The Miami Boat Show is one of the biggest in the world and it kicked off yesterday in epic fashion at the historic (albeit abandoned and severely dilapidated Miami Marine Stadium). MasterCraft had a little VIP gathering at their booth, which showcased nine of their awesome wake machines. After a couple cocktails, high-5’s, and checking out the boats on the floor, we got the invite to take a ride on either the new monstrous X26 or the NXT20 Global Edition. You’d think we’d choose the X26 with its plush interior, onboard lav, and built in fridge, right? Heck no, we wanted to mess around in the new outboard. The MasterCraft bros were happy to oblige.

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Bienvenido a Miami

Zane Schwenk took us out and let us take the newest creation from the Tennessee factory for a test drive. When you’re on the water of a boat show as large as Miami’s you’re surrounded by a bunch of large, opulent, and fast boats. With MasterCraft’s dock right next to the Cigarette Boats / AMG dock, it was only appropriate to put the Mercury outboard in neutral as we passed by and give a couple solid revs of the engine. We’re here for the party, and we don’t care about your 100-plus MPH machine. While our brief time on the water just consisted of driving (it was way too cold and choppy for any actual board riding), it was a blast. The coolest thing about the NXT20 Global is that by removing the V-drive and putting an outboard on back, the whole boat becomes open for seating and storage. For a 20-foot boat, there are tons of both. Of course, an outboard motor on a wake boat hull isn’t going to handle very well, right? Wrong, again. The NXT20 Global doesn’t just handle well, it’s fun to drive and rides smooth in the chop. Trim the engine just right, too, and you can have more fun.

"Wanna race?"

“Wanna race?”

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“Red makes it go faster, right?”

Adios, Miami

Adios, Miami

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“Goose it, GC!”

The NXT20 Global is obviously a big departure from the wake specific boats MasterCraft is famous for (and really good at), but not everybody needs a giant wake making machine to have fun on the water (and for some boating customers they aren’t practical). The NXT20 Global brings all the fun of a wakeboarding/wakeskating/water skiing/tubing (no wakesurfing with an outboard, sorry, but that’s silly) boat in a different, versatile package.

Look for us to dig deeper into this unique MasterCraft next week when we’ll get the opportunity to spend some more time with it and do some riding. Thanks to Zane and MasterCraft for the fun. Driving from Orlando to Miami and back in a day isn’t a great use of time, but getting to drive the NXT20 Global made it more than worth it.