LSV with no bow ballast?

[k_b_stephens]

Hoping to join the BU family and been looking at LSVs & VLXs. Found a great deal on LSV Sunscape but it doesn't have the bow ballast. I know it's pretty necessary on a VLX, but what about a LSV?

Thanks,

Keith

[skicrave]

Bow ballast isn't dependent so much on which boat you're talking about (although some do need it more than others for the same performance), but how you plan to use that boat.

I'm a little surprised that you're shopping both VLXs and Sunscape LSVs, as they are quite different boats that are designed for different uses. If you're looking for primarily a wakeboard/wakesurf boat (80% or more of your time will be spent doing those activities), you really should be limiting your search to boats that use the Wake hull, which means the VLX. And in order to get the best wakeboarding or wakesurfing wake out of the VLX, which is why you're buying the boat, you need to have qMLS (especially if you plan on using the Wedge).

If you're not looking for a hardcore wake producing machine, then you don't need a VLX, but you probably also don't need bow ballast in whatever boat you go with.

So really the answer depends on your expectations, and how you're going to use the boat.

[k_b_stephens]

Oops....excuse my ignorance Wasn't aware that the LSV(sunscape) had a different shaped hull (diamond i guess?). Just thought it was a VLX big brother with a different trim package or something. Thanks for the help!

[skicrave]

Don't apologize at all, Malibu's naming convention is very confusing. In general though, there is a Wakesetter and Sunscape version of each model that Malibu makes:

[u]Wakesetter[/u]               [u]Sunscape[/u]
Wakesetter VTX           Sunscape 20 LSV
Wakesetter VLX           Sunscape 21 LSV
Wakesetter LSV           Sunscape 23 LSV
Wakesetter 247 LSV       Sunscape 247 LSV

This is all dependent upon the year of the boat as the names, hulls, features and options have changed regularly. In general though, a Sunscape boat will be on the Diamond hull and will not have any ballast (let alone bow ballast).

Edited April 24, 2009 by skicrave

[malibudreaming]

It gets even more confusing, The vtx and vlx can be ordered new with either the wakesetter hull or the cut diamond hull. If you go to the malibu web sight and "build" your boat in software you will get a list of the features such as ballast available for each model.