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@ajgear Not much, rudder tab and weight distribution made all the difference. Boat had a lean and was riding on one side and not great to drive. Observer sitting in the middle helped a lot in this case.

After racking up quite a few hours in the same Ski Nautique I've come away a little wiser but not much. First drive it was the best boat ever, a few months later I got back in the same boat only to wonder WTF happened to it. It was dialled out and some tweaking got it working well again. We spend time tuning our skis and its now apparent that you need to spend time doing the same on the new boats, its ok if you know how to get it working just like a good ski. My skiing average is higher behind the Ski than the 200 so if money was no object I'm taking the Ski, to me price is the issue and I still suspect that MC will take market share and I don't believe for a second that CC would be happy about that.

Get centred before you pull out for the gates and stay that way. In many respects its a by product of moving well through centre, Nate moves so well that what happens next is almost hard to avoid (for Nate), you can bet he does not think about it. Easy to watch hard to do for many of us however.

@jjackkrash thanks for your perspective but I'm not sure they sold / sell every single one? Not without doing some serious price based deals I bet. On top of that the very first one that came into Australia is still for sale at a reduced price (now 125k) going on 18 months... Maybe they will just build more wake barges as you say and that would be a hell of a shame. And yes I would hate to be sitting on a used Prostar / TXi right now because that new Prostar looks like a big step forward.

The real question is this, how does Nautique respond if at all? At this point in time price is probably the only card they have to play. Its fine to say the 200 fits the lower price point but its now 10 years old.

Nate ran -41 on my 1997 ski just for fun.

@Luzz I don't disagree with your comments and yes our local Malibu product is / was different to the rest of the world and I'm yet to meet anyone that loves it.. I'm not even questioning how well the new boats drive or ski, my personal favourite to ski behind is the new Ski Nautique. The question is product market fit and I would hate to be selling Nautique right about now because the door got left wide open and MC has more than a foot in.. If I spend $140k plus on the Nautique the chances of getting one in a tournament out here are pretty low.

Carbon Pro gets taken out of play and the market gets served up an expensive new model, Nautique hedges a bit by keeping the 200 alive. Mastercraft jumps into huge gap in market with new model that tracks well and looks great and delivers better value. Result, we will see more MC's at ski schools and tournaments and more skiers will respond by buying MC and so it goes. Well played MC and yeah the news for gorilla biscuit Malibu is all bad right now... I know a couple of guys with Malibu tattoos that won't go near one.

So the Ski Nautique has been with us for a while and given the new Mastercraft looks so good on paper I suspect Nautique is going to shed a good chunk of its base to MC. The 196 and 200 both classic ski boats for different reasons but will the expensive gigantic Ski Nautique be held in the same regard? I don't think its the game changer everyone was hoping for.. Where does Nautique go from here?

FWIW I did not like the GT (the two I had) side to side, too slow and forget about it in a headwind. This innovation is going to be interesting to watch and its really cool to see this sort of thinking coming through into production, I wonder if it is possible for an asymmetrical tail option...

Must have the right setup dialed in ofhwise your pushing it uphill.

CG fin on the KD is awesome, tried going back to stock fin just once and hated it.

I tried it about 2 seasons ago, the result was something borderline level 3 hamstring rupture and a 6 week holiday. Not to mention laying face down on the dock on bird shit weeping like a 4 year old after it went snap, I imagine getting shot in the back of the leg would have been less traumatic.

The rope keeps getting shorter and my hair stays dry.

@CR1 By all accounts the new MC checks the last box for a lot of fence sitting Nautique owners - tracking. On top of that existing MC owners will be motivated to update which means you can expect to see a bit of churn happening pretty soon. You can already have a used 200 in the 30's so why on earth would you opt for a 196? A new 70k ish 6.0 that tracks is borderline disruptive, especially so if your north of 100k with your main feature / benefit matched by the other guys.

Yeah nah... Much as I love the 196 its time to let go and move on, this new MC will put downward pressure on used boat prices which means there will be better options around soon enough.

@adamhcaldwell yeah this is defiantly a -43 conversation / 2 ball... Oh and science..

Joel visits Trophy for a day and just for fun he and Adam decide to have a comp at 34mph - Who wins and why?

WR Binding.... I run mine quite loose at the top and it works really well, great connection to the ski and your foot comes out when it needs to come out.

Freddy is a class act, skiing needs more people like this. Seriously.

Does anyone know what the engine options are? Will they continue to offer the 5.7 in the new boat? Are the MC engines DI like the Nautique?

I've driven a couple of the current Prostars, one was setup and tracked way better than he other. Our sites are a bit tricky to drive which made it easy to choose the Nautique. If the tracking is improved and the price is right this is going to hit Nautique hard. I'm really looking forward to seeing this new boat and hope its as good as it looks.

By 2021 new boats from the US will retail at a shade under $160k here in Australia, in a decade I'm going to get excited about this years boats...

I am one week into an 8 week rest after abdominal laparoscopic surgery. Drs orders. 2 weeks before cardio, 4 weeks squash but no game play. 8 weeks skiing. Not relevant to the eyes but thought It was worth sharing.

Water temp gone up recently?