We officially have something we’ve never tested before: an aluminum wakeboard boat. And when we say it’s aluminum, it’s ALL aluminum. There’s not a single piece of fiberglass on this thing. Here are our three favorite things about the Pavati AL-24.
First off, our favorite thing has to be the aluminum. It doesn’t heat up, it’s incredibly strong and durable, and comes complete with a lifetime warranty. You can confidently beach this boat in areas you wouldn’t dream of beaching a fiberglass hull. The aluminum construction also makes the boat a little lighter too, which has major benefits when towing your boat or driving to and from the other side of the lake — saving fuel in the process. Inversely, the lighter aluminum construction is less bulky than a traditional fiberglass hull, opening up worlds of space for the additional ballast to adequately beef up the wake — clearly the best of both worlds.
Next up is the interior. This thing looks amazing. We were a little worried because they haven’t been building boats for that long but apparently they catch on really quick because it looks amazing. Storage is really deep–we fit three surfboards in a side compartment with no trouble–there’s a dry storage drawer that pulls out from the midship so everything stays waterproof, the subfloor storage is all marked so you know what you’re reaching for, and a lot of the storage links up so there are multiple access points. This is all possible because of the subfloor ballast, which weighs in at 4,200 pounds stock.
And finally the touch screen. It’s the first Garmin screen we’ve seen in an inboard. It’s 12 inches so it’s absolutely massive compared to most screens and it’s actually a high end chart plotter made for yachts so every lake in North America is pre-loaded in there and ready to go. It links up with Garmin’s action camera and records directly to the screen or it can feed to your phone. On top of that it controls the regular stuff, like lighting, wake shaping, GPS speed control, the Riptide surf system and much more.
LOA: 24’8″ | Beam: 102″ | Dry Weight: 4,200 lb. | Seating Capacity: 18 | Fuel Capacity: 65 gal. | pavati.com
