Maristar 200V: All You Need
Properly equipped, MasterCraft’s MariStar 200 is plenty of tow boat to please everyone in your family for years to come.
November 5, 2009
Somewhere along the way to the current state of the tow boat market, we forgot that less can be more. Somewhere along the way, splashy graphics and colors not found in nature came to be the norm in tow boats, wakeboard-specific models in particular.
The MariStar 200: a tow boat for grownups.
The boats kept getting bigger and heavier and more outlandish. Lots of builders, including MasterCraft, still manufacture such wild offerings, but it also offers the 200V, what I like to call a tow boat for grown ups.
To begin, there are no wild graphics packages for the boat. What is available is a palette of hull and interior colors that are as suitable for a Sunseeker yacht as they are for the MariStar. In addition, the MasterCraft website lets users design their own boat, with the colors they want so they can see what it will look like long before they take delivery. The site also lets users choose the options and equipment they want, but it stops short of giving a price. For that, you’ll have to register and submit personal information.
Navy blue hull sides and interior accents look as good on the MariStar 200 as they do on a megayacht, but the Maristar 200 is more than just good looks.
The wide nonskid platform is a nice place to sit and dangle your feet in the water.
The forward-facing lounges in the bow are wide and spacious.
For example, the bow seating area is wide and spacious, with forward-facing lounges and a broad “love seat” up front for passengers to sit facing the stern and watching the action behind the boat. The bow also features handy grab rails and wide nonskid platform to help with boarding and debarking. It also makes a decent place to sit and dangle your feet in the water.
The cowl features a bifolding wind dam to block out onrushing wind. With the center windshield and wind dam closed, and the optional heater, owners could go boating so early in the season that they have to avoid floating ice chunks. Well, maybe not, but those features would allow you to go boating late enough in the fall to cruise your favorite lake while taking in the beauty of the leaves changing colors.
In the cockpit, MasterCraft does a, well, masterful job. The helm is a treat for the eyes, as neat-looking and rewarding for the driver as it is functional. Gauges sit in three brushed-metal “bullets” atop the dash. Buyers also can opt for MasterCraft’s BIG (boat instrument gauge), a 6-inch LCD that displays all of the boat’s vital signs, including the amount of water in the ballast system.
Lounges stretch from an observer’s seat large enough for two children aft to a rear bench with a little jump seat right behind the driver. Stowage compartments to either side of the engine box feature lids that are hinged on the sides so you can access them from the interior or the swim platform, which can be fiberglass or teak wood. The sunpad also has a recessed area for the removable ski pylon.
The Maristar 200V can be outfitted with all the same wake enhancing devices and systems the tournament boats have, to please even the most advanced wakeboarders.
MSRP for a 200V is $61,920, which does not include a trailer. The trailer has a swing-away tongue option, which means it measures just 20 feet 9 inches long when folded back. When winter comes, you can tuck this one away in your garage and save the storage fees.
According to MasterCraft literature, the MariStar 200V is built to be the optimal boat for the family that water-skis, wakeboards, wake surfs, pulls tubes and enjoys leisurely cruises. You can outfit it with all the same wake enhancing devices and systems the tournament boats have, so you can please even the most advanced wakeboarders.
In other words, you can have a boat that plays the part without having to look the part. It’s a boat that does everything a tow boat should in any easy-to-own package that should hold up and retain value over time. Boats are always a depreciating investment, but the MariStar is about as good as it gets. It’s all the boat you need.
