MasterCraft X-Star
MasterCraft X-Star
MasterCraft X-Star
MasterCraft X-Star
MasterCraft X-Star
MasterCraft X-Star
Today’s youthful, adrenaline-fueled wakeboard culture proclaims its rebel lifestyle with tribal tattoos, flat-bill caps and seemingly impossible jumps and tricks. It has also fostered waves of tow-boat innovation.
The latest example is the 2013 MasterCraft X-Star. In the quest for the perfect wake, MasterCraft lengthened the running surface from 21½ feet on the previous X-Star to 24 feet on the 2013 version. Water ballast, pumped in and out to adjust wake shape and size, was increased to 1,400 pounds from 1,000 in the ex-X-Star. Designers also incorporated a pickle-fork design into the bow with a boarding ladder between the two tines.
MasterCraft points to a number of wakeboarding “firsts” behind this model in its initial summer (2012) in competition use, new tricks that sound like items on a sushi menu: double Indy half-cab roll, Moby Dick 9, KGB-7 and crow-9.
A V-drive transfers power to the water. Our test boat was equipped with a 522 hp Ilmor 7.4L V-8 — the most powerful engine available for the X-Star. Top speed seemed lackluster — just 43.6 mph — but with the X-Star, you’re not looking for velocity, just tasty waves. The Ilmor 7.4 was impressive out of the hole, jumping on plane in four seconds.
The interior of the X-Star shines with sophisticated technology, including a center pop-up 7-inch LCD display, as well as twin 4.3-inch LCD displays on either side of the wheel.
The forward-facing aft lounge seat flips around to face aft for enjoying the wake show. An additional rear-facing seat is just aft of the contoured walk-through windshield, and bow passengers have backrests facing back as well as forward.
The X-Star offers cavernous storage bays adjacent to the engine compartment. The neoindustrial design of the fold-down wakeboard tower includes wakeboard racks that pivot in and out and the requisite for lights and bazooka-style speakers for the boomin’ JL audio system.
A combination nonskid step/seat just forward of the swim platform gives the wakeboarder a convenient place to sit and secure his bindings before a session. To help the skeg-armed boards slide into the water without chipping gelcoat, the swim platform has a hard-rubber rail. The board slides right over the beveled edge.
Comparable model: Tigé Z3
