These boats are fine for most casual boaters or beginners. Most people started skiing behind general-purpose sportboats or runabouts, either powered by a sterndrive or outboard engine. With the growth in popularity of extreme tow sports, wake surfing has become a popular tow-behind watersport. But before drilling down to those details, the type of boat must be selected first. Then, there is the matter of warranty and aftermarket customer service.

By first identifying the primary goal for a new boat and then by finding out what the builder's intention was when the craft was designed, watersports towboat buyers can zero-in on a shortlist of models that will meet their needs.Īdding a price-point consideration creates yet another dimension to the search for the best boat for any given need and budget. Most watersports boats are built primarily for one or two specific activities. Like virtually all things in boating, if the 'mission' of the boat is narrowly defined, the decision about which boat to pick becomes much easier. Throw in the fact that there are four distinctly different types of propulsion in this category - sterndrive, outboard, jet drive, and inboard powered - and the fact that different watersports are best done with certain boat configurations, and we begin to see the magnitude of this decision. With hundreds of sportboat and runabout models on the market from scores of builders, making a decision as to which watersports towboat to buy can be difficult.

Inboard vs outboard vs sterndrive