Birth of a Surf Boat
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As demand for boats in the ever-competitive watersports market has risen over the past decade, manufacturers have worked hard to continually push the capabilities of the boats being made, be it through new technologies, design features, overall size or numerous other factors. Of course, this generally comes with a cost: higher prices for the consumer. For award-winning manufacturer Centurion, a new opportunity presented itself, and the company approached solving it in a unique way.
The Fe22 is an all-new model from Centurion, designed from bottom up to be a more cost-effective option that can live up to the Centurion name and performance characteristics. The calling card of this new model revolves around its Surf Ready package, with an advertised price of $139,995. While this price does not include freight, dealer fees or taxes, it gets the buyer a lot of Centurion’s acclaimed features, including the QuickSurf Pro system, the Silent Stinger Wake Plate, a whopping 4,350 pounds of ballast—including the Ramfill2 system—and the Opti-V hull design. The price also includes Roswell’s Battle Advance tower, board racks and Bimini, a nine-speaker Wet Sounds system, 2-layer GatorStep nonskid flooring throughout, Spradling vinyl interior, a large HD touchscreen helm display, an all-new battery management and PDM breaker system in the glove box, a tandem-axle trailer, and a lot more.
An Interesting Challenge
While many manufacturers over the years have offered a variety of different entry-level types of boats, most have been a retooled or stripped-down version of an existing model or hull mold—and oftentimes, the advertised prices don’t include many necessary essentials to actually wakesurf. Many of those offerings often felt cheap, especially when compared with their bigger siblings in the lineup. Rather than take that route, which buyers are often wary of because it can feel disingenuous, Centurion set out to build a brand-new boat designed to hit as many of the marks as possible in terms of what buyers might want and need, while keeping the price realistic and honest.
“We found ourselves (Centurion) in an interesting spot. As we continued to evolve our lineup, we ended up pricing out customers from just four or five years ago,” says VP of Marketing & Brand Direction Amy Mauzy. “We had customers who loved their 2019 Fi21s, or other models, and wanted to upgrade to a new Centurion but couldn’t for several reasons. One, we no longer had a 21- or 22-foot boat in the lineup, and two, price. So we did the opposite of what we and most brands normally do when creating a lower-price-point boat: We treated it like we were building a brand-new flagship.”
A lot of time and effort was put into maximizing what was possible with the Fe22, while also keeping the price approachable to many potential buyers. The result is a price-point boat that doesn’t feel at all bare-bones.
Read Next: 2024 Centurion Boats
Contact a dealer today for more details on trims, packages and other available options.
So, What’s Missing?
With that, the obvious question is, what’s missing? When compared with other models in the Centurion line, buyers of the Fe22 will find fewer options and amenities; there is no customizable seating with a sliding rear bench or pop-up backrests, the Roswell Battle Advance tower is the only one available, same for the single touchscreen (all other Centurions feature dual-touchscreen displays at the helm). The standard engine in the Fe22 is also different than other Centurion models: a 6.0-liter, 409 hp Crusader as opposed to a ZZ5 400 hp PCM. Although it should be noted, Crusader and PCM are both subsidiaries of Pleasurecraft Engine Group, owned by Correct Craft, which also owns Centurion. The Crusader is just as powerful as its PCM counterparts, but it comes with a 600-hour warranty, while the PCMs offer 1,000.
As more and more watersports boats approach and surpass the $200,000 mark, though, the Fe22 bucks the trend, with the potential to be a trendsetter. In terms of a solid, stylish, comfortable boat with plenty of features and creature comforts that puts out high-end wakes and waves and allows everybody to have fun on the water? The Fe22 delivers in spades.
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Source: https://www.boatingmag.com/boats/birth-of-a-surf-boat/
