1988 Mastercraft Tristar wood?
 

I have a friend looking at a boat for a lake with 20ft exact restriction. Is this a wood or composite boat?

I believe the last MC with wood stringers was the 1982 Pro-Skier... I think they moved to 100% composite in 1983.

I own an '82 :(

I had an 89 Tristar and the dealer at the time that we bought it said that there was no wood in the construction of the hull

No wood in anything from MC after mid-80s. Pederson sounds about right.

83 1/2 is when they switched. I am not sure I would say there is no wood but the main floor and stringers are fiberglass. My dad had 2 buddies with 83 stars and stripes. One with wood stringers and floor and the other with fiberglass.

I'd be just as careful checking out an old composite boat as an old wood boat. The reason old wood boats have stringer issues is the foam holds water, they get wet and stay wet. An old composite boat can have saturated foam and be heavy, list to one side, or have many freeze/thaw cycles from foam holding water resulting in delamination issues. I've seen a couple posts on forums of these types of issues in older composite boats. '88 MC should be composite but I'd check it out as closely.

I owned a 1990 tristar for a good 8 or so years. I sold it with 1300 hours on it. I pulled everything out of the interior on a couple occasions. The stringers were never an issue (but worth checking). A good indicator if the condition is the floor section behind the center console. That is typically the first section to get soft. It takes a lot of abuse with the engine cover being mounted direct to it and it being the first step point when entering from the platform.

I loved that boat. Road low with weight in it, but I would debate it had one of the best surf wakes of any inboard. Wakeboard wake is step but great to learn on. I learned my first handle passes and inverts.