255xe Owners - Honest Opinions please!

[Jeebus]

Hello, considering buying a new 2023 255xe. I would be trading in my current AR-250.

I love my current AR250 to be honest, but absolutely HATE having to "setup" to surf, by placing ballast bags, installing wake booster and all that shit, among a few smaller issues also. It would be nice to just press a button, and get myself ready while ballast is filling, and be ready to surf. So, the way it sits right now, i would be putting another 50k towards the new AR255xe, and i have a few questions that i cannot seem to find answers to from yamaha or my dealer...

1. I know the yamaha surf wave is not on par with a real surf boat, but i need the shallow draft. I am able to go ropeless all day with 500lbs on my rear swim deck, and one single person driving the boat, no other ballast on the AR250. I have found the key is high volume 30L+ in the board, and very very fast board, works great for me at 210lbs. What are peoples experience surfing behind their 255xe? Good or bad. I absolutely do not want to have to fill any extra ballast bags, but am not opposed to tossing 300ish lbs of led bags around while surfing. Will i end up being disappointed?

2. Hows the audio? These stupid boats are loud engine wise. My 250 has upgraded speakers in the stock locations, with an aftermarket amp, and i have to have it pretty much maxed out to hear anything while driving, or surfing. How is the audio on your boat in the stock form? will i need to upgrade?

3. Lighting. The yamaha site says that the 255xe has "LED Lighting" and the ar250 does not. What is this lighting? Is it single color? or adjustable? Is it throughout the boat? under water?

4. Storage.... I know with the hard ballast tanks im losing a ton of storage. So, what have been yalls solutions? Family of 4, and we boat for a full day typically.

5. Do you see yamaha coming out with something revolutionary in the jet boat market for surfing in the next couple years? or is this about as good as we get?

 

[connor2002]

Hello, considering buying a new 2023 255xe. I would be trading in my current AR-250.

I love my current AR250 to be honest, but absolutely HATE having to "setup" to surf, by placing ballast bags, installing wake booster and all that shit, among a few smaller issues also. It would be nice to just press a button, and get myself ready while ballast is filling, and be ready to surf. So, the way it sits right now, i would be putting another 50k towards the new AR255xe, and i have a few questions that i cannot seem to find answers to from yamaha or my dealer...

1. I know the yamaha surf wave is not on par with a real surf boat, but i need the shallow draft. I am able to go ropeless all day with 500lbs on my rear swim deck, and one single person driving the boat, no other ballast on the AR250. I have found the key is high volume 30L+ in the board, and very very fast board, works great for me at 210lbs. What are peoples experience surfing behind their 255xe? Good or bad. I absolutely do not want to have to fill any extra ballast bags, but am not opposed to tossing 300ish lbs of led bags around while surfing. Will i end up being disappointed?

2. Hows the audio? These stupid boats are loud engine wise. My 250 has upgraded speakers in the stock locations, with an aftermarket amp, and i have to have it pretty much maxed out to hear anything while driving, or surfing. How is the audio on your boat in the stock form? will i need to upgrade?

3. Lighting. The yamaha site says that the 255xe has "LED Lighting" and the ar250 does not. What is this lighting? Is it single color? or adjustable? Is it throughout the boat? under water?

4. Storage.... I know with the hard ballast tanks im losing a ton of storage. So, what have been yalls solutions? Family of 4, and we boat for a full day typically.

5. Do you see yamaha coming out with something revolutionary in the jet boat market for surfing in the next couple years? or is this about as good as we get?

Any input on the hard vs soft ballast?

 

[Oafy44]

I have a 2023 255xd and find the audio really good. - enough to where my wife tells me it’s too loud. For some reason I dont find the boat Incredibly loud - it probably is but after reading the forums and then bracing myself for it I was surprised. Maybe because the 255 is so powerful I’m crusing pretty good clip without maxing out the engines. Also the sound system is really good IMO so it does drown out some engine noise without just being obnoxiously loud.
Storage I find really good for 25ft boat. Big storage at the Head area really helps. We had 9 people on last weekend and a huge float raft and still plenty room . I haven’t played with the surfpointe yet but if it’s halfway decent I will say that’s icing on the cake because everything else I needed it to be for 5’ of water at our dock has been exactly that. All my neighbors questioned if I could get it at our dock during spring and when I easily docked it in 2.5’ of water they all shook their heads and congratulated me.