well... we came to the realization with our current boat that at 23+ft it was just too big. we don't roll with a big crew and half the time it's just the 2 of us to get out and enjoy some sun. this boat was a monster so we decided to move down in size. listed the boat last monday and sold in an hour. should be in minnesnota about now to start eroding some more shorelines

that said we decided to brave the next pandemic hot spot and headed to phoenix for the weekend to boat shop. vegas only has a bu/axis dealer(axis is crap imo) and a nautty/supreme dealer. we are in the "value" boat market as all the added crap on boats today is just not needed for us.
phx is looking to be the next ground zero for covid and everywhere we went- malls, restaurants, cstores people were masked up EXCEPT 2 of the 3 boat dealers. doesn't bother us but interesting to see that.

that said we were out to shop the following: mb 21/22ft, supreme zs212, moomba kaiyen and atx 22. axis, as mentioned, did not appeal to me on the one I sat in buying an oil filter a few months ago and nxt is not for us.

we did not water test anything as this was more to touch/feel the boats and see what they are offering. that and the line at the ramp on saturday is almost 2 hrs long. none of the dealers do water tests on friday/saturday anymore. here's our takeaways from the weekend of fun.........

first stop was the mb dealer. all their boats were sold but they had a 21 and 22 tomcat to walk thru. only dealer that was masked up everywhere. salesman was extremely knowledgeable and easy to chat with.
pros- fit and finish/materials were tied for top of the bunch. tower folded extremely easily. seats had quite a bit of padding and were very comfortable. fixed the old electronic gate system with a cable system. dealer said zero service issues. ballast was quickest filling of the bunch. seats are all hinged.
cons- steering wheel was too thin. tower is love/hate. looks like an erector set. storage under seats was shallow. some would view this as a positive as you don't have to dig for stuff but it's not deep(felt like my old supra 20ssv). had sundeck walk over but no step in the middle of the seat below(dealer said they order the pad from nautique and have them installed occasionally). touchscreen is out of date compared to other offerings(same one that was on my buddies mondo in '14). limited dealer support and not a big presence across the US could limit resale down the road.

second stop was supreme dealer. the only supreme on the lot was a zs212 being detailed for a 1pm delivery. we could not step foot on the boat which I get but they refused to get a set of steps to look inside. boat is crazy tall- tallest of the bunch on a trailer and heavy. salesman was an arse and as soon as we figured out it's too tall for the garage he lost interest, left us and was on to the next customer. no input on the boat other than it was super deep. did tell us that an order that weekend would likely be a november delivery. that also told us he didn't want to sell us a boat.

third stop was atx/moomba dealer. salesman was good to talk to and understood the market well. We started with atx as there were 2 in the showroom.
Atx pros- all 3 dealers said atx would surf the best out of the box stock. add weight to the others and it's a more even match but factory ballast atx wins. boat is SUPER deep. tons of storage. touchscreen was the best of the bunch. tower was the easiest to fold down. 1 handed job for your wife.
cons- super deep meaning stuff will get lost/shuffling to find something. upholstery was the "cheapest" of the bunch feeling and none of the seats were hinged. felt like a budget boat, not a value boat. no sundeck walk over but it's coming for 2021. lots of plastic around the drivers seat.

moomba kayien- to be fair this boat didn't get a good shake until we got home. the boat they had left was equipped with the stock tower. folded this boat easily needs a 9ft door. salesman who sold both lines said he specialized in skiers choice but he never mentioned that the pro tower upgrade would get us under an 8ft door so we didn't really give the kayien as much of a thorough once over. I will say the factory tower was the worst to fold down of the 3 and the only one using a cable vs a direct gas shock hookup(atx) or gas shock and gear setup(mb). didn't care for the cable setup. I believe the pro tower option will put the kayien in the hunt with the other 2 AND fit our garage..
pros- upholstery was tied with mb for the best of the bunch. moomba felt just as good and in some respects a little better. all seats were hinged. walk over sundeck was the best of the bunch. touchscreen was as nice as atx. tower position was perfect stepping off the sundeck.
cons- factory tower folding was worst of the bunch. who came up with the brilliant design to put the phone location on top of the dash directly under the windshield in the sun? that would bake several phones a year here in the desert. still not a fan of moomba drivers seats. surf tabs had 4 actuators. felt like overkill(expenses down the road). the other boats are using gsa.

I'm sure there's a lot more that I could type here but overall our takeaway to order a new boat, moomba or mb would get the dough.

we're still not sure if buying now is the right thing as I believe there's going to be a lot of boats for sale used late this year and early 2021 but you can't put a price on the lost time waiting for a deal to save a few grand.

we're building a few boats and going to send off for some pricing to see where they land.

maybe Rick T will put in a good word for an OG looking to get back into a skiers product