WaterSki Magazine

    As MasterCraft reiterates, SOMEONE who is buying a wakeboard boat isn’t necessarily buying the boat just to wakeboard. They note that although the X-9 is an excellent wakeboard boat, it also allows you to do other things because it is a direct-drive. The X-9 provides the wakeboard image and wakeboard features with much more versatility than most V-drives.
    You never feel cramped in this extremely spacious boat. At just under 21 feet long with a roomy 96-inch beam, it rivals many V-drives in size. Your floors never get cluttered because the KGB ballast system puts one sac in the forward ski locker and another under the rear bench. That bench also converts nicely into a sun deck. There’s plenty of room for additional weight in the huge center-opening gull-wing trunk.
    The X-9 also has a spacious open bow and a standard convertible jump seat that stashes behind the passenger seat in two pieces. The driver’s area has all the honed MasterCraft conveniences, including the MasterView driver’s seat, a fingertip stereo remote, brushed aluminum dash and a full set of electromechanical gauges. 
    The X-9 does an excellent job as a wakeboarding boat with wakes that are big and smooth, with ideal transitions. It possesses great handling for a direct-drive and even offers respectable skiability. The X-9 is so versatile it’s even been approved to pull tournament slalom events.