MasterCraft ProStar Water Ski Demo Review
Wanted to fall in love
Follow up to episode 18

The masterCraft ProStar that I demoed for this posdast, as seen at the Utah Boat Show
Utah Water Sports brought a MasterCraft ProStar to our lake on Memorial Day for members to try out. (This was the same boat I saw at the Utah Boat Show in Episode 18.) I took a try with my neighbor, brother, and sister-in-law.
Full disclosure: my neighbor is a partner in our local MasterCraft dealership, but he was not there for the demo, nor does he know what my review entails.

Let me start with a huge thanks to Utah Water Sports for sharing their boat with us on a holiday. I know tat they wanted to sell it to someone at our lake, but just having the ability to try it was a great experience.

Water Skiing behind the MasterCraft ProStar
Pull up was not bad. Even with a novice driver. Not the quickest I’ve felt. A little delay, then a reasonable pull up. Other skiers reported they were less impressed with the pull than I was.
Pulled to my own personal best at 28 MPH.
Wakes felt great at 28 and 30. Noticeably and significantly smaller than a Malibu Lxi that I skied later for comparison.
Reported good at 26 MPH as well.
Never hit the rooster tail, although the observer said it looked close the whole time.
Turnaround wakes were wider that I’m accustomed to, but after the second pass, I had adjusted to that.
Wider boat obscured my view of the 55 meter gates so my pull out was thrown off a bit. New driver in the boat who had no way to know that.
The wakes inspired confidence and did not disappoint.

In love

Inside the boat
Ski storage was the star of  the interior.
Plenty of space for three people to work around each other when gathering in a skier and trading positions as driver and observer.
Floor pads drained well and kept good grip at all times.
I did thump my shin getting out the back.
The shape of the platform, rolling down on the sides made it easy to slide into the water. The hand holds were convenient getting up, but I almost rolled an ankle in one while putting my ski on. Something I adjusted to the second time, but something to be aware of.
Bimini cover height was perfect. I didn’t set it up but it was a clean install.
Observer seat was comfortable and spacious for two adults.
Used it as a closed-bow boat. General comments were that as long as you use this boat from a dock, the convertible bow could be good, that that for a full day on the lake it could be awkward to try to stow the bow cover before heading out. We didn’t get to try that out during our turn on the boat.

Still in love

Driving the ProStar
Thunky / clunky into gear compared to Malibu’s smooth gear engagements
Steering felt harder than I’m accustomed to. For a steer-by-wire this is a strange feeling.
Knurled metal throttle knob will be durable, and gave good tactile feedback, but I didn’t love it.
Reverse was either hair trigger or slow, but not predictably either.
Ease of talking with the skier was a big plus with the cut-away side windows.
Windshield was a great height for me to see down course, without the bar blocking my view as I’ve experienced in the Malibu.
Low dash also made it easy for our shorter driver to see clearly while driving.
Felt sluggish getting out of the hole. The dealer did acknowledge that the 5.7 L motor may have been under-spec’d for the elevation we were at (about 5,000 feet). And they hadn’t done much with prop changes to get quicker acceleration as thi...