Best Mastercraft Crossover?

[musicmd]

Frankly, it seems like there are many great choices for crossover within the MC family. I made my choice on available room inside the boat, storage and price. My dealer gave me a great deal on my boat, but I know I could have waited and found other options.

Truthfully, the boat I narrowly missed was a Signature 209 which was 8 years old, 500 hours for $18k. It was being sold by a motorcycle/RV/PWC dealer who underpriced it so far that it was gone when I called, about 4 hours after I saw it on the website. (It spent 2 days on the dealer's lot).

There are lots of great MC choices and lots of good deals which come up. Good luck with your search and let us know what you end up with.

[CruisinGA]

X9 is well within your price range.

In any one day on the water our X9 is
- Loaded with ~1000lbs ballast and riders throwing flips, tantrums, scarecrows
- Hauling *** at 43 barefooting
- Pulling a pair of tubes for my sisters friends
- 10 ppl on board and someone surfing
- cruising down the lake at sunset

Only other boat I would entertain is a x14- might be in your price range.
Our X9 was a steal at $20k 4 years ago, 300 trouble free hrs since!

[02ProstarSammyD]

x8 on the x9 if you don't mind a DD. Love mine and I usually have 6 or 7 ride. The most I've had ride is like 9 and it pretty much sucked though but I feel like thats any boat

[eficalibrator]

Your big decision will basically be whether "crossover" includes running a slalom course or not. IMO, none of the V drives felt decent as "learning slalom addict" around 15off and 30mph in the course, so a DD was an absolute must for me. I ended up getting a PS214 (X14) since adding ballast does wonders for making almost anything acceptable for wakeboarding. With tower, seating locations are not a problem with 8+ people and a skier/rider/toober. If you only open water ski, any of the V drives will likely suffice with the added benefit of a more family friendly layout.

[PLR]

Originally Posted by XtwentyNot

How much is the X15? My money would be on that. Doesn't sound like he's looking at direct drive boats, which is very wise with all those people.

I have an '07 X15 I'm going to sell, and its more than 25% less than that one.....

[mramerman@gmail.com]

We had a similar list of "needs" when looking for our next boat. We were trading from a '97 PS190. I am a die-hard water skier; however, we were very struggling with a one-dimensional boat.

We live near Lake Washington and need something that can handle some chop. We enjoy long days on the lake with friends. My wife is interested in wake boarding while I wanted to have as shot at surfing.

As you will learn these sports are vastly different and all require entirely different hull and boat configurations for optimal performance. In whatever you choose, you will need to make compromises. In my case, moving from a 190 to an x14 / v-drive increased wake (however, not at all short line).

We chose the x14v. After considerable research we felt this the best option for adding a little size as well as having some scale to make wake-boarding fun and surfing attainable. Moving the engine aft gave us the extra space but did impact wake for skiing. IMHO the x14v has the least wake impact of any of the other x-series boats. Frankly from my experience, the balance have very steep and hard wakes that are not much for skiing with any speed.

We would have considered a DD x14, but space was paramount for hauling friends.

If skiing is important in the mix, I wouldn't look at anything outside of the 214 or x14 family.

[mramerman@gmail.com]

Perfect timing:

http://mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=52570

[rtw_travel]

We bought the X14V for the same reasons as mramerman. Our neighbour has an X15. The X15 is definately better for wakeboarding and for carrying lots of people through the chop of a good size lake, but it's not the main boat you'd want to ski behind if you are a serious skier. IMO, the 14V is a better compromise for the skier.

[moleson10]

X-15 or X-2 would be my vote. Similar boats, one with a conventional bow the other with a pickle. Both great boats for all around use. They are sized to fit an a typical garage and can be towed by an SUV or 1/2 ton pickup without a strain.

I'm a bit surprised by the X-30 recommendations, that's a big boat and not very skier friendly. But if you need the room its good too.