16 Mondo (50hrs) vs 18 axis a20 (carryover new)

[trayson]

Thanks for the continued comments. Is "Sight Unseen" purchase common/prevalent in boating circles? I think just generally we've steered away from that as it is a venture into the unknown. Would love to hear other experiences good, bad, or indifferent

Well, this was a guy that I'd talked to regularly on the forums. When he decided to sell his boat, he offered it to me first, and at a great price. Lots of pictures, and lots of discussion followed. But I knew the boat and its history from this forum. He was a stand up guy and it worked out great.

Forgive my ignorance, why does the bow filler cushion not accomplish the same purpose? Walkway when you want it and playpen when looking to lounge? Seems like that would be preferable option? I know storage was mentioned as key to that as well, is that the main difference? Thanks!

So to some extent a filler cushion does make the bow more playpen like. But you don't get that backrest that flips up to become a windscreen. You also don't get that extra observer seat (with another flip up backrest) next to the driver.

so far this year, for the early season we've had small crews and haven't been using the bow for people. It's been a little chilly in the evenings so that flip up cushion is making a windscreen by closing off the bow. And if I flip up boat seats, I have a little "storage" area between the two backrests where I can put extra dry gear between sets. (note, the the Axis boats I've been in with this feature, they don't have a "floor" under the flipup backrests. so when you have the backrests flipped up, if you tried to step in between them or store stuff in between them, you'd fall through to the storage locker or step on the filled up ballast bag. Huge oversight on that one for Axis).

And when motoring back when it's cold, you can never have too many seats behind the windshield. Maybe some people don't like having that extra rear facing seat right next to the driver, but I don't mind at all.

I have had walk up bow's in the first 2 boats. current has playpen and I hate it. harder than heck to get up front to launch/retrieve the boat on the winch and we don't roll with large enough crews that anyone is ever up front. it really makes it a pita to crawl over cushions to get up front. all my .02 tho.... when i sold the last boat the bow filler cushion was still in the original plastic bag from shipping.
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That's where I get confused. How is it hard to just walk on the cushions like you walk on your sundeck cushions in the back? I don't see any real difference. I'm not wearing shoes in my boat, so my bare feet produce no wear and tear on the upholstry. In fact, the cushions in the playpen were among the least worn of all the ones that recently got replaced.

When launching the boat, I unhook the bow winch from the eye. Back in, have the wife start the boat. When she's ready, I back a couple feet further and hit the brakes and the boat slides right off, nice and straight. We launch like a boss.

When docking, I nose up to the dock and the wife steps off. If we had a walkthrough bow, she'd still have to step on the cushion at the nose of the boat and then onto the nose of the bow as she stepped off. Then she gets the truck and backs it down. I drive it onto the trailer, and up until the bow eye is at the roller. I then leave it slightly in gear as I go up in the bow and get on my knees to reach over and latch the trailer winch strap to the bow eye. (Note: I'd have to be kneeling on that bow nose cushion if I had a walkthtough to do this, so no difference there). Then I'll either go back to the captain's seat and put the throttle in Neutral and turn off the key, or someone that's a regular crew member will likely do that for me. I'll simply holler "UP" to the wife through the opened rear truck window and she'll pull out boat out. Quick and surgical.

SO really the difference is a few feet of the wife walking on the bow cushions before she'd have to step on up on the nose cushion anyway, or me crawling over the bow cushions before I'd have to kneel on the nose cushion anyway. No real difference in my experience. And once you'll only whack your head on the Cargo Bimini ONCE before you are trained to duck before stepping down from the playpen into the cabin!!!

(besides the storage)
Playpen's will have a cushion that flips up and completely closes off the front seating area. This functionally accomplishes adding one more backrest up front & separates the passengers in front of the windshield from the rest of the boat.

We take our kids, they bring friends. 16 year old daughter & friends DO NOT want to be around 14 year old son & friends. Big plus here for us.

As mentioned, if it's cold out, you close the glass, flip up the front cushion & you get a much warmer midship. Also mentioned, an additional rear observation seat next to the driver when you flip up the interior back rest cushion.

All of this. And the storage aspect is HUGE. I'm not kidding when I say that I regularly put 3 or 4 boards into the playpen locker. Out of sight, out of mind. When we're trailering or mooring at a campground, that storage is priceless. I hate going in boats and not having a place to put boards (both when we're parked and when we're underway). My buddy's G23 has space for 4 boards on the tower and a walkthrough with a filler cushion. 4-5 boards is the absolute MINIMUM that we'd ever be out playing with. On my buddy's G23 with the walkthrough, there's almost always someone's board up in the bow or banging around in the walkthrough. Yuck.

Now when we're surfing or wakeboarding we certainly can't have boards in my playpen locker, because we have that filled with 1180 pounds of ballast! woo hoo! There hasn't been a single time when I was like "I wish I had a walkthrough". It's just dead space IMO.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm VERY PARTICULAR in what I like to have on my boat. Tons of storage, tons of seating, room for ballast, etc. That's why to circle back, when I was deciding what boat I'd want to upgrade from my Supra Sunsport direct drive to a V-Drive, that the list was short because I fell in love with the playpen in our Supra (who invented the concept in wake boats).