Pavati AL-24 Wake Boat: Review

The all-new Pavati wakeboat was five years in R&D. Not that parent company High Products Inc. were new to high-end aluminium work. The Oregon-based business is famous for its work-of-art toolboxes, flatbeds and service bodies for trucks and RVs. It also makes very cool driftboats for river fishing. It's just that a purpose-built wakeboat needed to have a bit more, er, hydrodynamics beneath it. So these masters of computer-aided design adopted some cutting-edge marine software to create the all-new Pavati AL-24 wakeboat. After making waves in Sydney with budding local rider Nick Edson on board, and on his board, we came away finding something else. This is an incredibly innovative, customisable and durable towboat that redefines the genre and pretty much everything else we’ve come to accept about aluminium boats.

OVERVIEW
- Communal towboat that can swallow four families
Pavati’s AL-24 is a party wakeboat on steroids that can swallow four families and a create rideable surf 24/7. You can turn on, tune in and drop out. Grab your boards and friends, the GoPros and start shredding and uploading to Facebook from this accommodating watersports hub. You can see this writer's videoing efforts in the Quick Spin footage at the bottom of this article.

With 21 cup holders, five USB charging stations, 12 speakers and a sub woofer, an open tri-tip bow seating area, transom surf lounge, swivel racks for eight boards in a folding tower, more than 13 square metres of inbuilt storage, and all-up seating and passenger capacity for 18 people, the AL-24 is a towboat beast in the most flattering of senses.

Extensive graphics and colour combos let you customise your rig and the resulting package on a California Trailer Works custom dual-axe cradle is head turning to say the least.

But it would all fall flat if there wasn’t a wave-face to attack. Enter the Rip Tide Surf System that, at the press of a button using electrically operated gate valves, takes all of 90 seconds to fill and 30 seconds to empty the twin ballast tanks which each hold more than 1000 litres.

Thanks to its aluminium construction, the dry boat weighs just 1905kg. So you can double the displacement in under two minutes. That means wake, but not at the expense of permanent weight.

The on-road AL-24 rig weighs less than three tonnes with fuel. We're told the rig tows comfortably behind a Nissan Navara. Sure the 2.59m beam is over-width, so you will have to abide by state laws and fly flags, lights and hang signs, but that’s easy enough to follow compared with the ramifications of towing overweight trailerboats.

Meantime, the inboard engine pairings make the Pavati a powerhouse. Ford Raptor V8s come standard, with vee drives to keep the weight back and the wake up. But you could probably specify sterndrive if you wanted it for reasons of, say, skinny water.

Indeed, this American CAD boatbuilder isn’t averse to customisations, which is another point of difference.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- Big ticket item in the dream-machine category
You can get a Pavati AL-24 from $220K landed, says importer Lindsay Cannon, who first came across the boats while online surfing on YouTube.

The rigs range up to about $280K with all the upgrades and the 8.2L 380hp Mercury diesel engine, and almost that much with the bigger 550hp and 575hp petrol 6.2L Ford and Indmar engines.

In the middle of the road, our test boat had a $240K driveway price — as displayed at the 2015 Sydney International Boat Show — with an upgraded Indmar big-bore 450hp Corvette LS3 6.2L V8 petrol engine.

As each and every Pavati AL-24 in the one-boat range (other models are coming) is a bespoke semi-custom order, you can have fun designing your own boat. The test rig certainly looked cool with its Lightning wrap with matching Radical Red upholstery.

Being aluminium, Pavati uses DuPont paint rather than gelcoat, inhouse upholstery colour schemes, and heaps of vinyl wrap options covering everything from Grunge and Rasta to Urban Spike
and Street Style, Milano to Miami patterns.

It's a tribal youth-culture thing and buyers will embrace it and need to factor in plenty of loot for boards, cool ride wear, GoPros and decent playlists on their devices, too.

Other notable options on the test boat included the Rip Tide Surf Tabs, which are a high-speed trim and tilt system for adjusting your ride and wake from one side to the other; an upgraded Wet Sounds stereo system with incredible oomph; and a LED lighting package.

Basically, with a Pavati AL-24 order you receive a tick-and-flick list and then there’s a space for customisable stuff that the importers will quote up.

Every boat comes with free servicing and maintenance for three years and a full lifetime transferable hull warranty, too.

DECKS AND LAYOUT
- Social tow boating with a 18-passenger capacity
From the tri-tip or pickle-fork bow to the transom surf lounge, the Pavati AL-24 is one big, broad, bowrider with abundant plush seating and a catacomb of storage. These are prerequisites for any seriously social towboat.

The bow is covered with a big flat sun pad that maximises seating potential compared with a foot well and conventional vee-seat arrangement.

There are surrounding backrests, fold-down armrests for comfortable forward-facing riding, drink holders, grab rails, USB chargers and speakers, and room to stow an anchor. This boat had boosted 2200kg ballast capacity under the seats where storage is usually more generous.

A windgate shuts the bow from cockpit, useful in winter, while Sea-Deck closed-cell foam flooring extends all the way out to the deep swim platform.

The pop-up cleats are big enough to take decent rope, while the trick LED lighting plan illuminated the concealed sub-woofer behind a window, as well as having a red mode for night driving.

Storage is b-i-g on this boat. It ranges from inside the observer/navigator console to a sub-floor pull-out Yeti cooler, separate underfloor garbage receptacles, a central storage 'coffin' locker, to a rear-access boot that’s handy immediately after your run. Up to four surfboards and eight wakeboards will fit in the swing-out racks in the tower.

The watertight convenience drawer is a nice touch for personal effects, as is the electrical charging station in the dash. The boat had three hot-air blowers: one at the driver’s seat; two aft outlets including a pull-out for warming your hands.

Hot water is an option and, while the boat hasn’t got a WC or change-room, creating one wouldn’t be out of the question.

A supplied drop-in table means the boat’s U-shaped cockpit seating can double as a lunch setting when at anchor. There’s a small bimini up top for shade.

The transom features one big upholstered sun pad/engine-bay lid, with an inbuilt internal lounge with nearby cooler. The outboard rear-facing surf lounge takes up to four people, with fold-down armrests, drink holders and stereo controls. What a spot to chill!

The tower folds forward and is just so sturdy we performed chin-ups without a hint of flex. It’s also easily removable, as is the extended swim platform, which lifts off the boat after removing two locking pins.

The driving setup means business, with a 12in Garmin control centre with wireless connectivity to iPhones and your Garmin watch. This allows the observer to perform a lot of functions that would otherwise distract the driver.

I found the Livorsi engine gauges, adjustable wheel, Lenco trim tabs and clear vision with the rear-vision mirror all adding to the driving experience. With the weight down low and the boat’s high freeboard, this is a seaworthy and stable wakeboat that doubles as a family bowrider rig.

Being aluminium means you get great utility and resilience for pulling into a beach, anchoring near the shore, and towing on the road without need for a stone guard.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
- Built for life with a lifetime warranty
There are now two Pavati AL-24s in Australia: this red one, and a green one about to serve as the official tow boat for Round 3 of the Wakeboarding Open in South Australia, where our rider Edson should have a home advantage.

Interestingly, a third boat is on order with diesel power, built to commercial specification, with the intention to create a tow-sports business in Geraldton, WA. That could be the start of something big.

Meantime, all the Pavati boats are built using 6.35mm aircraft marine-grade aluminium plate for the hull and sides, with a 25mm solid keel.

The intricate box stringer system is engineered to reduce drumming and stop flex altogether. The boat is pretty quiet for an aluminium inboard, though not up there with a fibreglass boat in respect of absorbing engine vibration.

All the welds are beautifully executed and the AL-24 is nothing if not labour intensive, with 300 hours in welding time inside and out. Separate air chambers give flotation in the event of swamping and there’s that lifetime transferable hull warranty backing it all up.

Buffed swirl-pattern feature panels on the hull remind you this is indeed aluminium. The use of piano hinges and gas struts; the purpose-built aluminium in-floor removable rubbish bins; the plug-in trickle charging system to keep the separate house and engine-start batteries topped up back at home; and top and rear engine access points underscore the boat's high quality and functionality.

At the same time, the hull has a lot going on, as a result of the fresh design rather than derivation. A cathedral shape of sorts, the hull has a sharp central vee and entry for cutting through the chop, a second chine for spray deflection (it is a dry boat), and big down-turned chines.

There are mock hull steps for looks and a flat aft running surface with ‘plank’ at the transom that helps this boat plane flat down low.

The skeg is crafted from billeted aluminium and designed to break away from the hull in the event of impact. Of course, it’s around this skeg that the boat turns snappily, like all good vee drives, using its bronze rudder and ACME four-blade prop on shaft.

We slipped the boat off its trailer, with skids and keel support, whereupon the fuel-injected, naturally aspirated 6.2L Corvette burst into life. Off we went as a sportsboat, ripping around in adrenalin-inducing G-force turns, without a hint of slip as you expect from a proper centremount or vee drive. Adrenalin was flowing.

Without ballast, the boat rides up high and the wake is flat for skipping to your boating destination with maximum efficiency and also slalom skiing. But in 90 seconds, the ballast tanks were full and, back at 22mph, the swell came in.

Not even a forecast 6C start on this wicked winter’s day could stop Edson for hitting the Pavati wake. He’s up, he’s riding and he’s ripping, as we glance in the rear-vision mirror during a bank power turn and head back the other way.

At typical 20-23mph tow speeds, which you can preset with the cruise and tow controller, our AL-24 revealed what it has to offer — one of the biggest surf systems on the market.

"The Pavati has a deep and steep hull," says Edson, speaking on behalf of Team Pavati. "It puts out a poppy wake. It’s really nice and wide. You can get up really high and do all the flips and spins and stuff. I guess they all have the deep hulls, but the sharpness of the Pavati brings on a bigger wake."

The boat also goes really well through open water, carving through the chop at Geraldton, says importer Cannon, who is WA-based. Top speed is around 40mph at 5200rpm, but towboats are more about those mid-20mph speeds, the torque and ballasting, the wake shape and cutting a little video to upload. We had the music cranking, too.

VERDICT
- Bottom line: Mind blown.
Despite its Oregon origins, the AL-24 taps the Australian psyche. We like our tinnies, we love our surf culture, and we want good times with mates. All of these things are features of this all-aluminium, inboard-powered, wakeboat.

On the water, the AL-24 is at once accommodating and exciting, dignified and sophisticated, and pure fun. It’s one of the lightest towboats about, but one of the heaviest when ballasted. You won’t find too many other bowriders rated to carry 18 people. The more the merrier.

The impressive finish, attention to detail and engineering means the Pavati costs a whack. But what price youth? We’re all surfing a bit later in life these days. This boat will help keep you young and the kids, well, they will be absolutely stoked.

LIKES
>> Incredible aluminium craftsmanship
>> Five-star fit and finish, heaps of storage and amenities
>> Performance from a deep and seaworthy hull
>> 18-person seating and big ballast capacity
>> That dial-up steep wake is hard to beat
>> Cool styling and customisable look

NOT SO MUCH
>> No toilet or change room, although there’s probably scope to create one
>> Some vibration from the inboard installation at certain revs
>> It’s got a big sticker price

RATINGS
Overall rating: 4.6/5.0
Mechanical/equipment: 4.8/5.0
Packaging and practicality: 4.8/5.0
On the water performance: 4.7/5.0
Value for money: 3.76/5.0
X-factor: 4.9/5.0

Specifications
Price as tested: $240,000 with upgraded Indmar 450hp Corvette LS3 6.2L, galvanised California Trailer Works custom dual-axe trailer and options.
Priced from: $220,000 with Ford Raptor 400hp 6.2L, trailer and options
Boat Length: 7.40m  (7.90m with removable platform)
Maximum Width: 2.59m
Dry Weight: 1905kg
Fuel Capacity: 246 litres
Height w/ Tower Erect: 3.10m
Height w/ Tower Folded: 2.05m
Seating: 18 People
Capacity: 1400kg
Ballast: 1900kg-2400kg
Storage: 13.65sq m
Engine on test: Indmar 450hp Corvette LS3 6.2L V8 fuel-injected naturally aspirated petrol engine spinning ACME four-blade prop

Supplied by:
Pavati Australia
21 Flávio crescent
Wandina, WA, 6530
Phone: 0427 645 362
See http://www.pavati.com.au