Testing - Nautic Star Boats - #1

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B eing the new kid is tough. If you want to fit in, you have to prove you can run with the crowd. If you’re good, you’ll push even harder so everyone will know you can hold your own. And that very much describes NauticStar, a small but growing boat company based in Amory, Mississippi, near the Alabama border. Founded in 2002, NauticStar offers bay boats from 18 to 22 feet and deck boats of 20, 21 and 23 feet. Like others in the boating ’hood, we wondered what kind of stuff the new kid had — so we hooked up our test gear to its flagship 230 Sport Deck and let ’er rip. Our evaluations took place in hot, sunny conditions at Nevada’s Lake Mead, where we ran the boat in everything from morning glass to an afternoon chop so jarringly wicked it could shake the salt off your pretzels. At the end of the session, we were pleasantly surprised. The new kid is OK. A FEW HOURS’ DIFFERENCE Mead was dead calm as we ran in from our early photo shoot. With a crew of two, minimal gear and its 63-gallon tank all but topped off, the 230 Sport Deck tracked like a semi rolling down grooved pavement. There was no shaking her. Rigged with a 350 Mag MPI and MerCruiser’s redesigned Bravo 3 drive (a $6126 upgrade over the base, 220 hp 5.0L MerCruiser/Alpha), the boat responded well to trim. The extra blade area of the twin props helped this 81/2-foot-wide hull develop plenty of bow lift, and we were able to trim aggressively without porpoising. The Bravo 3 was equally sure-footed in turns. Whether we carved ’em sharp or wide, fast, slow or medium, the counterrotating wheels kept the NauticStar glued tight. Then again, the water was nearly pure glass, when boats are on their best behavior. What else would you expect? We were able to answer that during our afternoon session when southeasterly winds of 20 to 25 mph roiled up a cauldron of nasty chop. And even though we stuck close to the south shore (to minimize the fetch in which wind waves could build), Mead was streaked with steep and whitecapping two-footers. Ahh... finally! Conditions worth testing in. HOW DID SHE DO? As any skipper will tell you, you can learn more by running a boat for a few minutes in bad weather than you could by spending an entire day with it in bluebird conditions. And so NauticStar has only been around a couple of years, but judging from its 230 Sport Deck, the new kid is OK Rising Star Story and Photos by Ron Eldridge T RAILER BOATS MARCH 2005 47