Boat show impressions

[moleson10]

Went to the Seattle boat show this weekend. It was a good show and seemed to have a bit more vibe than the last few years. I asked some friends who were exhibiting how business was and they were cautiously optimistic.

As for the boats, it was good to see them all together. I have to say that MB is coming along and with their new towers, they are better looking and will be competitive. I was very impressed with Supra. They are an amazing value. They had a "Worlds" edition there and at 24' and quite loaded it was in the mid $80s show pricing. The Malibus were nice and the new surf gate system is wining over a lot of buyers. No offense to my CC friends (I'm a former ownwer) but the new G series boats were hard on the eyes. My wife hadn't seen them before and had some choice comments. Others we talked to at the show agreed. Although they do get points for being the only ones with a real slalom boat there.

The MC's looked good, especially the interiors, and the new Star is impressive in the flesh. But the top deck styling and towers still leave me wanting something different. My favorite boat was probably the X-10. It's a good looking boat and fits the "just right" description for a lot of people.

Overall MC has some tough competition and they will need to get creative if they want to be more than the 1%'s boat of choice.

[sand2snow22]

Originally Posted by moleson10

The MC's looked good, especially the interiors, and the new Star is impressive in the flesh. But the top deck styling and towers still leave me wanting something different. My favorite boat was probably the X-10. It's a good looking boat and fits the "just right" description for a lot of people.

Overall MC has some tough competition and they will need to get creative if they want to be more than the 1%'s boat of choice.

Share your thoughts. MB is killing it, so much that questions have been asked if they are making money? My only gripes with MB is the floor needs to be deeper and their topdeck is paper thin

Love the X-10. Did you feel the Star main compartment felt small for a 24' boat? I did. MC sells more than twice as many boats than CC, BU with Axis sells a few more boats than MC. They're all expensive!

[moleson10]

Originally Posted by sand2snow22

Love the X-10. Did you feel the Star main compartment felt small for a 24' boat? I did. MC sells more than twice as many boats than CC, BU with Axis sells a few more boats than MC. They're all expensive!

Yes, I agree, that's a Star thing. They put more room in the bow seating area. It's for styling IMO since it doesn't get used a lot. But the Star isn't suppose to be practical, it's a flag ship.

The MB's are really moving up and in one more generation, everybody better watch out.

[russlars]

I enjoyed the Seattle Boat Show also. Still disappointed that MC seems to be completely ignoring those of us who love slalom. No 197 or 214's for us to drool over despite the salesman telling us that there had been a bunch of slalomites stopping by the booth. Have they completely forgotten their roots?

[Forrest-X45]

I plan on attending the Seattle show on Wednesday. I am going to check out the BU surfgate for my own eyes. I am assuming Seattle Boat will have a huge display again this year and have the surfgate on full display.
As far as the MB's.......never liked them. The tomcat is hideous, it is the ugliest boat I have ever seen. I can't stand the looks of their twin tip bow and towers. Yuck!! But I am sure I will still walk by them at the show just out of morbid curiosity.

[moleson10]

Originally Posted by Forrest-X45

I plan on attending the Seattle show on Wednesday. I am going to check out the BU surfgate for my own eyes. I am assuming Seattle Boat will have a huge display again this year and have the surfgate on full display.
As far as the MB's.......never liked them. The tomcat is hideous, it is the ugliest boat I have ever seen. I can't stand the looks of their twin tip bow and towers. Yuck!! But I am sure I will still walk by them at the show just out of morbid curiosity.

Yes, every BU at the show had surf gate. They said that's how they are ordering all their boats now.

As for the MB's I can't argue, they are fugly. Tige's too for that matter but there are a lot of people out there that either don't care or don't see it the same way.

[rkhodges21]

I have only seen the Supras and the CC G series from photos and videos, but I thought both look really good getting into the wide bow market. Maybe the G series looks worse in person.

[mzimme]

Didn't make it to any boat shows this year, but I'd like to see a new Sangar in the flesh. They're exactly what I'd be looking for in a new boat. Everything you want, nothing that you don't. A bare bones, purpose built boat that is affordable. Hopefully they start making a presence in the midwest!

[Jerseydave]

NY boat show had just about every model MC, which was great. The graphics on all of them were so similar it was hard to tell some of the models apart without looking at the X-whatever graphic. Personally I didn't care for the new graphics, not even the star. The boats themselves however were nothing short of spectacular, I especially love the interiors (which IMHO blow away all of the competition).

Kudos to CC on the new G23, great layout and high freeboard would make a day on the water so much fun. Not in love with the shovel-nose bow, but then again I still like my '05 star's bow better than the new star.

After spending under $50K on my F-150 Platinum, it would be hard to justify spending over $100K on any new wakeboard boat. Just my $.02

[kskonn]

I went to the San Antonio Boat show this weekend and walked away with a few observations.

1- The gelcoat on the Bu's is really nice, not sure what they use or do differently but I thought they clearly had the best gel.

2- talked to an MB guy and he said that MB's biggest issue is that they do not want to increase capacity or expand their market much. They are happy at the volume they are at now and don't have a lot of room to build more boats. I thought this was odd but I heard this a few times.

3- Loved the X10

4- I liked the interior on the new CC's but I do not like how tall that boat is, the thing is huge, I guess it does not matter on the water with the exception of running in a shallow area.

5- I did not like the interior on the Axis boats, definitely bare bones on the models they had at the show.

Tons of boats this year, everyone was represented and most had their full lineup. Texas Ski Ranch had almost every boat in the lineup and 2 stars.

My buddy at Texas Ski Ranch said they did well, sold a few new boats, a number of used boats and had a lot of people coming in this week to look at other boats. Malibu guy said he had not had much luck, same with the CC guys.