Tricked Out 20-Footer

The 20V gives you the power to customize the perfect wake.

By Capt. Vince Daniello



Many consider a 20 foot watersports boat a little too small for wakeboarding, and more suitable for slalom skiing. It is true that by adding ballast turns even 20-footers can be turned into wake-makers for boarding, but this typically sacrifices storage space to ballast tanks, or worse, takes up cockpit room with fat sacs. But thanks to their patented TAPS wake control system, Tigé’s 20V has room for people and gear, and goes from busting big tricks to chasing buoys on the slalom course faster than you can say Tigé Adjustable Performance System.



TAPS Advantage

Tigé accomplished this by disregarding conventional boat design tenets. Rather than building a traditional hooked-hull planning bottom that needs to be overloaded with ballast weight or mechanical wedges to make big wakes, Tigé designed their Convex V as a non-planing hull, making big wakes without weight or wedges. In place of the traditional hook, Tigé added TAPS2 variable hull technology that allows the driver to instantly control planing and water displacement.



Essentially an oversized trim tab that sits just behind the rudder, TAPS results in a wake that can be adjusted from advanced wakeboard through beginner wakeboard all the way down to slalom ski – while the boat is running.



A huge storage locker is accessed through a hatch in the port quarter.

This adjustable wake is appealing, but another big advantage of TAPS is that it doesn’t take up space inside the boat the way ballast tanks or fat sacs do. With its V-drive engine all the way aft under the sun pad, the 20V offers a huge cockpit with wrap-around seating and lots of storage, including a locker for skis that is accessible from both inside the cockpit and back on the stern platform. Tigé also provides a proper walk-through windshield and ample seating in the bow – something often sacrificed in the smallest models from other manufacturers.



Big wake on flat lake from one boat without ballast bags.

Performance

With an inboard engine and triple tracking fins beneath the boat, the 20V has crisp steering and makes tight turns expected from a performance ski boat. And while the Convex V hull is designed to be somewhat inefficient when the TAPS plate is retracted, as the plate is lowered it actually increases fuel economy and top-end performance over a traditional hull, according to company spokesmen. This is because TAPS can be adjusted for the optimum running angle at any speed, with any load, and in any sea condition, creating less drag than a hull that can’t be tweaked by the driver for optimum performance.

This was reflected in our test run, where we hit 45.5 miles-per-hour at 5260 RPM. Acceleration is helped by TAPS too, with the big TAPS plate just behind the propeller utilizing prop wash to start lifting the stern before the boat even begins to move through the water. Our test boat jumped up on plane in 3 seconds flat, and went from 0 to 30 in 4.9 seconds, and these numbers came from a 340 horsepower GM 5.7 liter Vortec engine that burned just 6 gallons-per-hour at 27.1 miles-per-hour, or 4.51 miles-per-gallon.



Advertise your trade with these handy board racks.

If you’re dinner table has become a debate forum – one camp arguing for an uncompromising smooth-wake slalom boat, another wanting big wakes for boarding, and a third insisting on room for the gang and plenty of storage, you should look at Tigé’s 20V.

• Top speed for the Tigé 20V (2005-2009) is 45.5 mph (73.2 kph), burning 21.9 gallons per hour (gph) or 82.89 liters per hour (lph).


• Best cruise for the Tigé 20V (2005-2009) is 27.1 mph (43.6 kph), and the boat gets 4.51 miles per gallon (mpg) or 1.92 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 122 miles (196.34 kilometers).


• Tested power is 1 x 340-hp GM 5.7L Vortec EFI.