Australian Waterski Magazine SEP/OCT 2009 - AURORA V review

Melbourne based XFi have long provided the boat buying market with an exceptional product, from their hulls, to their trims, their fittings and the overall sensation once you're actually in the drivers seat. After a number of years building pure, traditional ski boats, the powers to be at XFi decided it was time to go a little out of the box and offer something new, different and innovative to the customer. Enter the XFi AURORA V. It's an all new V-drive bow rider model. The V-drive allows the boat to adapt a different interior layout making it more spacious and user friendly for bigger families, especially with the bow rider added. The overall shape and contours of the boat are aesthetically pleasing, and also play a huge hand in the boats overall performance. For many of us tow boats should be fun, not just a tool for towing kids up and down the river, and the Aurora V delivers the goods.

PERFORMANCE

For the 20ft V-drive using the standard Mercruiser 315hp motor, this boat moves - and generally, pretty darn quick too! V-drives can be a lot of fun to drive, and this boat definitely brings that to the fore. On take off there are a couple of ways you can get your thrills. The first 'normal' approach to take off is a gentle launch, but with enough to easily bring your skier/ footer/ wake boarder out of the water. The other option, and more of an 'adrenalin junky's' option, is to jam that throttle, baby! Slamming the throttle down hard, even in this 315hp base model, could see you leaving a deposit on the seat as the V-drive configuration and the torque boots the boat out of the hole in spectacular fashion.

WAKE

As a crossover boat, The Aurora V is ideal for all disciplines. From skiers to barefooters, to the aspiring wake boarder, the boat produces a quality wash for all aspects. At he the quicker speeds, the skiers and barefooters will certainly appreciate what the V can achieve. However, with a little extra weight and backing the boat off to a more realistic 20mph for the wake boarders, the foundation wake of the boat is surprisingly impressive, but we have come to find this with all XFi's models. They have created moulds which are very suited to skiing, but can also produce a nice ramp for the wake boarders, with no crumbling lip.

A full copy of the review can be found in the Sep/Oct issue of Australian Waterski Magazine.