Nautique 2001

Im looking at picking up a 1986 Nautique 2001. I know the floor and stringers are susceptible to rot and should be inspected. If the engine mounts tighten up should I feel pretty comfortable that the stringers are sound, or do I really need to cut a core out and see? Will the owner allow me to do that? I don't think I would let some stranger drill into the stringer on my boat! Anything to look for on the 351?

Thanks for your help!

Is it a gt-40 aka a Windsor? If so those motors are tanks. I have one in my 210 and love it. Should b pretty torquey in a smaller 2001. My friend used to have one and though it was ten years ago I remember it having a pretty nice wake. Super easy to spin on. I don't really know anything about the stringers but the ford 351 small blocks are supposed to be pretty bulletproof. One guy I know put 3500 hours on one running 2000 lbs ballast in an old sport nautique and all he ever had to do was normal maintenance.

the2001.com and correctcraftfan.com you will find all the info you need to purchase that boat

I would be pretty surprised if anyone will let you drill holes in their boat. The bolts should tell the story in 99% of the cases. Although I was in that 1% as someone had replaced the stingers under the motor but left the old in front and behind and then reglassed the whole mess.

On the motor look for the electronic ignition upgrade. It makes the motor more reliable than the old points system. A lot can be going on with a motor of this age and a compression test will tell you most of the story along with a visual inspection for leaking oil or trans fluid.

If you check everything and it looks good tell the seller that before you can hand him the money you need a test drive. Even if it has been winterized don't buy it without running it. The thing can be rewinterized fast and cheap.

I wish that I would have followed all of these steps when I bought mine.

has a 2001 ever broke in half from rotten stringers? i had mine for 8 years and never checked them, cause i knew i wasnt gonna fix them if they were rotten. man i miss that boat. i hate my sport nautique compared to my 2001.

Its a boat not a used car, want to be the one to have it break in two? With that said, all Nautiques are well built. But do your homework, make sure you know what you are getting into before you buy. If you can't do it, pay a pro to look at it.

2001s are sick boats! Great starter boat for wakeboarding. I had a 1988 Ski Nautique 2001 and I loved it. The 351 has tons of torque. The things I always recommend to people who want a 2001 is to convert the points to electronic ignition. Its super easy to do ans its costs like $100 for the kit from petronix ignitor. It will make your tuneup last much longer. Also, if you are going to put weight in it, get the ACME 542 prop. Its sick! you can slam it with weight and you will still get up on plane no problem. I ran a sac bag on both sides of the motor, 300 in the back which I hid in a custom seat I made. Then I put 200lbs of weight in the bow. Best thing to do with these boats is get the most weight in the center of the boat because it will already have a pretty steep wake. I bought mine with 600hrs and sold it with 1300hrs on it. if change the oil every 25hrs and change the tranny fluid every season that motor will last forever. Only problem I had was my starter went out and alternator went bad. I rebuilt the carb and that was it. Here are some photos of my old 2001 and of the wake as I described how i weighted it.

If you are seriously interested in it, get it inspected before you buy. If you don't know what your looking for when it comes to problems, its best to have a shop check it out. Personally I think 88-89 2001s are the best years for those boats. They changed the dash and the top of the bow of the boat and it looks really good!

Originally Posted by RidingTheNW

2001s are sick boats! Great starter boat for wakeboarding. I had a 1988 Ski Nautique 2001 and I loved it. The 351 has tons of torque. The things I always recommend to people who want a 2001 is to convert the points to electronic ignition. Its super easy to do ans its costs like $100 for the kit from petronix ignitor. It will make your tuneup last much longer. Also, if you are going to put weight in it, get the ACME 542 prop. Its sick! you can slam it with weight and you will still get up on plane no problem. I ran a sac bag on both sides of the motor, 300 in the back which I hid in a custom seat I made. Then I put 200lbs of weight in the bow. Best thing to do with these boats is get the most weight in the center of the boat because it will already have a pretty steep wake. I bought mine with 600hrs and sold it with 1300hrs on it. if change the oil every 25hrs and change the tranny fluid every season that motor will last forever. Only problem I had was my starter went out and alternator went bad. I rebuilt the carb and that was it. Here are some photos of my old 2001 and of the wake as I described how i weighted it.

That is a really nice 2001. I almost pulled the trigger on an '85 that looked to be in good condition, but he wanted a bit too much and I am scared crapless of getting a boat with soggy stringers. If I ever find a good condition 88'-'89 though, I probably will have to pull the trigger.

love the 2001 if possible look for an 89 it was the last year they made the 2001 and most of them came with the PCM power plus package which included a reduced drive trans allowing you to run more weight with a better prop.My brother bought his 2001 in 91 and still has it to this day the boat has over 2600 hours and is still going strong

Thanks for the input guys! What do you feel is a fair price for a low hour 86 in good condition with all service records this time of year? I agree that i would have to test drive it before any cash exchanged hands. I didnt realize the top deck changed in 88. I really like the teak on the interior and the vents under the windshield looks better. Maybe I'll have to keep looking.

Also the 88 has a split windshield and the 89 has a one piece windshield which I think looks better it seems to flow well with the lines of the boat they also changed the shape of the stripe down the side of the boat I would expect a nice one to go for $9000 or better and a relay nice one with tower and other options to be $12000 or better as they are still a sought after model fore people not wanting to spend tons of cash for a newer boat and still get a good wake

Adam & 88

I'll have my 88 ski nautique for sale come next spring, just don't have the time to deal with test drives and re-winterizing now. PM me for details if you want them.

With the market the way it is you can get one for a good price. I sold mine in 2008 for $8700 with 1300hrs, but I bought it in 2004 for $8700 with 600hrs at the end of summer from a guy that over extended him self and needed to sell it. If I had sold it in 2007 before the market crash I could of probably got $ 10-12,000 for it. I'm a boat mechanic so I knew what I was looking for as far as problems, and the only issue it had was fuel accelerator pump on the carburetor leaked a tiny bit and it needed a new water pump. I just rebuilt the carb. I took very good care of my engine, so I never really had any issues with it. They are awesome boats! In fact, the original Slingshot Recoil and driver boots was tested and designed behind my boat. My little claim to wakeboard fame lol! I love the 2001 Ski Nautiques, but honestly If I was going to buy another Nautique direct drive boat I would try to find a Sport Nautique. Same hull shape but its wider and bigger so the wake is better. You can get them with the GT-40 fuel injected 351 too. Its a buyers market so you could even find a Super Sport Nautique (same as a Super Air Nautique) for really good prices. All depends on your price range.

Wow I am really starting to miss our silver anniversary 2001 what a great dependable boat.

Good thoughts Kyle. You have me thinking about the Sport nautique. I know that would be the better choice for my growing family. I just need to figure out how long I will keep the next boat before I get what I really want. I've seen some pretty nice ones asking about $14k, is that reasonable?

Originally Posted by dru1974

Wow I am really starting to miss our silver anniversary 2001 what a great dependable boat.

Man, I miss mine too There was just something about that bass boat silver metal flake.

Yeah That sounds about right, but you could probably find one cheaper then that, like 10-12 depending on the year, condition, and upgrades. I think in 93 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) Nautique went to composite stringers and floors too, so that's one less thing to worry about. I think the Super Sport would be the way to go though. More room cause its a V-drive, plus you would pretty much have a Super Air Nautique. They started making the Super Sport Nautique in 1995 so if you can find one, you can get them for pretty cheap now. Malibu Sunsetters and Sunsetter VLX boats with the SV23 hull are great too. Awesome wake. Just a little less steep then a Nautique which I prefer. If you look into one of those make sure you stay away from the Diamond hull. Its made for slalom skiing so it flattens out the wake. It takes a lot more weight to make the wake sweet on a diamond hull verses the SV23 hull . The SV23 hull on the Sunsetter and Echelon is the same hull as the wakesetter VLX from 99-2004. Some Sunsetters have the diamond hull, and I think its 2001 and newer. You can tell really easy though the difference. Just look at the back of the boat. I can send you some photos of the difference if you are interested. Let me know.

Here is my 89 2001... 2nd owner, 630 hours, perfect pass, stored in a fully enclosed lift it's whole life.

Debating on what to do with it. I recently moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA and the riding season is so short, I don't know if I can justify driving 60+ hours to pick it up at home in Minnesota.

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What would you need out of it Nick? Thats a good looking boat.

Everything is for sale for the right price. The boat acts as my enjoyable savings account since it's paid off.

Tapping on the stringers with a small hammer and the corresponding sound it makes will help you determine their health. Visual inspection goes a long way too. If there are any lag bolts running into the stringers, you can remove one or more and look inside and probe the stringer that way.

Originally Posted by wake_upppp

Tapping on the stringers with a small hammer and the corresponding sound it makes will help you determine their health. Visual inspection goes a long way too. If there are any lag bolts running into the stringers, you can remove one or more and look inside and probe the stringer that way.

As an owner of an 86 2001 id be hard pressed to let you remove a lag bolt from my boat to view the stringers. Id be more than happy to allow you to take a wrench/ratchet and tighten the bolt in order to show that the bolt is biting into strong wood. But definitely not removing the bolt. And if thats a deal breaker for a buyer than I could respect that.

Heres the general idea though with these boats and their stringers. Correct Craft did a horrible job with protecting the stringers. Id say 1 in every 15 used boats of this era will have solid stringers. So with purchasing one of these boats you need to understand if you plan to own it for the next 10 years, plan to do stringers. If you plan to own it for a year or 2 then upgrade then just buy the best boat you can for what you can afford but dont kill yourself trying to find perfect stringers cause you probably wont.

Secondly a lag bolt is not truly the best way to check the stringers. There are a lot of different theories behind it but basically if you look at the stringers and the cheap garbage "fiberglass" covering CC used to coat them and that fiberglass has cracks....youre screwed.

BUT here are a few more pics of what can happen with one of these wakes

The lag bolts should not have any room to tighten, if they do then someone is not performing their maintanence. Removing it and re-installing it into a healthy stringer hurts nothing that I am aware of.

You're absolutely right that it shouldn't tighten at all.

And removing and reinstalling a lag bolt into a healthy stringer shouldn't be an issue. But my thought would be if the stringer isn't good and you pull the lag out as a buyer and find the stringer is bad you politely explain the situation to the owner and say you either don't want the boat or you want it for a steal of a price. Well if the owner wants to keep the boat based on what you just showed him he has to attempt to reinstall the lag and may or may not get it to go back in with enough strength to equate to the same "strength" he had before and may cause him to have an issue with his stringer/motor alignment more prematurely than if that lag bolt were left in there.

The reason I think of this is because I know my stringers are not perfect. And I feel as though that would be the predicament i would find myself in if I allowed someone to remove and reinstall my lag bolt. At this point my stringers may not be perfect but they're good enough to keep me operating the boat until i can afford to do stringers the right way.

My thought would be if you pulled it out and it would not go back in and hold, it was not holding to begin with. A lag bolt should go in and out of healthy wood and work fine as long as you dont over tighten and strip the hole or if the wood is bad. Its buyer beware always so its to the buyers benifit to check everything as much as possible. Not so healthy stringers may not kill the sale or render the boat unusable but would be a good bargaining tool when negotiating the price and is nice to know before the purchase rather than after.

I know in my old 2001 my floor came up at the edge of the hull and floor, And there is not much wood under the floors. It is mostly foam and there are a few small pieces of wood coming off the stringers.

I had a guy replace the stringers and put a treated plywood floor in. I sold it before I put it back together but it is alive once again with a new owner on the 2001.com. And the guy made a few changes to it and it looks great ! I just have not ridden behind it yet, But I miss that boat sometimes. Usually every month when I have to make the payment on my new one but whatever lol.

Originally Posted by wake_upppp

My thought would be if you pulled it out and it would not go back in and hold, it was not holding to begin with. A lag bolt should go in and out of healthy wood and work fine as long as you dont over tighten and strip the hole or if the wood is bad. Its buyer beware always so its to the buyers benifit to check everything as much as possible. Not so healthy stringers may not kill the sale or render the boat unusable but would be a good bargaining tool when negotiating the price and is nice to know before the purchase rather than after.

Youre absolutely right about that. Buyer beware for sure.

Ive been porked so many times by buying things from people without them telling me the whole story (most recent is why im pulling my 7.3 ford diesel motor cause the guy didnt let me know about the crack in the block he ended up with and then covered with JB weld) My Correct Craft was the only purchase ive made without getting screwed.

These boats are worth the work if you do have to do a stringer job. Ive ridden behind fully loaded super air 210s with 2000lbs of ballast and the wake is bigger than the 2001 wake but for the majority of peoples abilities a 2001 wake with 1500lbs will be jusssst fine. So if someone were to find a boat that needs stringer, do like wake_uppp said and use it as a negotiation point and redo those stringers and have yourself an awesome wake boat!

^^^^^ Yeah getting burned like that sucks. What goes around comes around though. Don't feel bad, it happens to the best of em'.