New boat: Supra Launch

djk · Newbie Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 9 City: Plano, Tx

Well, I've jumped in with both feet. After 12.5 hours at the Dallas boat show, 11 test drives, and wading through all the salesmen's opinions, I finally took the plunge: 2003 Supra Launch.

This is my first boat, and it is fantastic. I got a decent price, a killer interest rate, and a great color: All-white hull, black/silver decal, white interior w/black piping, and a black tower.

I looked primarily at Tigé, Centurion, Supra; with cursory looks at Malibu and Mastercraft. Did not consider the Nautiques; decent wake, but less-than-stellar finish and value.

I finally saw through the marketing haze of the V-drives and went for pure performance. I found it interesting that people move the engine from the middle to the stern to get more weight in the stern; and then go back and add weight to the middle. Also, stadium seating seems great in the showroom, but I prefer more elbow room on the water. With a 98 inch beam, the Launch has plenty of walk-around room.

I wanted a deep v-hull, strong power, high freeboard, and great performance (driver's seat, power train including throttle response, steering, and tracking).

I found everything I wanted in the Launch and am almost done breaking in the engine.

If anyone has any tips for a new boater or questions about my decision, drop me a line.

djk.

Nor*Cal · Ladies Man Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 9479 City: Sac

pictures??

noneya · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 796 City: Roxboro, NC

Best tip: Take out your fellow wakeboarder.com-ers as much as possible!!! Its time to start riding, have you gotten the break in hours over with yet??

mkcarte2 · Outlaw Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 168 City: raliegh, nc

Did you just say nautiques have less finish than the other brands you looked at?? Dont get me wrong you have gotten a superb boat that you will love. But, I have never heard soomeone say a company finishs a boat better than nautique. But, they are quite expensive. Just wondered where you got the idea those other companies like supra tige and centurion finished there boats better??? Enjoy your new boat!!!

zach · Newbie Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 18 City: texas

yeah i think i might have seen your boat and you might have seen mine we bought the all white silver decal black tower ssv that they got in last december at waterski boats dallas

forwaken · Addict Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 635 City: Turlock, CA

Mkcarte2-
I agree with djk on the nautiques. When we went to our boat show we went with the intention to buy all brands and we checked out all brands. Another advantage we had was that we were new to this too as it was our first boat so maybe the marketing hadn't got to us yet. Upon inspecting the Nautique we found that there finish wasn't as good as the others surprisingly for the price. Not immidiatley evident, but if you felt where you weren't supposed to feel and pull what you weren't supposed to pull there were differences. Some examples were wires not even wire loomed, screws sticking out, etc. Just little things. I am not knocking the performance of the boat, because according to most people they say the performance is probably better than what we choose, a VLX. But I am not a pro rider and will never probably be THAT picky about the performance. We were also looking for a "social" boat as well. It is all relative to opinion anyways.

BTW djk-let's see some pics of the new addition.

djk · Newbie Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 9 City: Plano, Tx

Thanks for the comments. Pics coming from this next weekend, hopefully.

I found a great wide ramp with a dock in a protected cove: Lake Lavon - Elm Fork (south of Collin Park); very good for beginners; right near the dam, only $30 for a year's worth of entries at any Army Corp facility.

I looked fairly closely at all the manufacturers. Some observations:

Malibu- nice finish, weak windshield, windshield supports mounted on the side of the walkthru (why not on top of the dash??), low freeboard, don't like the seat bases that are not part of the fiberglass deck, flimsy inserts for underseat coolers, good base engine, cheap steering wheel, not sold on the wedge, o.k. price.

Centurion- o.k. finish, good fiberglass work on deck, too much vibration/noise from engine (Avalanche), too light-weight (Elite-V), liked the storage slats along the inside of the boat, too much bow rise, low price.

Tigé- good finish (except brand new boat had caps off some dials and rusted screwhead on the dash), terrible driver'seat (wobbles and impossible to reach the adjustment lever), boats pull too much to the right, very heavy, actually liked the wooden quadra-beam, very solid ride, deep-v, didn't like the feel of the drivetrain (throttle response), nice wide beam, fairly deep freeboard although they cheat a bit by setting the driver seat very low, no carpet border at the edge of the deck (pay $45k and get frays at the edge of the carpet) drove 5 models and liked the 21i the best (just not better than the Launch), high price.

Nautique- low quality finish (just a gut sense), nice dash, low freeboard, too skinny beam, don't like the storage compartment access (have to lift the entire seat w/base), interior felt a bit cheap for such a huge price, I know, I know: "the wake is great".

Mastercraft- great finish, nice deck layout, big ol' sturdy windshield (just like the Launch), don't like plastic fenders on the trailer, way too much $$.

Anyway, most any new boat will do the trick. The key is to drive the boats first and see which one fits you best.

For me, as soon as I drove the Launch, I was sold. It has an excellent Recaro-type driver's seat, great steering wheel and dash, big ol' sturdy windshield, excellent throttle and steering response, good storage with long storage slats along the side and by the driver seat, love the 6-point tower assembly (I predict that other manufacturers will follow this lead soon), love the playpen bow and seat on the pass-thru (I have 4 youngun's 7,9,12,14, so that was a factor), 13 passenger capacity, great trailer with Boat Buddy (very good for new boaters), like the rear storage compartment w/o carpet so you can put wet stuff in it, I also like the construction method with strong inner-hull and shoebox w/stainless screws every 3 inches, huge deep-v (this boat takes on rough water and stays dry and stable), decent price.

If any of you have any "lessons-learned" as you got into boating/wakeboarding, I'd love to hear them.

djk.

Jeff · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 678 City: Long Island

affter all that you gotta get some pics of this boat poasted, i realy like supras too, especially the deep freeboard, it seems more sturdy then outher boats(or at least able to go threw chop better)

supra · Newbie Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 14 City: tupelo, ms

congrats on the new boat, just bought a 2003 lanuch myself. Here's a pic.

Jeff · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 678 City: Long Island

nice boat

BIGMAC · Posted: Apr 10, 2003 9:26 pm Post subject:

Nautique- low quality finish (just a gut sense),
]
What a statement!! you are the first to ever say that! The first that I have heard anyways.

hOUston boarder · Criminal Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 79 City: TX

Supra makes a nice boat, it was my (distant) second choice behind my Mastercraft X-10.

hOUston boarder · Criminal Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 79 City: TX

Sorry, saying distant above is more of a reference to the dealers in Houston, than quality of boat.

djk · Newbie Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 9 City: Plano, Tx

Nautique clarification:

With respect to interior fit-n-finish:

"low quality" - wrong choice of words; a bit harsh

"lower quality" - more correct vis-a-vis other manufacturers; compared to Malibu, Tigé, and Mastercraft, the Nautiques appeared to be on a second-tier

"lower value" - for the money Nautique is charging, my initial impression (when comparing all the manufacturers side-by-side under the same roof) was that Nautique was "stealing money"

I don't know the entire history of the boat industry, but my take was that Nautique is resting on its laurels a bit with a huge, popular brand; just cranking out boats as fast as they can.

I welcome any enlightenment from the board.

djk.

grady · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 547 City: d-block

djk...ur boat sounds awesome and im sure u'll luv it...did u get a regular launch or an SS? we purchased our 02 SL from a boatshow last year and we luv it...supra makes an awesome boat

VTECfiendSH · Newbie Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Posts: 1

Yeah i picked one up last season a 2002. Its all black, one of a kind. I love it. We drove alot of Nautiques and Mastercrafts and stuff and they would rattle over wakes and stuff and things just didnt work right. I have no complaints from this boat

Im not into that Big Superman looking S though.. im taking all that off and putting on the supra symbol from the gravity games boat.

McFly · Outlaw Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 210 City: Edmond

DJK and Zach, we are glad that you are happy with your purchase. Thanks for the business and let me know if we can do anything else for you.

Marty McFly
Waterski Boats Dallas