Tigé Z1 (2014-)

Brief Summary

The Z1 is modeled after the Z3 (at 23’ / 7 m), Tigé’s pro level boat that has won accolades from the wakeboard community. But with a smaller platform (at 21.5’/ 6.55 m) the Z1 is quite versatile, and excels at producing slalom wake, huge wakeboarding wake, or high surf waves that can be followed for miles. Make no mistake, even though she’s smaller than the Z3, she still puts out a monster surf wake that can be dialed in for size, length, curl, and even which side of the boat it’s on.

Key Features

• Lifeplus lifetime replacement limited warranty
• Seating capacity for 14 passengers
• High flex gel coat
• Tige speedset cruise control
• Helm seat with flip-up bolster with storage underneath
• Aluminum ski pylon
• Convex rear-view mirror
• Fiberglass non-skid removable/collapsible swim platform
• Integrated, insulated self draining cooler

Test Results

Specifications

Length Overall	21.5' / 6.55 m
Beam	102'' 259.1 cm
Dry Weight	4,285 lbs. 1,943.64 kg
Tested Weight	4,849 lbs. 2,199 kg
Draft	N/A
Deadrise/Transom	N/A
Max Headroom	Open
Bridge Clearance	N/A
Fuel Capacity	48 gal. 181.70 L
Water Capacity	N/A
Total Weight	4,849 lbs. 2,199 kg

Acceleration Times & Conditions

Time to Plane	2.1
0 to 30	7.4 sec.
Ratio	N/A
Props	N/A
Load	2 persons, 1/2 fuel, no water, 50 lbs of gear
Climate	78 deg., 68 humid.; wind: 10-15 mph; seas: light chop

Engine Options

Tested Engine	1 x 355-hp Indmar 5.7 M57
Std. Power	1 x 350-hp Indmar 5.7L Premium M57
Opt. Power	1 x 555-hp Indmar 6.2L V-8 S62 Supercharged 1 x 455-hp Indmar 6.2L LS3 S62 1 x 415-hp Indmar 6.0L L96 M60

Captain's Report

The Full Spectrum

First things first… how can Tigé make a boat that performs across the full spectrum, and just what is that spectrum anyway? Well, first understand that if a slalom skier is behind the boat, that will require a smooth, shallow wake. A wakeboarder, on the other hand, wants a fat wake to jump off of and get serious air that carries across to the opposite wake. And a wake surfer wants a tsunami to carry the ride without the need for a towline.

So what to do…

To get a shallow wake on a typical boat, go faster so that it planes better. Yet, that can’t be done while towing a skier. They need a mid range speed to stay in control. To get a fat wake, just slow a typical boat so that the bow is up high and the stern is dragging. But that does the wakeboarder no good for high jumps. So what to do?

The Basics.

Planing isn’t a problem as most boats will do it at a moderate speed. So the slalom guy is happy. To get the wake up, keep the speed and sink the boat lower. That means adding ballast by filling tanks or removable bags called “fat sacs”. Then drain them later to haul back to the dock without burning more fuel.
Tigé seems to have come up with a boat that can do it all.

Convex V and VX Hull

The Convex V

hull runs opposite to conventional wisdom of hooking the stern down to create a fatter wake. That leaves no flexibility, and the wave it creates is the wave you get. But with Convex V, the hull is curved up at the end. Now some flexibility can be created by adding an adjustable plate at the center of the stern. That’s called TAPS2, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Convex VX.

Now as if that weren’t enough, the Z1 also offers an option called the "Convex VX." This is a fiberglass extension that attaches to the underside of the swim platform and is easily removable. This extension channels water from the prop downward, under and into the wake. This adds size, volume, and density to the wave. Now surfers have the room to recover given the amount of power, push, and extended length of the wave. It’s one more reason that this is billed as the ultimate surf boat. And it still works in conjunction with the TAPS system.

Playing T.A.P.S.

T.A.P.S. stands for Tigé Adjustable Performance System, and it’s exactly as the name implies. Behind the transom, is a plate that is adjustable at the helm to tweak the characteristics of the hull, and therefore, the wake.

In normal mode the Z1 is a planing boat with a light wake, and at the touch of a switch to lower and raise the plate, the stern can be made to squat to increase the wake. Its performance is heaven for watersports enthusiasts and it’s on every Tigé hull.

Handling

Not only is there great wake control, but she is a great performing boat. Thanks to her triple hull tracking fins, the Z1 can turn on a dime. There’s very little slide so there’s no feel of falling off the turn. Acceleration is crisp, with our tests showing a time to plane of only 2.1 seconds (one of our fastest ever recorded!), and a 0-30 mph time of 7.4 seconds.

Since this is a V-drive installation

, there’s more room in the cockpit without having to work around a bulky engine box in the middle of the boat. The Indmar engines not only have four engine mounts, but an additional two under the transmission as well which better distributes the weight and torque. That translates into less vibration and less discomfort for the passengers.

Speed Data.

With an Indmar 350-hp M57 5.7L engine as standard, our test boat reached a top speed of 43.6 mph and had a best cruise of 25.8. At that speed, she was burning only 7.45 gallons per hour.
The Indmar M57 engine has dual exhaust and drives through a ZF transmission. Perhaps most important of all, it carries a

5-year Indmar factory warranty.

The Layout

At the bow,

Tigé went with the traditional V-bow, completely filled in with cushions, and surrounded by upholstery that is diamond stitched with UV resistant Gore Tenera thread. Fully forward a flat backrest allows for aft facing seating for another set of eyes dedicated to keeping an eye on the end of the towline.

Air Dam.

Previous versions had an air dam that had to be pulled out from storage, and laid into place. Now the air dam is hinged and under the center bow cushion. Just raise the cushion, swing the lexan dam into place, and close the windshield… done.

Access to storage inside the port and starboard consoles is through the swing-open seatbacks in the bow, and the port storage is also accessed from lifting the observers seat, which also has a mirror and small cargo net storage underneath.

Helm

Tigé went with a soft touch helm, color matched with soft vinyl with Gore Tenera stitching. Three gauges keep the panel uncluttered. Tach and fuel to the left, speed in the center, and the TAPS2 gauge with a LCD temperature scale embedded in. Any other information can come from the Tigé Touch display, which is standard on the Z1 and now includes Bluetooth streaming audio and a 5-year warranty. The upholstery continues down to the lower panel where the steering wheel is mounted to a tilt base.

Cockpit

Seating wraps around the entire cockpit making full use of all available space. The usual accommodations for storage are underneath, the diamond stitch upholstery continues. The corner seats are curved to allow for a more comfortable position while still facing the crowd.

Seating

is generally deeper than in a number of boats in class because of a slightly higher freeboard amidships. This means a dryer ride and an extra margin of safety for small children. There is lockable storage under one of the seats, a trash receptacle under another, and storage under a third.

Sun Pad and Stern

Behind the cockpit seating is the requisite sun pad that is the staple of any dayboat. It is nearly full beam and has storage hatches that open gull-wing style to access the compartments underneath. This is where there is not only storage, but inflatable ballast sacs. Between the two side pads is a center pad flanked by two elevated storage bins. The center pad itself can be unlatched from its position and flipped to create a non-skid walkthrough to the swim platform.

The Swim Platform

is part of the Transom Activity Center that includes a staging area for putting on boards, self draining wet storage, drink holders and a stereo remote. With the platform itself being nearly at the surface of the water, there’s no need for a reboarding ladder. It also has the same effect of a submersible platform when two or more people are sitting on it.

Tower

Our test boat was fitted with the Alpha Z tower that was custom-designed in-house by Tigé. It can accommodate a host of options including up to 4, color matched, Wet Sounds speakers, tri-color LED courtesy lights, Clamp4rce ratcheting and swiveling board racks, LED docking lights and a swivel tow point camera that can display on the Tigé Touch screen.

Ballasting

There’s one more ingredient to the equation of creating the perfect wake. And that’s adding weight to the boat to get it down further in the water. This is done by the tried and true method of adding ballast or weight to the boat. And the easiest way to do that is with the closest available source of weight… water. It’s readily accessible and weighs 8.35 lb. (3.785 kg) per gallon of fresh water, and saltwater weighs about 8.3 lbs. (3.9 kg) per gallon. But we can’t just open up a thru hull fitting and let the water come in now can we?

Fat Sacs

Ballast bags, or sacks are strategically place around the boat to hold water. A flip of a switch at the helm, one for each ballast sack, will start a pump which brings water into the individual ballast sacks. Once they’re full, the boat is much heavier, and because it sinks lower in the water, a larger wake is generated. Now the previously mentioned methods can dial-in that wake to perfection.
At the end of the day, reverse the pumps and empty the liquid weight out.

So How Much Weight is Enough?

The standard ballast package is 900 lbs. (408.2 kg) and should suffice for intermediate to advanced riders. This standard base package consists of two 250-lb. (113.4 kg) tanks below the floor of the rear storage compartments, and two more 200-lb. (90.7 kg) ballast sacs in the bow of the boat.
Now, for the intermediate wake boarder to the advanced wake surfer, an optional ballast package is offered that utilizes larger 600-lb. (272 kg) tanks in the rear of the boat bringing the total up to 1,600 lbs. (725.7 kg).
For the Pro Surfer, in the Z1 Tigé goes still further and allows a total of 400-lbs. more to be added the bow for a total off 2,000 lbs. By doing this, and operator can actually increase the total weight of the boat by 47% -- not counting the weight of all the people aboard. Say six people are aboard at 150-lbs each, that is another 900 lbs. Now the boat is 60% heavier than she was in her original dry weight.
Put this prodigious weight together with the Convex VX hull and the Taps2 system and monster wake is created.
Ballast sacs added to the hull allow for adding weight to the Z1. The Surf System provides 700-lbs. more. The ProSystem adds an additional 400-bs. to the bow for a total of 2000-lbs.

Tigé Warranty

The Tigé warranty program falls into three time periods -- Lifetime, 5-years and 3-years. As for the Lifetime warranty, here is what Tige' says on its website: "Tigé offers the only complete hull replacement warranty in the industry. If you ever experience a structural hull failure or delamination, at any time while you own your boat, Tigé will replace it with a new boat at no charge."
Tigé has a 3-year stem to stern warranty on all items and components on the boat, and a 5-year warranty on the Tigé Touch system as well as the 5-year warranty offered by Indmar on the engine.

Observations

The Tigé Z1 is an impressive boat with impressive qualities for making the "perfect" wake across a broad spectrum of disciplines. She transitions equally easily into the family fun boat and that makes her even more appealing.