This guide is specifically for people looking to buy an 1982 - 1989 Ski Nautique by Correct Craft.

If you are looking for an 82-89 Ski Nautique, I am going to make the assumption you are buying it for a budget wakeboard boat.  All ski nautiques from this era were referred to as "2001", designating that the boat was 20 feet and 1 inch from bow to the back of the teak deck.  These boats are getting harder to find and you are going to pay more than nada, because of the demand.

The reason for the demand is these boats produce an awesome steep wake with very minimal weight and they are very well built.  However when buying this era of a boat, you must realize they used a wood floor and wood stringers.  If rotten, they can be replaced, but it is a very time consuming task.  Here are some good ways to tell the condition of the stringers and floor.

1.  Does the floor sink in when you stand on it.  It can be very solid in one area and mushy in another.

2.  Open engine cover and try to tighten the main lag boats that go in the stringers.  If they don't tighten or spin freely,you could have a problem.

3.   Pop up the floor behind the engine cover, it is one piece of plywood that covers the drive shaft.  There you can examine the stringers as they run to the back.  They should be fiberglassed, but sometimes the fiberglasses has chipped off and you can see the raw stringers.

4.  Also you can run the boat over a scale and then compare with the weight published in the ski nautique manual.  Water in the foam and stringers will add quite a bit of weight to the boat.

5.  Get to a stringer and use a hydrometer to measure the level of humidity in the wood.

If they are rotten, they can be replaced, but realize that it takes a lot of time.  However, once you do get them replace you will have a very solid boat for a long time.

The places that rot the first are behind the drivers seat and in front of the observers seat.

The Hull is identical from 82-89, there is subtle changes in the front scoop in 1985 and the interior does change quite a bit with 88 and 89 being the best years.

The hour meter does not mean much, because a lot of people disconnect them and reconnect them later.  It is better to look at the condition of the boat.  Realize gel coat job is expensive, so try to find a boat with good fiberglass.  The stripe was actually painted on, so it can be easily redone.  The interior can be redone at most ulphostery shops for reasonable money.

There are 2 engines offered, a ford and a chevy.  The ford has the distributor in front and the chevy has it in the back.  The chevy has more horsepower, but ford has more torque.  The chevy is pretty rare with about 1 out of 10 boats being built with that engine.  Do a compression check on the engine.  Should be anywhere at 140-160 for a new engine, anything over 100 is decent, just make the variance between cylinders is close.   Please note the engine is reverse rotation, so these engines are little more expensive to replace and parts are a little more expensive.  The boat backs to the left in reverse.  This was done so when you had just a driver and a skier in the water, the reverse rotation would counteract the weight of the driver and make the boat ride more even.

These are really nice boats, there ski wake is nothing to write home about, but there wakeboard wake is world class.  If you want a pure ski boat, look at the early 90s Mastercraft 190s, they are awesome ski boats, but don't do well as wakeboard boats.

Hope this helps with your ski nautique purchase.