2015 Mastercraft X30 Review....by yours truly

[Afun]

We got off to a rocky start because I thought we were test driving the boat pictured at the bottom in the boat show (Red & Grey). This morning I got a text from the new salesman regarding what could they do to get me in this boat. I asked if we were still going to demo. He said yes the Red boat is currently in the water. I spent an hour with this salesman inside the red & grey boat. He was nice enough to buy my friends and wife drinks. So I expected to see the red boat. He showed up in the Black & Red with the white top deck. My wife and Norrismike like this boat better, but I felt I was deceived about which boat I was going to demo. He told me " this is a red boat"....and I got pissed. I told him he lied to me, but to give me a few minutes and I would calm down. I did not like that and he realized he made a mistake by giving a petty white lie. Were done with that part.....

The first thing I noticed about the X30 is how quiet it was when cruising. I now consider my boat pretty loud. I thought that was impressive. The gel coat scheme was very nice. Flake Red, Black, White, and Red Mastercraft logo. I like the boat show boat better. The intereior was very high quality as expected. I thought the grey and the red piping was meh at best. The pull up observer chair fits 3 small kids and its awesome. I loved it! You could also lay it flat. The carpet quality was nice. It has two pieces to snap out. I really like the bow enclosure gate. Its awesome and does not rattle when you are driving. This particular boat had a very quiet Ilmore 350 in it. It cruised very nice. I still prefer the throttle on the Malibu, but this boat had a good one too. Very smooth linear accerlation. We had the small screen that was not touchscreen. That one is an upgrade, but this one was still functional. This boat brings no bow weight. It brings two rear hard tanks, midship, and two rear 550 sacs. A total of 2200. We could add some custom sacs to the lockers and do it right if we wanted to. The salesman told me the X30 did not need bow weight......OK. So we went with it. Current set-up the wave was real dirty. Norrismike took over the wheel we cruised from 10.8 to 11.5 and it was still dirty. I told the salesman that I disagreed with him....IT NEEDS BOW WEIGHT.

I put three adults in the bow and automatically the wave cleaned up. The wave was meh. I think I got some video. Norrismike decided to list the boat a little on the goofy side and it looked much better. We had all three GEN 2 surf trimmed down or up I forget but they were engaged. Kind of reminded me of the Supra and trying to dial in the wave. That little screen tells you what percentage of water is left in the bags in smaller increments. The X30 does have wave potential with the proper set-up.

I don't want to bore you guys with more paragraphs.....but the comparison to the NINJA. I thought the X30 was does same exact size as my VLX on the interior. No bigger and no smaller. It felt exactly the same. I thought I was going to get more space. The boat is also over 1000 lbs heavier. That was a let down for me. It was still comfortable, but so is the Ninja. The throttle on both are excellent, but I like the Malibu one. The wave potential on both are excellent, but mine is dialed in already. Zero off on the Mastercraft is much better than Malibucruise. The vinyl on the MC is nicer hands down. The tower is very easy to pull down and tow with it down to avoid the bugs. This boat had cool little purple LED's around the ring of all the speakers. I thought that was a nice touch. I never really boat at night. All around its a very nice boat, but its not much different than my VLX.....but the difference in price is huge. I'm just not seeing the huge upgrade. What I do see is an excellent dealer minus the little hicup with the salesman (but I do run high on emotions) and a whopping 5 YEAR BUMPER TO BUMPER WARRANTY. The dealer and the ownership is truly awesome. That makes me feel really good with a purchase of this size. I am going to use a NorrisMike word....I left the demo feeling underwhelmed. I guess I feel like this because the VLX is pretty awesome. I'm hoping the G21 blows my socks off.

I hope to download some video too.

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Untitled by Afun2011, on Flickr

Edited March 8, 2015 by Afun

[Stevo]

boots in the boat ?? or is that a moccasin

Edited March 8, 2015 by Stevo

[alpensurf23]

[OneCent]

MC are great, i just don't like they're bling bling. But the driver cupholder is at the right place ;-)

[DocPhil]

what bags were you running in the rear?

[Afun]

Oh yea...I forgot to mention uncomfortably bow high at surf speed and the bolster feels like you are sitting in a hole....later I was instructed to just lean my butt on the bolster

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[Afun]

what bags were you running in the rear?

550's plus hard tanks

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[DocPhil]

generally the formula is 750s, full hard tanks with some lead hidden in the bow. I really like the setup because lead will take care of some of the bow rise and lengthen out the wave. As opposed to my LSV, to get a really great wave I needed a sac in the bow.

Sounds like the boat didn't really do it for you.

perhaps the G21 will be the one?

[Afun]

generally the formula is 750s, full hard tanks with some lead hidden in the bow. I really like the setup because lead will take care of some of the bow rise and lengthen out the wave. As opposed to my LSV, to get a really great wave I needed a sac in the bow.

Sounds like the boat didn't really do it for you.

perhaps the G21 will be the one?

Perhaps I already have the boat thats for me. NorrisMike brought up a good point....why do these salesman do a mediocre job when it comes to the demo. I know they usually deal with the run of the mill customer....but don't they bump into customers like us once in a while. Why don't they set the boat up and try to impress us? I would show the deadly Ninja to everyone! After doing a demo with me, you will be sure to buy the boat.

[alpensurf23]

Why not a new Malibu?

[teamerickson]

Yes, I bet a 22 VLX could be a Samari.

[mr7]

The 22 VLX would be first on my list. Why not look at that? If you want to upgrade and like the VLX, why not stick to what you know?

[-BS-]

More room and a mackin' surf wave are what you're looking for?

Dude. Cut to the chase. Go get a gently used 247 & plumb in the BobbyB setup. Game over.

[skyskier]

I applaud your effort to see all that you can see before deciding. If you just stick to what you know then you will never know what you don't know. Whew, that was deep.

[DocPhil]

I agree with BS. You have a great boat and a great wave.

If you are looking for a different brand or dealer then it makes sense but I don't think you are going to find a better surf wave out there in the surf system boats.

[Afun]

Lots of BS going on in my market right now. The Mastercraft dealer is awesome and so is the Mastercraft warranty.

I think even BB may be shopping around for something more economical.

The VLX just happens to hit all the strong points pretty hard....looks, space, wave...not to mention what a good price I got it for.

[Afun]

So this is the wave with two salesman in the bow. All three hard tanks filled midship, 2 rear, plus 2 550's sac in the lockers. I could not see over the bow. I was standing leaning over trying to see.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Afun

[saxton15]

The angle of the video isn't helping.

[DocPhil]

Afun, was that signal at the end to kill the mastercraft salesman?

Dude you crack me up. You look like Pesci in goodfellas there. Like okay, its time. Throw the body in the river.

Edited March 9, 2015 by DocPhil

[Afun]

This is with nobody in the bow. We did have a small current.

10.5 - 11.5 MPH

[Afun]

The angle of the video isn't helping.

My son was already driving us crazy....

[DocPhil]

that salesman should be ashamed of himself.

do you really think I would buy an X-30 if the surf wave was that bad.

That looked horrible. That is not my experience at all

[DocPhil]

this is with JUST 450s in the rear lockers and hard tanks. No lead. It only gets better from there. Here is what your stock wave should have looked like

EDIT: please ignore the pitiful switch back attempt

Edited March 9, 2015 by DocPhil

[Afun]

^^^^ that looks much better...don't know what to say

[DocPhil]

Goofy wave looks a little washy but that can be cleaned up with a small amount of starboard lead

The wave on the x30 is every bit as good as the x23 and my LSV