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Replying to Topic 'O
The early days of my skiing carrer included sking behind fishing boats, pontoons, tri-hulls, and runabouts. Then joined a ski club and had a chance do some sking behind some Master Crafts and Nautiques, even an old Hydrodyne stern drive (AWSA approved).
When I bought my first boat money was a huge issues, so we went with an outboard. It served it's purpose for about 13 years. Then we were ready to step up. My experience with MC and CC got me started there. But I quickly found that, even used, they were out of my price range. So I found a local 1999 Mobius (5.7L carb Indmar) with 33 hours on it. The boat was AWSA approved, which meant to me that it would be suitable for pulling a course.
The boat has been pretty good to me. Aside from the whole spreading windshield/hull flex thing that is more annoying from time-to-time, it has been a pretty sound investment. My replacements have been: a couple of impellers, a bilge pump, a bilge blower that is probably needing replacement, and the windshield remounting (which would have been warranteed if I was original owner).
Lets face it: Engine, transmission, controls, a pylon (and maybe a tower), a hull, and a trailer. You can do a lot of maintenance for $20K. And if you really don't like the boat, they hold their value pretty well over the first 5-7 years. You could drive the boat for 5 years, put $5K into repairs (most likely way less) and take a $5K loss on resale and still be $10K ahead. Check www.nada.com for used boat prices.
My 2cts
Dave
