a deal.
And, whether or not we make the deal, it certainly was nice to get out on the water one last time one day after we hauled our own boats. Conditions had not allowed us to wakesurf in the last couple of days that our boats were still in the water. So, even though Saturday was far from beautiful (chilly and gray with a few drizzly moments) Lake Champlain was flat as glass. In other words, the conditions were superb.
We both wakesurfed and appreciated the performance. We also both drove the boat, and that impressed us as well. We’re confident that it would be a pleasure to own.
So, will we be replacing Racey Rosslyn? No decision as of yet. Still horsetrading…
Of note, one of the big differences aside from the actual functionality and technological upgrades (ie. the user interface, seat warmers, rearview camera, etc.) is that our old boat actually looks like a boat. It has a V-hull that comes to a point at the bow. The new boat does not. Like most of new sportboats in the market, the bow is rectilinear, snub nosed rather than traditional V-hull. It’s a strange change. Not pretty, to my eyes. But apparently, if we are to believe what we read (and what Terence explained to us) there are benefits to that strange bow redesign. It seems to ride high and dry when needed, minimizing the wet-ride. And the physics of this design ostensibly underpin the GS20’s ability to perform well BOTH a ski boat and a wakesurf boat. For the uninitiated, wakesurfing and waterskiing require diametrically opposed conditions. A slalom skier is looking for the flattest, least turbulent table possible. This enables the skier to cut back and forth, back and forth across the wake with a minimum of impact when they hit the water disrupted by the boat. Often referred to as the table, crossing this higher area can feel like hitting a curb at high speed. Obviously, we are not hoping to replace our boat with one that creates conditions that feel like hitting a curb!
On the other hand, wakesurfing — which happens at considerably lower speeds with the surfer much closer to the stern of the boat than water skiing — favors maximum displacement, resulting in a large/tall, wake directly behind the boat, and a significant difference between the trough and both the port or starboard side of the boat and the top of the table. This trough is shaped mechanically to produce a wave with a curl similar to what you would experience if you were surfing a natural brake in the ocean. The capacity to create both conditions with the same boat is challenging and continues to inspire design innovation.
Although the surfability of the boat we test drove on Saturday is not dramatically different from the one that we are considering replacing, the quality of the slalom and surfing conditions is significantly improved. A clean and predictable table lacking significant turbulence and flattening out the transition from port and starboard to wake, effectively minimizing the impact that a slalom skier experiences when cutting hard. And ehen wakesurfing, both the port and starboard side waves are crisp and beautiful, the curl perfect, and the foam minimized. On our current boat conditions on the starboard side far outperform those on the port side, favoring “goofy“ surfers like Susan. But we’ve all learned to work with what we have, and none of us would be quick to complain. That said the possibility of improving behind the new boat is tempting.
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