In the market and a newbie
 

Howdy folks,

I am looking at wakeboard boats and I believe I have made a decision but wanted to make sure I am heading in the right direction.

We live west of Houston and I am self employed. We work very hard and have built our business up and I need the get away's on the weekends to reset.

With the work comes late hours during the week and I want to use the weekends as a family spending time together. I want a large boat so we can fit plenty of family and friends (I am married with a 6yr and 10 yr old boys).

I have narrowed my search down to an '04-'06 Tige 24V as they seat 12 and I have read good reviews. For the time being I don't want to spend a fortune but I want to get the most boat for my money. As a business owner, I put a ton of money back into our business and employees and I have decided to finance for cash flow reasons. If we love getting away and use the boat, I can upgrade in 4-5 years to a bigger better boat if needed.

I am 36 and my wife is 34 so we are not too old or too young and I am hoping we are still young enough to learn to wake surf / wake board and ski?

I have located an '04 Tige 24V which I believe I can get for $27 out the door and an '06 which will cost about $5K more. Both seem to be relatively low hours and in good shape minus some small interior TLC needed. I am leaning towards the '04 just to save a little money.

As my wish list is to have a large boat that seats 12 people, am I safe going with the Tige? What additional costs am I looking at? I will need life jackets, wakesurf board, wake board etc. but I don't know anything about the weight bags needed (not sure which boat comes with what).

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

1) What kind of watersports are you looking to do?
2) Get any boat checked out by a mechanic if you are not familiar with them. I would even suggest that to people who are. A good price can turn into a bad price very very quickly. Saving a few grand on a boat can be sneezed away in one trip to a mechanic.

You have picked a very good time of year to shop. A lot of people unload around now to not make winter payments/lay up a boat. If you are looking at a general all around good family boat I would also suggest looking at a mastercraft x30 or maristar 230. Also asking opinions on boat brands around here should be taken with a grain of salt. You'll get some good info and some bad info all at the same time.

FYI, yes you are young enough to start :)!

Matt,

We are very close to your situation. I am self employed, plus wife works for a demanding company. We have 3 kids, 1, 4, 6. Four years ago we bough a used malibu and got that relaxation and break from the fast paced work world we wanted. Everyone relaxes and the time with the kids is awesome. Sometimes just leaving our house for the weekend is all it takes to escape and reset our mind set. We just sold our boat and upgraded to a larger one, since we like it so much. It could be all luck, but we got excellent resale value on our first boat.

I can't get into what brand/model boat to get, as it's all opinions and I haven't ridden that many, but if you plan on upgrading in 3- 4 years, think about resale value and cost of ownership. Since we bought a 2 year old boat, we spent $0 on repairs and the boat looked near brand new when we sold it. We could of saved some money when we bought and gotten a 6-8 year old boat, but over the 4 years could of spent thousands on repairs. Buying an '04 might not be cheaper than a 08 in the long run is all I am saying.

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb3/sh...1-2013-210-nss
I will sell you mine lol.
I went the cheaper route the first time and it cost me. I am self employed as well. I wish I would have bought this the first time around.

Is that X46 price for real?!?!

Mat, You'll do just fine with an older Tige. Any boat of any make can have issues. Those old Tige's don't usually come with any ballast but it can always be added. With weight I'm sure they would throw a good enough wake for boarding and they are also known to put up a good surf wave as well. For additional info and questions your can always head over to http://tigeowners.com/forum/forum.php . There will be other people that will be able to give you better feed back on what you are looking at.

There are also some boats for sale on the Tige forums as well: http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/foru...-amp-Equipment

Matt;
I have my 05 24V for sale now. Check it out either here in the classifieds, or on Tigeowners. PM me for more info if you like. You wont be dissapointed.