X-30 or X-45?

[Buster]

My family and I are currently in the market for a skiboat and I am not sure what to do. We currently have a boat (2004 Cobalt 250) that we use for sking, tubing kneeboarding and some wakeboarding. The problem is that for sking the wake is just too darn large and intimidating :eek3: .

We have been looking at the X-45 and the X-30 trying to decide which would be the best fit for us. Often times we take a lot of people with us on the boat so I like the size of the X-45. However, I am concerned that the wake won't be much of an improvement over my current boat for sking. I also read somewhere that the X-45 equipped with the L-18 is not very stable in turns :confused: .

The X-30 is nice and I have skied behind my neighbors' but I am just concerned that it is not a big enough boat.

Any suggestions that you guys might have would be appreciated.

[peason]

Have you looked at any of the direct drives like the 209 or X9 they have a lot of room and the wake is good for both slalom and wake boarding. We get a lot of people and equipment on our 209 with a tower. The good thing about the X-9 is the built in ballast for when you want to wake board.

[milkmania]

Any suggestions that you guys might have would be appreciated.

anything you do find.....

SKI behind it! before you lay down the cash:popcorn:

[X2M]

How many people do you normally take with you? I'm guessing it might be to many for the X2? Give it a look and a test drive. IMO (which isn't much since I'm kinda partial to mine. :D ) It is the best of both worlds. Good for skiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding and tubing too.

[alpace]

Buster,

Just bought a 2006 X30 (5.7 liter, 350hp MCX engine) and have been out on it four full days. Here are some observations:

'06 is four inches smaller (22'4") than last year. It is also 700 pounds heavier and has higher freeboard and a deeper V. As such, it is smoother through 'chop'. As I had considered a Cobalt as well, the '06 deeper v quelled my concerns re ability to take it out when the winds come up.
As to wake, the boat has three ballast tanks with guages to accurately telly you how full they are. The system works well. I found it rather straightforward to customize wake...but I am no expert here and am still learning. Maybe others can comment.

Notwithstanding the loss of 4" in length, the boat is larger and is Coast Guard rated for 16 vs 12 on the '05. Regardless of CG rating, my observation is that the boat is generous in size. We have accommodated eight VERY comfortably. The boat has two ice chests, lots of power ports, great stereo, etc.

Because of the greater freeboard in the '06. seats are higher and the storage is TREMENDOUS. Even with the tower, we often store skis, wakeboards, lifevests, skivests, towels, etc. below the seats with room to spare.

I also considered the x45 and xstar....a bit too big for us....but the real issue is that the picklefork does not handle rough water well. The sloped nature of the picklefork often dips deep in chop and makes for a VERY wet bow area whenever you encounter chop. Moreover, while the X45 is a terrific looking boat, I had been warned by the MC dealer not to leave children up there during any chop. Not only because it was a wet area, but because it was necessary to 'nudge the accelerator' to keep the nose high during chop.

Of course, as I have already bought the X30, I am biased. that said, I researched Cobalts and Mastercrafts. Further, due to 'relationships' I could have purchased a new tournament boat at a heavy discount. In the end, I found the nex x30 to address my needs of a large family watersport boat.

Hope this helps.

[Tom023]

What one does your wife want?

[WakeSeeky]

I've climbed around on the '06 X-30, and it sure doesn't seem "smaller" than our '05 from the inside, that thing is awesome. Guess it really depends how many people you want to take out. We've had as many as 7 on our '05 comfortably.

We chose the X-30 for handling chop as well, that was more important to us than more people/space on the X-45, and there would have been no opportunity to demo the X-45 before we ordered. Also, I wanted to be able to ski and was just not sure what the wake would be like behind the X-45. I still haven't talked to anyone that's tried it, so sorry, can't help you there. However, we happened to be at the shop yesterday & they were installing a tow hook on an X-80, so I guess it all depends on how bad you want to ski. :D

[Buster]

X2-Momma, this last weekend we had twelve people in our boat, (five adults and seven kids). That is probably close to the max that we would have in the boat. Tom, my wife hasn't seen either the X-30 or the X-45 so I guess I should at least show her some pictures to her. For the most part, once I get the green light she leaves the boat buying up to me.

Alpace, have you done any sking behind your '06 X-30, if so what is the wake like compared to the older model X-30?

[alpace]

Just got back from Stampede, Tahoe. Cannot compare wake/skiing capability to the '05 and prior x-30's as we never had the opportunity to try it. Our '06 x-30 is clearly more of a wakeboarder's choice vs. a skier's 'ideal'. The wake is bigger...pure and simple. Having said that, both my wife and I skied our new x-30 (aka 'REDiculous!') for three days with no issues whatsoever! In addition, my wife tried wakeboarding and loved it. Moreover, on Saturday when the winds kicked up on Lake Tahoe and there was a solid two+ foot chop, the boat made the traverse from Emerald Bay to the Coast Guard Launch at Lake Forest with no problems at all (six people in the boat). Notwithstanding the chop and wind, boat was dry but for one cross wave which broke over the top (I could have avoided had I been paying closer attention!). Overall a solid performance vis a vis the safety aspects I was looking for (deeper v, more freeboard, etc.) As an indicator, by four o'clock on Saturday, there were but a couple of larger Formula's and Cobalts on the Lake....and our '06 x30....and we were having a blast!

My overall view is this...this is a great family watersports boat geared to wakeboarders but totally adequate for the recreational slalom skier. Coupled with room to spare, comfort and safety aspects, I believe we made the right decision. Didn't hurt that several Malibu owners beached at Emerald Bay came by to say what a 'great looking boat' it was, vowing to trade in their MB sports....

Hope this helps.

[Jerseydave]

I just picked up a 2003 Maristar 230 (same as 2005 X30) and it's great!
Nice wake for slalom at 32-34 mph, great wake for boarding without ballast, so I would imagine with ballast it must be awesome.

My dealer in NJ has a 2005 Maristar 230 in the showroom that I'm sure you could get a sweet deal on. (black and tan with a tower)

I have heard the 06 X-30 has a VERY large wake for slalom, mostly just a wakeboard boat. (that is what it was meant to be) ;)

[Buster]

Njskier and alpace thanks for the info. It sounds as though sking behind an '06 X-30 wouldn't be too bad, especially when compared to sking behind my 25 foot Cobalt :). It sounds as though the wake wouldn't be as flat as the "older" X-30, but it is all relative. If any one has expereince in sking behind the X-45 I sure would appreciate knowing what the wake is like.

[WakePowell]

Buster- I have an X-45 but everyone we boat with hung up their slalom skis years ago and now we primarily wakeboard and wakesurf. The wake behind my boat at 30 mph is fairly flat but it still has some size to it. Prior to buying the X-45 I had a Cobalt 227 and in my opinion the wake behind the Mastercraft is considerable better.

As for people believing that the X-45 or X-star for that matter do not handle well in rough water that is completely false. We have nearly 60 hours on our boat with the majority of the hour being put on at Lake Powell with some extremely rough water (3 to 4 foot wind chop). We have yet to take any water over the bow. The X-45 rides much better in the rough water than our Cobalt, which was a pleasant surprise.

[aprgriggs]

The X45 is a nice boat with lots of room however I wasn't very impressed with the wake. Not good for wakeboarding and not good for skiing. Maybe it will get better when the owner learns to use the trim plate.....but still not impressed.

X30....great wake from wakeboarding and ok for skiing if you don't mind a larger wake.

Overall....X45 for room but X30 for performance. X9 if you are a serious skier. I love mine. Good Luck.

[SKI*MC]

I was in the bow of an X-Star last week, and you have to be carefull when slowing down in rough water, because the bow did chop through a wave, so i would think that this would be the same for the X-45.

If you decide to go with the X-30, i designed one on the internet the other day, i think i came up with the coolest color combination. Blue flake, and everything else black. Check that one out!

[gr8smiles]

I traded my 2000 X-Star for an 05 X-Star about 4 weeks ago. We looked at the X-30 that was next to ours in the showroom for a while too. I found that the 'cockpit' in the 30 was larger than the cockpit in the star; but the bow in the 30 was not that much bigger than my 2000 x-star. The bow in the new x-star is large enough for a party. It will seat 4-5 adults comfortably and keeps them up front and out of the way of the skiing/boarding activities. The ladder on the front is great too.

The ride of the 05 star is great. We spent the last 12 days at the lake and now have nearly 65 hours on the boat. The water over the 4th was the roughest that I have ever seen.....why do deckboat owners think it is their right to tube by you all day???....I digress :(

The bow does ride low, but I have only dipped it when turning to pick up a skier. I have gotten the hang of it now, but the wife is still learning ;) I don't think that it would dip at cruising speeds though.

The handling when loaded and the ballast is full is tricky...it is a much bigger boat than my old x-star. I think that an x-45 would be even trickier.

I have slalomed a bunch behind the new boat, but I do have to put the rope on the rear since their is no pylon. I have not tried to put the rope on the tower for me. At 200 lbs., I pull the boat around a bunch :D

Hope this helps some with your decision.

Rick

[badams]

Buster,

Just bought a 2006 X30 (5.7 liter, 350hp MCX engine) and have been out on it four full days. Here are some observations:

'06 is four inches smaller (22'4") than last year. It is also 700 pounds heavier and has higher freeboard and a deeper V. As such, it is smoother through 'chop'. As I had considered a Cobalt as well, the '06 deeper v quelled my concerns re ability to take it out when the winds come up.
As to wake, the boat has three ballast tanks with guages to accurately telly you how full they are. The system works well. I found it rather straightforward to customize wake...but I am no expert here and am still learning. Maybe others can comment.

Notwithstanding the loss of 4" in length, the boat is larger and is Coast Guard rated for 16 vs 12 on the '05. Regardless of CG rating, my observation is that the boat is generous in size. We have accommodated eight VERY comfortably. The boat has two ice chests, lots of power ports, great stereo, etc.

Because of the greater freeboard in the '06. seats are higher and the storage is TREMENDOUS. Even with the tower, we often store skis, wakeboards, lifevests, skivests, towels, etc. below the seats with room to spare.

I also considered the x45 and xstar....a bit too big for us....but the real issue is that the picklefork does not handle rough water well. The sloped nature of the picklefork often dips deep in chop and makes for a VERY wet bow area whenever you encounter chop. Moreover, while the X45 is a terrific looking boat, I had been warned by the MC dealer not to leave children up there during any chop. Not only because it was a wet area, but because it was necessary to 'nudge the accelerator' to keep the nose high during chop.

Of course, as I have already bought the X30, I am biased. that said, I researched Cobalts and Mastercrafts. Further, due to 'relationships' I could have purchased a new tournament boat at a heavy discount. In the end, I found the nex x30 to address my needs of a large family watersport boat.

Hope this helps.
My wife and I have a 2005 X45. On Memorial Day weekend we had 14 people in the boat with room to spare. The motor in ours is the LQ9. It runs about 50 mph at top speed. We boat on Lake of the Ozarks. At 20 mph I can take on any chop that the channel gives. For those of you who don't know anything about Lake of the Ozarks the chop can get worse than the Gulf on any given weekend. We test drove the X30 before buying the X45 and I have to say the X30 is very nice. It just didn't have the room that we needed. The wake behind my X45 is bigger than I can handle when the ballasts are half full. You will definately like what you get behind this boat.

[WakePowell]

This picture may help. This wake is behind our X-45 at 21 MPH with no ballast in the tanks. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the wake at any higher speed.

[badams]

I'll fill the ballast's tomorrow and take a good pic. The wake is incredible. It rivals a Cruiser's wake.

[alpace]

Hello all,
Here are some photos of the wake behind our 2006 X30 at Stampede (Sierras; 13.7X 15.5 prop.

Hope this helps.

al

[X45owner]

This picture may help. This wake is behind our X-45 at 21 MPH with no ballast in the tanks. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the wake at any higher speed.
Are you reading the Perfect pass speedo or the master craft speedo. This seems very flat at 21mph compared to my X45. I just had my speedo calibrated and it will flatten at approx. 30mph. At 21mph my wake is fairly large without full ballst.

[WakePowell]

I am reading 21 MPH on the Perfect Pass, which is adjusted to match the speedometer and was set with a handheld GPS. The wake at 21 MPH is very large without any ballast. Here is a better picture with a rider.

[X45owner]

That's better! I guess I needed a rider to size the wake. I agree with you about X45's handling chop. When I was researching boats the Malibu rep told me about this nose dipping into the chop thing. When I test drove the X45 I tried everything to dip the bow, but was unsuccesful. Also, 2 weeks ago I was at Lake Mead with 50 mph wind gust and 3-4ft. chop. The X45 impressed everyone on board (all experienced boaters).

[Buster]

Thanks for your help this is great information! We went to the Lake Travis near Austin this week for a family reunion on the way back my wife suggested :toast: that we stop by the local Mastercraft dealer (BoatTown) who also happens to carry Cobalt Boats. We were able to get in and climb around an '06 X-30. I was impressed with the seating room and the lay out of the boat. They didn't have an X-45 but the sales guy said that he has skied behind both an X-30 and an X-45 and while the wake is bigger on the X-45 it is not a lot bigger. He also said that it would be much smaller than the ski wake behind my Cobalt 250.

I guess the best thing to do is to test drive and test ski both boat and to make my decsion from there....

[X45owner]

One last recommendation. When you test the X45 Play with the TAPS (or trim tabs as some prefer to call it). When it's all the way down it tends to flatten out the wake. I only did this a couple of times during break in. Everyone I know wake boards, so there has been no reason to frequent this technique.

[Buster]

X-45owner,

Thanks, I will do that, my understanding is that the TAPS comes standard on the X-45 but it is an option on the X-30. Is that correct?

[bigmac]

X-45owner,

Thanks, I will do that, my understanding is that the TAPS comes standard on the X-45 but it is an option on the X-30. Is that correct?
I wasn't aware that wake plates of any kind were available on any of the Mastercrafts as a factory option. Right now I'm considering a Bennet 9x22 (http://www.overtons.com/modperl/overtons/detail/pdetail2.cgi?r=detail_view&item_num=71185) for my Maristar 230 to quiet the (admittedly low-level)complaints of the one guy in our group that slaloms.

TAPS is Tige's proprietary name for their adjustable wake plate that's standard on most of their boats, and I know Supra has it available as an option as well.

[X45owner]

The TAPS/Trim Tab/Wake Plate (which ever you prefer) came standard on my X45. However, just after I picked mine up there were two on the shipping trailer witout it. I was told that this was confusion between MC and the local dealer. Apparently MC changed the order form and not all Dealer reps were up to speed. What ever you order get it in writing, even if they say it's a "standard feature."

[bigmac]

The TAPS/Trim Tab/Wake Plate (which ever you prefer) came standard on my X45. However, just after I picked mine up there were two on the shipping trailer witout it. I was told that this was confusion between MC and the local dealer. Apparently MC changed the order form and not all Dealer reps were up to speed. What ever you order get it in writing, even if they say it's a "standard feature."That's a great feature to have - I'm amazed that Mastercraft makes no mention of it whatsoever on their web site, nor does it show up in the 2004 or 2005 owner's manual of any of the other X-boats.

[X45owner]

That's a great feature to have - I'm amazed that Mastercraft makes no mention of it whatsoever on their web site, nor does it show up in the 2004 or 2005 owner's manual of any of the other X-boats.

To my understanding this was added late in the production process. All marketing literature probably had gone to print before this feature was added. Just a guess though, somebody on the inside would know for sure.

[rick s.]

Maybe this will confuse this situation, but I was told by my dealer that the trim tab was not being offered on the 06 X30. It was either standard or optional on the 05 X30 (I saw some with the tab), however as it supposedly had little effect, it was no longer being offered.

[WakeSeeky]

Maybe this will confuse this situation, but I was told by my dealer that the trim tab was not being offered on the 06 X30. It was either standard or optional on the 05 X30 (I saw some with the tab), however as it supposedly had little effect, it was no longer being offered.

LOL, well this will certainly add to the confusion, if that didn't! :D

We ordered our '05 X-30 last September, there was no trim tab mentioned whatsoever, optional or standard. When the '06 first came out I happened to chat with our dealer about it, and he said the trim tab was standard on the '06. The shop had one on order at that point, but didn't have it in yet, so I don't know if he'd actually seen one yet. At this point, I've looked at a couple of '06's, but honestly didn't think to look if anything was there or not.

Maybe alpace (or another '06 owner) can shed some light?

[X45owner]

Maybe this will confuse this situation, but I was told by my dealer that the trim tab was not being offered on the 06 X30. It was either standard or optional on the 05 X30 (I saw some with the tab), however as it supposedly had little effect, it was no longer being offered.

This sheds some light on a conversation I heard with a sales rep and, who I assume was MC on the phone. The sales rep was upset because two X30's had come in without the trim tab. Apparently some promises were made to customers. I think it was resolved with the dealer installing the trim tabs.

[rsk]

I bought the X30.
Sold the 250
I am thinking both would nice to have
Looking for another 250 YEAH !!!!!!!

[Eagle Lake Rebel]

I had an '03 Cobalt 226 before I bought my '06 X30. I looked @ the X45 but it was more boat than I needed. It is rare I have more than 8 people with me so I stuck with the 30 because I'm used to a pointed front end and trailering will be much eaiser. If you go with the 45 and plan to trailer you better have a 3/4 ton truck to do it with. The trim plate is std. on the '06 & '07 boats (30 & 45) and it works. On either boat I would recommend going for the biggest engine option (400hp for the 30 & 450hp for the 45) and get the hyd. steering option. My Cobalt was a dual prop which made steering a breeze, can't say the same for the 30 but that's the nature of the beast.