webbdawg99

Did you mean 32 off? The V-drive probably makes the course more difficult to complete bc of a larger wake. The location of the pylon has no bearing other than different wake characterisitics at different line lengths. Does the boat have speed control? Which system? Thats the the million dollar question Actually....the million dollar question is are you having fun and are you getting better???? THAT is all that matters!

M2 Friday Slalom. Staying for the Big Dawgs Friday night and to watch @OB run 38 on Saturday. Atlanta boys coming south!

@Andre I'm about 99% sure that the hard cover will go on while seats are in. If not, that is a huge design flaw. And considering how much attention to detail has gone into this boat....I doubt they missed that one.

"Water ski for god's sake. There's no time for yoga!" I appreciate how much thought has gone into every aspect of the boat.....not just the wake. Can't wait to see it at Nationals.

Quest

Welcome to the club

@cwillygood According to @Killer, MasterCraft and every other boat manufacturer doesn't care about your trick skiing. "Why would any boat builder build a boat with trick skiing top of mind? it has a wake right? go ski..." I was actually standing up for trick skiers....even though I strictly slalom. I was merely pointing out the difficulty of having one boat that will be satisfactory for all skiers. You reiterated my point. You love the wake for tricking behind the 197. The slow speed slalom skiers do not. Difficult thing to balance.

@Killer I disagree with you 100% on multiple fronts. This is a 3 event boat. It has to be competitive as a 3 event boat. Period. And I stick by the fact that the slalom wake on a 197 at slow speeds is awful....(even though I never said that). I was genuinely concerned about my rookie wife catching a tip off the wake and faceplanting. Its just honest facts.

@Killer What do you dislike?

I second what @ToddL said. My wife is just learning to ski. She ran the mini-course last week behind our club's 200 at 22mph. I took her to another lake last night and pulled her at 22 mph behind a 197. Needless to say, she didn't experience the same success she had behind the 200. The first thing she said was how big and difficult the wakes were to traverse. Keep in mind, this was coming from someone who had been in the course 4 times. Even a complete rookie can tell the difference. The 200 is WAY more beginner friendly. I hope this is something that is improved upon in this newest generation of ProStars. It needs to be better for ALL skiers....not just shortline guys. The biggest problem I see is the conflict between slow slalom skiers and trick skiers. We need one boat to give 2 distinctive wake characteristics at a similar speed. Nautique accomplished this with the "slalom/trick mode" lever. I dont see how else this can be accomplished. Does the new ProStar have some type of similar adjustment that can be made to adjust for slalom and trick skiers? I didn't notice anything in the photos to indicate that it does.

@MaryTee I ran many 35 offs on a System 8. I think a lot of people would be very thankful to have a ski like that!

This is an awesome idea. When I was the president of the UGA Waterski Team, we got VERY little funding from the University. The collegiate tournament scene is what introduced me to waterskiing.....and now I'm an addict. Investing in the collegiate skiers is investing in the future of our sport.

I hope it gets out of the hole a lot better. Calling the previous MasterCraft "sluggish" would be kind.

Does that mean that someone else did the majority of ski testing at 36?

Too bad that tunnel won't keep the jet skiers out

I would like to know 0-36 times (and/or distance) on this new boat, the current 197, the 200, and the Txi. Anyone have any of this info?

Will they have one displayed at Nationals?

I'll reserve my judgement until I ski behind it.

@Horton Some of the rumors were clearly true

@ctsmith Looks like I called it on the "hybrid"

@animal You can see the rudder at the very rear. The rudder is always placed directly behind the prop. This appears to be a direct drive inboard.

@swc5150. The relocation of the gas tank was the first goal. Think about how much 35 gallons of gasoline weighs and how that pushes the rear of the boat into the water. But when they relocated the tank, they had to slide the engine back....which wouldn't work with a direct drive. In comes the v-drive. The hole shot and "power" was due to the angle of the prop shaft. Bc it was a v-drive, the angle of the prop shaft was shallower than that of the direct drives, resulting in more direct thrust and power.

It actually looks smaller to me

MasterCraft has tried to step out of the box before. Back in the late 90's they hired Rob Shirley (the original MC founder) to redesign a new boat for them and he came up with some pretty unique stuff. However, most of the designs were too expensive to produce so they never happened. Anyone remember what happened next? Rob Shirley started Infinity in 2000 and we saw the world's first inboard V-drive.