New French Ski Boat

[BrennanKMN]

There is a large market for DD ski boats outside of tournaments skiers. Totally guessing, but I would be 80% of DD buyers (new and used) don't care about having the same boats that pull tournaments. Make a family oriented DD boat at a reasonable price and they will sell. The family oriented part is the biggest bit. That is why ProStars and TXi's are fling off the shelves in the used market. They are affordable because they are pre-owned and can handle a family well. Win win.

 

An affordable dedicated tournament tow boat is a tiny market. A affordable direct drive family ski boat is a huge market.

[RINLE]

It looks like what I envisioned when Heyday said they were going to make a ski boat to accompany their wake tractor.

[andjules]

@BrennanKMN in my mind, the last non-tournament-focused, family-friendly, affordable DD boat was the Moomba Outback. At least up here in Canada, you could leave the dealership a good 20-25% less than one of the big 3. It worked for a while, but by 2010ish the market for family-friendly DD seemed to be dead.

[ToddF]

How many ski boats have stopped production in the last 15-20 years or so.

centurion

Outback

Both great and cheaper ski boats

also

Sanger

American Skier

I think a couple others.

 

Most of them are still building boats too.

Some are out of business

 

So there has to be a reason they didn't keep building ski boats.

 

With only three manufacturers building ski boats, and a big enough market, you would think that people would be lining up to get a piece of the ski market pie.

 

Either the big three have enough resources to push out and control the little guys (oligopoly)

Or, there really isn't a market.

Or, these other companies were making trash products.

Or, lousy management, (but if there is enough cash to be had someone would have made changes)

[APB]

@Clydesdale is on point. It didn’t really have a chance for success under the cc umbrella. A new boat in that range would be nice as opposed to a used boat.

[swc5150]

@Horton you do not owe me another panda:)

[Horton]

is there one of you who actually think this boat is made by Correct Craft?

[Wish]

Sanger still builds a DD. Bet it's well under the big 3. Also bet it's not AWSA approved as that would cost them $$s so why bother. Bet not a single club would consider it if the wakes were on par with the big 3. It fallows the specs of yrs past when width, weight and amenities were not over the top. Basic ski tug.

[Than_Bogan]

If that boat weren't also 95" wide, I might forgive it for being utterly hideous.

But since that thing won't fit through our tunnel either, I might as well just get a Mastercraft.

[Than_Bogan]

If super-bored, you can go to here:

 

https://config.method-boats.com/form.html

 

And maybe craft one slightly less hideous. The lines of the two-tone are especially terrible to my eye; the single color ones are a little better. The best I could manage was:

 

 

 

[MNshortliner]

How long are these boats? In that pic it looks like it would be a 25’ boat.

[thager]

@Horton That boat is ugly enough to be Correct Craft!

[Dacon62]

?? @thager ...have been secretly thinking that all along but just didn’t want to say it. Thanks for taking one for the team.

[thager]

@Dacon62 It's in my job description!

[UWSkier]

@thager not a chance. Not nearly enough unnecessary creases. BTW, have you seen their new wake pig, the Polygon? Someone at the Nautique plant is getting a little crazy with their design language.

 

Nautique's latest design language inspiration

 

Wonder what the thumb switch on the throttle is for on this boat.

 

[Stevie Boy]

Like other people have said, with various trade deals or sanctions or change in the structure of duty to be paid, there clearly in a great opportunity in Europe, if somebody can come up with a boat design the same or better than the big three, at a competive price, then there is a chance that they may get a decent share of the market, probably the cheapest way would be to copy and tweak a existing design, I do not know if you can patent a hull design, a good starting point maybe the carbon pro.

For the European Market, it is not going to have all the Bells and Whistles, a Basic Boat with Zero Off for towing skiers for all three events.

But then somebody is going to have to throw some money at it, the only question is, would they be able lure people away from what they are comfortable with, a lot of people will be thinking Nautique, but a lot of people in Europe currently use Malibu.

[ReallyGottaSki]

Volvo appears to make marine 4cy 320hp turbodiesel, that is only 600# , with the gearbox...

seems like not using gasoline could be advantageous option in europe, especially for a club tug

 

the listed available reduction gears are too steep, it would best have a 1:1, but if solved, a 1 1/8 shaft and a 13x16 prop, could have similar max speed at 3600rpm as a 1:1 gas boat at 4800

Graphs show 200hp avail at 2000rpm, very close to a stout LS at 3000rpm, which could be 220ish or so.

 

 

[APB]

These dudes are the best. Brazil has crazy knock off brands. Never seen one but I already love #MasterBoat

 

Sick name.

[Horton]

https://boesch.swiss/en/boats/boesch-sunski-625

[ReallyGottaSki]

I understand immitation is finest form of flattery, but geezus

 

They even call the vdrive a masterstar :/

[vtmecheng]

@Horton that is pure beauty

[ALPJr]

Sweet mohagany

[BraceMaker]

@ReallyGottaSki love the idea but no ZO

[Drago]

...MasterBoat: lets copy the worst hull ever

[Stevie Boy]

.

[skialex]

Boesch is a beauty... wake is terrible compared to the latest big3.

At about €150k I used to think that it’s an expensive, luxurious, beautiful boat. I don’t know what its price is exactly but it seems that is very similar to what the price of the new Nautique would be if bought in a European country.

[UWSkier]

Masterboat sounds like the past tense of something

[Nando]

What's a Boesch going for these days? Maybe 200 Euros?

[BraceMaker]

@Drago They copied older ones too.

[Than_Bogan]

@MNshortliner Length is right around 20' without platform.

[Stefan]

I finally got pricing for the Ski version of the French ski boat found at www.method-boats.com/ , see picture below for details. It's in Euros and the TTC price of EUR72' is including 20% French VAT. EUR72' is roughly USD79'. This makes it far cheaper than a big three boat from US for a European buyer since we both have to add 25% "Trump retaliation duty" plus between 20-25% VAT depending on which country in Europe imported to (Swedish VAT is 25%...).

 

[KRoundy]

How would a cheap new boat ever compete with a lightly used 3 or 4 year old boat from one of the big three? Still under warranty, amazing design, great wakes, well-distributed dealer support. brand-name engines, etc... If there was a market for a cheap new boat somebody would be doing it. There have to be plenty of boat manufacturers out there with less-than-full production lines.

[andjules]

@KRoundy but that is what they're testing: is there a non-US market for a (after US tariffs) much cheaper boat? We'll see.

well-distributed dealer support

that's not always true, especially outside the US

brand-name engines

That's an important difference between cars and ski boats: the engine is not really exclusive to the boat, which means you're not nearly as married to your dealer/boat-brand. The spec/pricing sheet above shows it's just another Indmar.

There have to be plenty of boat manufacturers out there with less-than-full production lines.

Perhaps that's exactly what's going on here; but again, importantly, for a non-US, tariffed market (giving it a 25% cost advantage — over US-based competitors, in tariffed countries — right out of the gate)

 

[chrislandy]

@ReallyGottaSki we use LPG over here a lot and I doubt diesel is going to become mainstream because of emissions etc diesel is going out of favour.

 

Boats in the UK and rest of Europe are very expensive when imported from the US (even before trade war taxes started getting banded about) Typically, if something is $100k in the US, it will be £100k or 120k Euro, which if you convert the back to the dollar comes out as $140k - $175k depending on the exchange rate. so we really need a European manufacturer or at least a licenced big name construction plant here to avoid/minimise the import taxes.

 

Now that the electric charging is coming down to sub 10 mins with certain systems, I reckon the electric ski boat will be offered in Europe soon, and people will be doing conversions. Even now, MCUK offer an oil burner as a transplant on a new MC for tender use when the main boat is diesel, so doing a dealer conversion will be on the cards.

[GaryWilkinson]

Really noticed in the video that until the very last wake crossing shot, they didn’t show the wakes at all, except from the drone shot above.

 

Wonder why?

 

In the last shot it looked quite low and narrow.

 

Can’t get over the front end though. It must be squared off to give more room up front.

 

Looks like a Chris Craft

https://images.app.goo.gl/XTyPNfiF4psUFHCT6

[Stefan]

@GaryWilkinson That front shape is the trend in general on alot of new European boats since a couple of years back. Example here: https://seacastle.se/modeller/xo-250/

[escmanaze]

Well here's to hoping the boat path shown here isn't indicative of a lack of tracking.

 

 

 

Um...dude...you're driving for the video. Can you please just get off your phone for like 16.08 seconds while we get this shoot done?

[powbmps]

@Stefan is the Bimini actually a higher priced option than the Zero Off?? That seems strange.

[Stefan]

@powbmps That's the quote, that's all I can say. Below the quote they first sent by mistake for the wake model, it's the same there;

 

[rico]

The engine for that price is a 6.2 indmar. The boat will likely pull the French Nationals in 2020 so we should have footage.

While the boat is new, it is manufactured by an experience company in my home town, La Rochelle France: https://www.rhea-marine.fr/en

 

@Horton you are not allowed to make jokes on the next French nationals.

[Horton]

@rico at this point the jokes practically write themselves

[E_T]

@UWSkier it has been around longer than you

 

[Stefan]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDR2P_eIBZs/?igshid=exm5vq7jb7c3

 

Methodwatersports French waterski boat has been officially homologated for competition last week this Insta post says

 

 

[Jtim3032]

It's amazing where a view of the back of your head crops up! :)

[Wish]

[ktm300]

"Method" is such a better and more marketable name than the original "Oui Weave"