Stern drives making a splash in wake surfing??

[mikenehrkorn]

Very interesting review of a stern drive with forward drive -- anyone see one of these in person? The video in the reviews shows a pretty decent wave with only 1300# ballast. It seems to have all the bells and whistles of the inboards (i.e. speed control, ballast, trim tabs, tower, platform, etc.) as well as having the advantage of the traditional stern drive trim.

http://www.boattest.com/boats/boat_video.aspx?ID=3326

[kaneboats]

Hope the prop doesn't hit the hull when they trim up.

[sivs1]

saw one of these Saturday, had just pulled out when I was loading, tried to talk to the guy about it but he was kind of a jerk, but overall boat was nice, platform was dumb, basically a normal I/O platform with two more bolted on, I thought it looked cheesy.

http://bryantboats.com/boats/233X

[moombadaze]

nice, clean simple lines to it. good looking boat

[kaneboats]

I saw one site where it (4 Winns one) looked like list price was $98k. Anybody have info on that?

[mikenehrkorn]

Could only find one with a price......$77K

http://www.shipwreckmarine.com/inventory.php?pid=755

[168rod]

Not sure why someone would spend that kind of money????? Surf wake and wakeboard wake doesn't look that impressive. If your going spend that kind of money then get a wakeboard boat.

Viewed this on YouTube. https://youtu.be/3QhQSmR5LDo

[moombadaze]

for purely recreational multi use, not just tow boat duties, they could be onto something

[jmvotto]

wave looks crappy that the pro was riding

[sandm]

boating mag has reviewed a couple of them. general consensus is that the waves are just OK and will never compete with a wakeboat. they are designed for the user that still wants an i/o but wants an occasional wakesurf wave without the worries of hitting a prop.

now what will be interesting will be to see if manuf. continue to develop them. currently most are simply a new drive attached to an existing hull that I would bet has not had a lot of development time to be surf-specific.
lets go compare the early 2000's lsv hull when surfing took off to the craz hull today. night and day. bryant has a bunch of ex mc guys at the helm so betting they are currently doing some testing with new hull designs and more/different ballast.

[jmvotto]

cant imagine the engine strength to get that weight pig out of the water, looks like they took a long time to form.

my analogy is you want a mitsuibuishi eclipse or a Porsche 911 to race around in:cool:

[sandm]

good analogy if it's just a track car, but as a daily driver, the 911 will suck on the beat up roads up here where the eclipse will be a better "all around" car.
same thing with the i/o vs the wakeboat.


give the keys to your boat to your buddy that has never driven a boat and ask him to pilot it around the marina. give me the i/o all day long.

[mikenehrkorn]

I loved the way that my I/O handled (as did my wife!!) but my biggest surprise is the price tag....thought they would come in quite a bit cheaper than the inboards. If they are the same or higher it will probably be pretty hard to compete against all the inboard brands that have a huge head start in the wakeboard and surf areas.