Hello, Everyone,

I am about to make my first wakeboard boat purchase and was hoping for some words of wisdom from the experience in this forum! I am looking for a multi-sport boat for my family of six, and have narrowed the search down to two boats. One is a Tige and the other is a Supra. I've posted a similar message on the Tige board to the one I'm posting here. Thanks in advance for your comments!

The two boats are:

1. 2006 Tige 24ve (340 hp, 370 hrs). One owner boat, although the boat was used in saltwater for the first year and a half of its life as a demo boat for a dealer in Florida. Has been exclusively used in freshwater in the Midwest since. Boat is in excellent condition, with the interior redone a year ago. Has manual fatsacs, tower, cockpit heater, bimini, cover, and all other standard options that come with the 24ve. Teak swim platform could use some TLC, but nothing that a Sunday with a belt sander and can of teak oil wouldn't fix. One of the tower speakers are blown, but also a simple fix. As with many older Tige's, the TAPS gauge doesn't work but the plate works just fine.

2. 2010 Supra Sunsport 21V (340 hp, 330 hrs). Also one owner boat, only used in freshwater. Excellent condition with interior fully redone this year. Has cockpit heater, upgraded and plumbed ballast (750's in the back and a 400 lb in the bow). There are some gel coat stress cracks around the tower and handholds, but that is a known problem for that year Supra and is only cosmetic. As you all probably know, this is also the first year Supra used the VISION system (so no gauges, and also runs the ballast, stereo, and cruise control).

I've been looking for a boat for about 6 months now, and really like both the Tige's and Supra's as our lake is a big wind funnel and 2' chop is typical out in the middle. I have had accepted offers on two other boats that fell through because we found a burnt valve in each when I ordered a compression test before handing over the bank check. Owners had no idea. Best idea we can come up with is that both boats were used heavily for wake surfing and these somewhat older (circa 2003) boats weren't exactly meant for that. Evidently the oil pans don't like it when the bow is up, so running 10-11 mph with the bow in the air and the stern weighted down runs the engine lean. Don't know if that is the issue, but thats what the best idea the mechanic and I came up with after the second boat showed up with a burnt valve like the first (both needed $8K rebuilds).

After negotiations, both boats will cost the same (to within 10%). I like the look and space that comes with the 24ve, but the 21v will also hold my family just fine. From what I've read, the 24ve will surf better but the 21v will be better for skiing (since the 24ve is basically a tank with the same hp). We plan to spend our time equally on surfing, wakeboarding, and skiing (with perhaps a little bit of time pulling the tube for the youngest kids, after they try one of the other three). The NADA value for the Supra is higher than the Tige, but both boats appear to be selling for roughly the same dollar value on onlyinboards and boattrader (which I understand is what really matters).

So, what it is coming down to for me is basically the age of the boats. I'm leaning toward the Supra primarily because it is 4 years newer, although I am very interested to hear what this forum has to say. I do want to try out wakesurfing and am a bit worried about threads I've seen regarding how hard it is to get a good surf wave on the 21v hull. Since I'm a novice, however, I'm thinking that it will do just fine for me with a suck gate and ballast filled. Would appreciate any input here...

Before this, I've only owned center consoles and been around larger sport fishing boats in salt water. Now that I live near a lake in upstate NY and have four young children, I want to buy a boat again, but have never owned a wakeboard boat.

Apologies for the rambling and I look forward to any and all advice and/or criticism on above opinions. I'm planning on pulling the trigger this weekend.

Thanks!