MasterCraft X23 Demo Review

I had the privilege of being invited to the MasterCraft plant on Wednesday, 10/8/14 to check out the new X23 and take a plant tour. I figured I would share my impressions on what I experienced. I'm not here to bash anyone's brands and switch them to MC but just offer my opinion, which is just that, my opinion. I did not take a bunch of wake pictures because I feel it never accurately represents the form, size and feel of the wake. Also I hung out in the bow and I'm sure MasterCraft will have plenty of media available showing the wake. I would like to thank American Boat Center, Terry McNew, Max Tawney, Josh Palma, Zane Schwenk, Parks Bonifay and all the other great people at MasterCraft that made the day possible. It was a great event. I would advise anyone thinking about spending 50+k on a boat to tour a few factories and get an idea about what goes into these boats. You can really see the difference between brands and how labor and material intensive these wakeboats are.

Now onto the boat review. I'll just go ahead and say this is the best wakeboat I have ever been in. I rode the X20 a few weeks ago and this boat out performs that one. The main points that stand out for me is the adjustability of the surf wake and the fact that it still has an incredible wakeboard wake. My biggest problem with these boats is you have to give in one area to gain in another. I thought this boat had a better surf wake than the X30 and a better wakeboard wake than the X25. I was able to wakesurf with a surf style and skim style board and take a wakeboard set as well. I also used my own equipment so I had more of a realistic comparison between other wakes. When we took the boat out it had 11 people in it. The dry weight of the boat is 5500lbs and comes with 3000lbs of ballast. It was powered by the 6.2L Illmor with the 2:1 transmission. The surf wake could go super steep which I liked for surf style. Even at super steep it was longer than a standard surf rope off the tower. Extremely good push all the way through the wave with a great lip and a perfectly shaped face. I had push well behind where the wave started curling and never fell out of the back of the wave. The mellow mode was even longer with power and push throughout. It was obviously not nearly as tall but was perfect for spins, lip slides and other skim style tricks. The mellow mode was my favorite for skim riding. The boat is preprogrammed for the steep and mellow surf waves and then after those are selected it is easy to modify the settings through the computer to dial the wave in for exact personal preferences.

The wakeboard wake reminded me a lot of the X25. It comes with two ballast settings for wakeboarding and then can be adjusted accordingly. The first setting is an intermediate rider setting which fills the rear tanks at around 35% and the front tank to around 55%. This is what I rode. It also has a pro profile that I believe just fills everything up to 100%. I'm not sure about the exact percentages on these profiles but I'm in the ballpark. The wakeboarding wake was very steep like a slammed X25 and really boosted you up. They also designed the wake to stay in more of a V shape from the boat instead of fanning out like a bell. This design feature kept the wake from getting super wide which is sometimes the problem with running so much weight. When I ride a new boat I always start short and slow and adjust things from there. I rode at 60ft and 22.5mph. It was way to short and even though I was getting tons of vertical pop I was having to really hold back to keep from overshooting the landing. My old man knees can't take flat landings. I did not get a chance to play around with line length and speed but I think 70ft and 23mph would have been the perfect settings for me. I spoke to Josh Palma and Zane Schwenk and they agreed that those would have been much better. I just thought with all that weight the wake would get super wide and I don't like hitting the wake like a raging bull to make sure I clear it. I think after an afternoon dialing things in this would easily be my favorite wakeboard wake. The more I think about it, the more I cannot wait to get back and ride it again. Josh Palma of course killed it but I think that guy could throw down behind a kayak.

The boat comes standard with the MC bells an whistles and of course the fit and finish of the current MasterCraft line up. A few of the cool features of the boat are: two ballast pumps for each tank for a total of six ballast puppies, really cool lounge style sets in the transom, a trash can and a surf edition interior and graphic package.

If you get a chance, this boat is really worth your time to check out. It is my new favorite ride of all time but at a MSRP of around $140k it won't be in my reach for quite some time. I know this was a long read but I am very excited about this boat and wanted to pass on a little info. Hope it wasn't too littered with bad grammar and misspellings.