is an I/O ok to wakeboard behind?

Whats the difference between an inboard/outboard wake and an inboard's wake? Is it hard to find a good i/o under $10K that will throw a good wake? or would this be a waste of money since the boat will be primarily to wakeboard behind?

In that price range a mid-80's correct craft is a really proven boat for making a great wakeboarding boat. You can find late 80's and early 90's MasterCraft ProStars for not much more. Don't go with an I/O if it is primarily for wakeboarding.

I got rid of an I/O and went to an inboard this year. There is no huge difference in the wake unweighted, I have not weighted either boat, but both wakes were very usable. I prefer the wake of the inboard. There are so many factors that go into it. Like how the inboard holds speed. If I had it to do over again, I would have went with the inboard to start with, but for us, there is always somebody boarding, we never cruise or anything else.

I think the main difference is that there are fewer inboard models and the designs of inboard hulls tend to be pretty similar to each other whereas I/O hulls exhibit greater variation and there are many more models to sort through.

Some I/O hulls produce very nice wakes. Some (most even) produce soft and washy wakes. The only way to tell, for the most part, is to test drive them. That could be a long and arduous process.

The usual inboard hull design happens to produce a good wake but even when choosing between inboard wakes, people will advise you test them. It's a lot easier to do since there aren't nearly as many models.

There is no doubt that I/Os provide better value in your price range if stuff like space and "newness" is important to you. You may be able to inquire about specific I/O models that are available to you and get feedback from owners of those models. This info will only be anecdotal though so you'd probably want to confirm it with a test drive.

If your highest priority is a good wake, however, and you don't care so much about a new boat, space, storage, or layout; you might be better off with a known good wake boat like the Ski Nautique 2001.

The other difference is that most inboards were designed with waterskiing in mind and were therefore equipped with powerful engines. This is important when you start to weight the boat down. Many I/Os, on the other hand, are not as powerful. Indeed, the standard engines of most I/Os are fairly underpowered so you'll want to watch out for that.

Its cool if you don't wanna surf

Does anybody know anything about Chris-Craft? I found a '93 for $7900...boat looks ok but kind of small...with weight would it throw an ok wake?

89 22' Sunbird Eurosport I/O, cheap boat,great wake

Tino, to answer your question id pretty much follow what Salmon said about it varies between manufacturers and even models(sizes). Mine does great but it is far from a stock IB. Now to counter all you I/O haters i dont think there is 1 older IB out there being used as a wakeboard boat that is stock. People add just as much crap to their IB's as i added to my I/O. Prop, PP, tower, racks, stereo,etc. Remember this, its cheaper to get a boat I/O, IB, or V that already has all the stuff installed you will NEED anyway.