Tigé 24Vé

By Capt. Vince Daniello

Tigé (pronounced like tiger without the “r”) has revamped their boats’ styling and added a few convenience features – most notably a walk-over deck next to the sunpad and enhanced storage at the transom – to create their new Vé series, adding two new boats to their 2006 line, the 22Vé and 24Vé. While the traditional V and new Vé series are built on similar hulls, there are some slight differences such as the distinctive hour-glass shaped transom on the new 24Vé, which not only adds to the boat’s appearance, but creates a small deck at the stern of the boat. This “activity center,” as Tigé calls it, offers a seat where it’s needed most on a watersports boat – at the swim platform. Beneath this deck, three long, shallow storage compartments keep hats, sunglasses, gloves, binding soap, even tow ropes back at the stern where they’re easy to find. All three compartments are insulated and drain overboard, so any or all can store cold drinks as well.

Deck Layout

Tigé’s walk-over deck provides a nonskid pathway between the swim platform and the cockpit, and also a safe, convenient way to board the boat from the dock. While this does take a bit of space away from the sunpad, it does not reduce seating inside the boat, with a full wrap-around cockpit. To save foot traffic on the seats the cushion in front of the walk-over is carpeted on its bottom, so flipping this seat cushion over provides a place to step without muddying the upholstery. This simple feature will help keep the interior looking new, but because this carpeted step is supported by the squishy foam of the seat cushion I found it just a bit unstable – probably better footing than stepping directly onto a foam seat, but not as rock-solid as it appears to the uninitiated.

Cockpit Features

In addition to its ample seating, the cockpit offers plenty of storage too. Skis can slide under the seat on the port side, where they’re also easy to grab from the swim platform, through a hatch beneath the sunpad. There are two big coolers aboard: one drink cooler under the seat just behind the windshield on the port side, and a large removable Igloo secured beneath the transom walk-over hatch. Accessing the Igloo requires a bit of a reach down into the storage compartment and could be easier to open, but with drinks in the cockpit and at the transom, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Hull Design

Many wakeboard boats sacrifice storage space to ballast tanks and pumps, but Tigé’s TAPS system solves this problem. The more I played with TAPS, Tigé Adjustable Performance System, the more I appreciated Tigé’s “outside the box” thinking.

When first testing a TAPS boat my initial reaction was that the boat required too much adjustment to the trim to get its best performance, which led me to believe that the hull was not designed as well as it could have been. But now that I understand TAPS, I see that my instinctive reaction based on years of evaluating boat’s performance in traditional terms is precisely what has held back wakeboard boat design until now.

Tigé designed their hull as a non-planing hull. At wakeboarding speeds the bow rides high and the boat settles naturally, creating massive water displacement and a big wake without the need for ballast weight. The TAPS plate, essentially a large trim tab in the center of the boat, allows the driver to control how much the boat planes, and therefore how big a wake it makes. In our tests of the 24Vé, we were able to go from a flat slalom wake to a full wakeboard wake in just a few seconds. But it wasn’t the quick conversion that caught my attention. What is interesting about TAPS compared to other wake enhancement systems is that it allows the wake size to be tweaked while the wakeboarder is riding behind the boat, adjusting to the rider’s skill level, fatigue, or sea conditions.

On the Water

Any lingering questions about the boat’s efficiency were answered by the test numbers. Big wakeboard boats mean big engines, right? Not necessarily. The 24Vé we tested had a slight upgrade to the 315 horsepower standard engine, but still a GM small-block 5.7 liter V-8. Tigé offers much larger engines, but our 340 horsepower test power gave us a top speed of 42.8 miles-per-hour, and impressive acceleration. The boat planed in 3.6 seconds and went from 0 to 30 miles-per-hour in just 5.8 seconds, with a remarkably efficient 3.96 miles-per-gallon and 24.8 miles-per-hour when cruising at 3000 RPM.

Designing boats is a compromise, and manufacturers are always trying to build a better mousetrap. We’ve all been in the same boat, where the latest and greatest design turns out to be more sizzle, less steak. But before settling for the cliché that wakeboard boats need ballast, check out the TAPS system. It just may be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Speeds measured with Stalker ProSports radar gun. Fuel consumption (gallons per hour) measured with Floscan digital fuel-flow meter on gas inboards, sterndrives, and outboards, TechMate electronic scan tool on gas EFI inboards, Caterpillar digital fuel-flow meter on diesel engines, or permanently installed fuel-monitoring equipment. Range is based on 90% of published fuel capacity. Sound levels determined using Radio Shack digital decibel meter on A scale. 68 dBA is the level of normal conversation.

Performance Chart

Test Conditions