Right now I own a small 1993 16 foot bowrider with a 85hp outboard. I
do all of my boating in salt water usually in the bay. I do a lot of
towing, right now I am really getting into wakeboarding. However I do
still like to cruise around occasionally. I was thinking about
getting a 1985 Ski Nautique with 1000 hours. I would like some
opinions on whether or not people think that this boat would suit me
better. The big drawback to this boat is the excessive gas
consumption and I hear that they are very bad in rough water. Space
on the ski boat is not an issue because the boat I have right now only
seats 4 people so this boat would have a little bit more room. What
are some other drawbacks of ski boats? Also how bad do they handle
rough water? Is small chop ok or can the water only have ripples? Is
1000 hours so many that I should walk away? I don't want to end up
with a boat that has problems because my current boat works great.
Thanks for your help.

"JamesE" wrote in message
oups.com...
Right now I own a small 1993 16 foot bowrider with a 85hp outboard. I
do all of my boating in salt water usually in the bay. I do a lot of
towing, right now I am really getting into wakeboarding. However I do
still like to cruise around occasionally. I was thinking about
getting a 1985 Ski Nautique with 1000 hours. I would like some
opinions on whether or not people think that this boat would suit me
better. The big drawback to this boat is the excessive gas
consumption and I hear that they are very bad in rough water. Space
on the ski boat is not an issue because the boat I have right now only
seats 4 people so this boat would have a little bit more room. What
are some other drawbacks of ski boats? Also how bad do they handle
rough water? Is small chop ok or can the water only have ripples? Is
1000 hours so many that I should walk away? I don't want to end up
with a boat that has problems because my current boat works great.
Thanks for your help.



I think the only way to really answer the question is to take the boat for a
test ride. How can one make a generalization that's valid for all brands in
the same category of boat? And as far as just the one you're considering,
there's still an element of opinion involved. Who told you the Ski Nautique
was bad in rough water? Some people think that if they can't drink an open
cup of coffee in a boat going through one foot waves, it's a lousy boat.

On Jul 1, 11:08 pm, JamesE wrote:
Right now I own a small 1993 16 foot bowrider with a 85hp outboard. I
do all of my boating in salt water usually in the bay. I do a lot of
towing, right now I am really getting into wakeboarding. However I do
still like to cruise around occasionally. I was thinking about
getting a 1985 Ski Nautique with 1000 hours. I would like some
opinions on whether or not people think that this boat would suit me
better. The big drawback to this boat is the excessive gas
consumption and I hear that they are very bad in rough water. Space
on the ski boat is not an issue because the boat I have right now only
seats 4 people so this boat would have a little bit more room. What
are some other drawbacks of ski boats? Also how bad do they handle
rough water? Is small chop ok or can the water only have ripples? Is
1000 hours so many that I should walk away? I don't want to end up
with a boat that has problems because my current boat works great.
Thanks for your help.

Well, the first think I would ask is why do you need a new boat? From
what I read I did not see the answer to that. Secondly I might note
that you seem to be pleased with the boat you have, it runs good, you
use it a lot (which I take as the most important point), and from what
you said it does what you need it to do. Just asking, that's how we
approach decisions like that round here. Would you get as much use out
of the new boat? What do you gain from having the new boat, besides a
bigger fuel bill? Anyway, just my thoughts.

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking and realized that it doesn't
really matter to me if the boat drives bad in rough water because so
does my current boat and I hate driving in rough water anyway.
Regarding the question about why I want this new boat, one of the
reasons is that I can't pull up a slalom skier on my current boat and
another problem is that the wake is very small. I want the Ski
Nautique because it has more power to pull skiers and is also bigger
so I can add ballast to increase the wake size. I am at the point in
my progression of wakeboarding that I want to start jumping so the
main and critical flaw of the boat I have now is that the wake is just
too small for wakeboarding.