Alright so we own a 2008 230 Wake and overall we love it.
Heres my input from the experience we've had so far. Also take into consideration that my family and I are completely and totally first time boat owners and the only trace of boating experience is from renting little beat up boats on the ocean or Big Bear lake and one time when I went on a trip to Laughlin with my friend on his families Centurion boat.
So as for the 230 Wake, our first boat.
Pros:
-Lots of space, certainly more space than the competiting Yamaha 230 or 212 X (you can move around more and be more comfortable) Especially in the bow area where your legs actually have places to rest.
-Looks really nice in the water and standsout from the rest. Has a Ferrari vibe. Just plain beautiful out there.
-Very well equipped for wakeboarding, ballast is great (make sure you open the valves in the engine compartment befor sucking up water, we Didn't know that the first time around) Tower speakers are nice and loud, the microphone is cool lets you speak to the rider, and finally I've heard the perfect pass is almost essential, especially since jet boats are apparntly more difficult to maintain speed
-Lots of storage
-Interior is designed well for watersports, the lounger chair next to the captains chair allows the spotter to relax while also being able to easily reach the mic, talk to the driver and watch the rider
-Comes with alot of power, we have the 430 hp but you could also get the 510 hp I believe, either way your gonna be haulin and have more than enough power to get your tube across the wake or pull your fat friends outta the water
-Its got a closed-loop cooling system so if you take it out in the ocean, theoretically no salt water will be running through your motor. But you still have to wash and wipe everything down when you get out of course. You just have a little more piece of mind.
Cons (I guess):
-Like all jetboats its a little hard to steer at low speeds, however I've read that seadoos do a better job at this than yamahas so maybe its not all that bad. You could install cobra jet steering (its basically a fin you stick on the bottom) which all the Yamaha boaters consider to be an essential for their boats and they rave about it.
That being said, we've gotten used to it and its not all that bad, I imagine on a windy day things may get a little sticky, but for the most part we haven't had any real notable problems with low-speed steering. However, we don't take the risk of powering-on and off the trailer, we pull-on/ pull-of I dk what the rest of seadoo jetboaters do.
-the infinity amplifier that comes with the boat is pretty weak. Yeah it powers the audio but its not too mean. For example, last weekend I turned the bass and the treble settings up and I think I blew out the amp because now our radio doesnt work. All the other electrical is fine, the tower speakers still turn on, everything else is good so I'm assuming its the amp. So it might be a good idea to not demand too much from the amp or just throw a bigger one in there.
-You need two people to open up the engine compartment, this is really not that big'a'deal just an annoyance. One person has to pull the lever in the glovebox while the other is at the back of the boat lifting up the "hood" However, I think this can be remedied by just using a little block of wood and proping the lever so you can go pop the hood yourself. I haven't tried this yet but it seems like it should work.
-On our particular boat the fuel gauge is not working. It is stuck on full. I'm sure this is an easy fix as I have seen threads on this forum addressing the issue for other watercrafts but since we're all pretty busy around here we'll just have the dealer fix it when we take it in for the 10 hour.
-Since its got superchargers it takes premium gas, might be an issue for those on a tight budget.
- Some claim that the superchargers are a source of problems. I've read about the clutch on the supercharger being blown out? Or problems with the bearings or nuts or something? Hey I'm not mechanical at all so I don't know whats up with that, the guys on here know this info better than I do, but so far we haven't ran into any of these issues (thankfully), therefore I'm not adequately familiar with them.
-It doesn't come with an hourmeter
-The antenna on the radio is pretty terrible, you should probably subscribe for satellite radio if you don't have an Ipod or Mp3 for your music. Or I know one guy on here extended is antenna and he seemed to get better reception.
Sidenotes:
Although you supposdely can run in shallow water I don't think its something you should do often, or at fast speeds anyway, since you could easily suck something up from the bottom like rocks or other debris which would cause big problems for your impellars. I think as long as you don't accelerate hard it should be ok though.
The thing you mentioned about the turning seems pretty inconsequential to me as I have never cut power in the middle of a turn and been overly concerned about how the boat is handling. I don't even know if thats true, its so inconsequential that I haven't paid attention to it yet. But I'll keep an eye out next time I'm out.
My friend's Centurion was a little bit smaller boat but cost way more and I have to say that comparatively, the 230 wake is just so much better than the Centurion I was on. The only thing the Centurion (it was the escalade I believe) might have on the 230 is the quality of the wake ,but to be honest the difference in the wake (in my opinion) was practically negligble to most riders.
I don't know what your level of wakeboarding is but in all honesty, the wake is fine, you've got enough pop to pull off just about anything that I would imagine is in your bag of tricks. You can youtube it to see what some of these guys are able to pull behind even smaller seadoo boats and I'm sure it will be more than satisfactory.
Bottom Line:
We love the boat, its a great family boat, a great wakesports boat, and when we compared this to equivalents from Mastercraft or Malibu along with their respective prices, we found that the 230 Wake was a far better choice, all things considered.
..wish i can give more advise, other thing, you can check out the seadoo.com website.:cheers:
