Rage Qs
 

Hi all . . . I'm thinking of trading in our 2000 Baja 232 Islander for a new Rage. We mostly boat at Norris Lake, TN and Lake Cumberland, KY. We enjoy tubing and skiing. I'm looking for a boat that's a little quicker than the Islander and which is good for family boating. I'm concerned the bow area of the Rage is a little small and that the Rage does not have adequate storage for a pair of skis, a tube, jackets, fenders, lines, day bags, etc. My wife is also looking for a boat that can stay on plane at speeds less than 20 mph. I love the styling of the Rage. Any thoughts from current owners?

Thanks!!

The Rage is a great boat but its planing speed is 22-25 mph and will not hold plane at 20 mph with a 496. We tie the tube tight onto the back ski pole so it half rides on the swim step which works great. The wake board we place on edge in front of the rear bench seat. We use the floor ski locker for general storage with bumpers and ski vests in the engine area and full complement of life vests under the OB floor. Noodles under bench seat. Ropes etc. and extra towles in bow locker. Storage can be a challenge.

I think trim tabs will lower your planing speed to about 14-18 mph.

With someone sitting in the nose of my open bow, and my tabs fully deployed, I can get my Heat to plane down to 14 mph.

Chris

I am not sure what the exact speed is, but my rage comes on plane at a low mph with the tabs down. I haven't had a chance to tube or wakeboard behind it yet.

I can say that the storage space is pretty limited when comparing it to the carlson csx-21 open bow I traded-in on the rage.

My wife loves the rage because of the open bow and cuddy, the kids love it and they can get out of the sun or the bad weather. It was worth giving up a little storage.

I can ski behind mine, room for a 67 slalom under bow floor just barely. Wakeboard on the floor, but have a hard time riding. I can't plane till 25+, but I'm turning a much larger 32 prop than 496. Think it'll run 18ish with 23-24 prop & tabs down though.
I've even seen a couple around with towers, not my style but didn't look too bad.

I would agree with 90mphRage having the right prop seems to help a ton keeping a consistent lower speed for wake boarding and tubing, at least that is what I have found on the other two boats I have owned.

I agree... the P5x prop does a good job of planing at a low speed.

Chris

Yes using the tabs does reduce the minimum planing speed for cruising along with all the other nice performance advantages they can provide. We do not use them for wake boarding though since it tends to disrupt the wake's wave form desired for optimum wake board jumping. Also to clarify w/o tabs the Rage with the weight of a BBC takes 25 mph to get up on plane but once on plane it can stay on plane down to about 22 mph assuming balanced passenger load distribution. At 20 mph the Rage puts out a huge wake that would make any serious wake boarder weep.

Have an 05 Rage, 496HO with labbed 26 Bravo prop. Added tabs shortly after purchasing.

Ski/Wake - Below 21-22MPH, I need to drop the tabs to keep the bow down and on plane. My kids actually like to wake around 23-24 MPH and tube around 25-26 MPH, so this really isn't an issue for me.

On the bow, the bow is not real "deep". I made a center cushion to turn the bow into a platform and have 4-5 kids up there most of the time with the cushion in. They love it. You can sit 2 adults up there comfortably. I would not run 60-70MPH with kids in the bow unless you are not really fond of them :)

Fenders & Storage. Make or buy engine comparment dividers. I put them in and store all my fenders, anchors, ropes, rafts, etc back there -- never an issue, they stay where I put them. If you get them from Nordic, the simply lag bolt them into the rear seat. Be prepared to yank the lag bolts out, clean up the hole and thru bolt them. They will never move/come loose once you do that. As for skis and tubs, I put them on the floor in the mid-cabin, that is the only place I have found they'll go without adding a ski-tower which I don't want.

Not sure what you you are looking at. My 05, I have rebuilt about half of the interior. The side gunnels were just stapled together, no screws, no glue. Both sides fell a part in 2007. Pulled the read seat, removed the sides gunnels and rebuilt them with SS screws, SS staples, and wood glue. Solid now :) My port side exhaust clamps were not tighened down dumping water into my bilge. Took me several months to track that down. Had a stress cracking in starboard side rear hull due to a flex issue that Nordic would not cover under their hull warranty. Received a letter from Mike (Service Mgr) and Randy (Owner) saying they would not cover warrenty items from the previous owner -- lovely -- $2000 repair, thank you. Trailer - they did not counter sink the bunk bolts which rubbed through the carpet and was leaving dimples and rust marks on the hull. When pulled boat off trailer to repair flex cracks in hull, found this little surprise. I ripped off the bunks, put on new wood and installed the bolts correctly (counter sunk into the bunk). Luckily, caught this before any real damage to hull, only had to repair back port corner, everything else rubbed out. Bottom line - build quality is going to be "on par" with your Baja (my experience). Have all this documented with pics, have the letter from Nordic denying warrenty coverage due to Nordic ownership change, ... if you are interested - email me @ [email protected] and will forward. I'm sure others here will claim my experience is an exception vs the rule with Nordic, I don't know.

Styling and performance - love it, fun to drive, for me, works great as a ski/tube boat or fly around the lake boat.

Mike

Mike,

Exactly how did you go about installing through bolts from the boat floor to attach the engine dividers?