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Old     (907rider)      Join Date: Apr 2011       07-23-2016, 2:48 AM Reply   
So first off, I'm not looking to start a thread battle here. I've read a lot of posts about MB Sports boats and they all seem to degenerate into pissing matches. Useless negativity is not needed or wanted. If you have actual negative issues with a specific model or year of boat, I'd love to hear it. But please, no outright brand bashing.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I'm in the market for a "new to me" new boat next spring. I can't test drive anything as I live in Alaska and the only dealer we have is a Nautique dealer and there's no way I can afford one of their boats. We don't really have a used market up here either as most people who buy a wake boat get it from the lower 48 and tend to hold onto them. Right now I have an 06 Moomba Mobius LSV and I'm planning on selling it to upgrade a little. My wife gave me an upper budget limit of around 40k. Looking at the available boats in that price range, I really like the looks of MB based on the amount of boat I can get for the money. Having the best of anything is not really important to me as my best friend is planning on buying a new supra and I know that's what we'll be playing in most of the time. But, I do want something I can have fun with if he's not at the lake. The cabin is on an island in the lake so I'm wanting to upgrade to a 23 ft boat to have a little more room to haul people/gear bank and forth to shore. The room, storage, and quality of the MB boats is what's mainly drawing me to them. I do like the idea of having something different than everybody else too. Obviously there's a bunch of Nautique boats on the lake along with a handful of Bu's, MC's, Tige's, Moomba's, Centurions, and Calibrias. But there's only one MB Tomcat and they never take it out and use it. I do like the looks of the B52's better than the Tomcats but I would be open to either. My real questions are, are there any models / years to stay away from? Which years stand out as the best? What years brought hull/features changes that made a huge difference? Why isn't there a wake plate on most of them? :-)

As far as what it will be used for, I Love to wakeboard but I'm definitely not a pro. So the wakeboard wake should be usable, not brutal. I loved the wake on my buddies 07 supra launch 22SSV. My Moomba can get a little brutal if we weight it too much. More vert so it kinda blasts you into the air vs the nice controlled pop of the supra. We do surf more than we wakeboard now though. Can't afford to get hurt since I gotta feed the family. So the surf wave is a little more important to me. We don't ski so a smooth wake is a non issue. And,like I said, I mostly need a bigger boat to haul more stuff to the cabin.

One other reason I'm looking at MB is the fact that they use a PCM engine and so does nautique so that helps with any parts stuff I need at the marina. It's a pain having an Indmar as nobody in the state even knows what that is. Any other boat idea's/options/opinions are welcome as well. Thanks guys!
Old     (svnfightsvn)      Join Date: Mar 2011       07-23-2016, 5:13 AM Reply   
My buddy has an '07 B52 and the thing has a great wakeboard and surf wake with the right amount of ballast. The surf wake on the goofy side (starboard) is much better than the regular port side I think because of the prop rotation
Old     (racer808)      Join Date: Jan 2013       07-23-2016, 5:15 AM Reply   
I have a 2013 b52 23wb. I don't wakeboard anymore cause my shoulder but daughter loves it, is poppy and she said she needs no additional weight. On our Malibu VLX she liked to run 1600 pounds boarding. The surf wave is amazing. Long, peaky with push everywhere, hands down the best wave I've ever ridden but I havent ridden behind that many boats. Build quality is excellent with great interior vinyl. MB cuts corners elsewhere to bring the price down. Overall I love the boat and am stoked we got it when we're going to get another Malibu
Old     (907rider)      Join Date: Apr 2011       07-23-2016, 6:01 AM Reply   
Right on. Thanks for the replies. So what corners do they cut? I know that after having my Moomba for a decade, I'm sick of low quality stuff. Don't get me wrong, I Love my boat and it's done a great job for me, but the thin carpet, thin vinyl, cheesy plastic everything, basically cheap everything, gets old. I'd like to have a quality boat now and would appreciate a heads up on what's not up to par on them. I'm pretty much going to have to buy something on faith since I have to drive to the lower 48 to pick it up and drive it back. Or buy it sight unseen and get it shipped. Scary. :-)
Old     (shawndoggy)      Join Date: Nov 2009       07-23-2016, 6:27 AM Reply   
bang for your buck an 11 or 12 23 is probably your best bet. They aren't easy to get at $40k, but it's possible. You may need to wait till winter tho. 11 was a hull change and it's much better overall than the prior years' b52 hull. Also if you go older than that MB used a really sketchy tower that was prone to breaking. I'm not sure when the tower change was... probably around 08-09?

Stuff that they cheap out on: the gravity ballast is awesome, the RV waste gates they use to control it not so much (they will fail, usually in the middle of a short summer, and they can take weeks to source a replacement, even from the manufacturer). The inside of the hull isn't lined. There's no raw water seacock. On '11s and older, some of the electrical components (like the fuse block under the dash) are really low budget pieces (they've gotten better as time goes on, and don't use such cheap parts as much now).

The wake plate is an easy aftermarket add-on and there are many tutorials on how to do it on the MB site. For such a small manufacturer there's also a really active owner's forum and lots of people who like to mod their boats. Lots of good surf-device mods for instance. They are relatively simple boats too, with fewer points to fail.

As far as room goes, the 11-14 23 is probably the biggest interior (especially where it counts, behind the windshield) of any boat out there. Definitely bigger than say a malibu LSV or Nautique 230.
Old     (907rider)      Join Date: Apr 2011       07-23-2016, 8:18 AM Reply   
Wow, good info, dude. Exactly what I was looking for. So, a couple questions. Raw water seacock. What is that? Is it like a flush connection? Cause my Moomba doesn't have anything like that either. I've got a plumber type thing that I cover the water intake with and hook a hose up to. So, not a deal breaker. And the inside of the hull isn't lined? With what? Again, my Moomba looks like raw fiberglass in the bilge and it's never bothered me. Also not a deal breaker. Was the bad tower the one that had the lights facing forward above the windshield? Kinda looked like a 2 point / 4 point hybrid but was really just a word looking 2 point? Were the older 4 points solid? So it looks like I want to look for something newer than 09, but best case, 11 or newer. And I'm not getting a new boat till next spring so a winter buy is an option. Are there any huge differences between the B52 and the Tomcat besides the pickle fork front end? Thanks again for all the quality info. This is awesome!

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