Boating Boat Test

• September
• 21

11:36 pm boat

Sometimes it can be a challenge to tell one bowrider from another, but this isn’t an issue with the Sugar Sand Tango Xtreme.

Bowriders are the most popular trailerboat available, so it comes as no surprise that an under 20-foot bowrider from company A might be very similar to an under 20-foot bowrider. In the case of the 16-foot, 6-inch Tango Xtreme, however, it becomes easy to stand out in the crowd.

A combination of factors work together to give the Tango Xtreme a unique look and feel. Its small size, jet-driven power, bold style and creative seating create a boat that is as fun to look at as it is to drive.

Its small size and light weight make it easy to tow, even with a small truck — and it’s also easy to maneuver around the docks and fit into the garage. Jet drives bring a number of advantages to the water. They’re shallow drafting, so your cruising opportunities increase while the likelihood of hitting bottom decreases. Jet drives are much lighter that their stern drive cousins (our 200 hp Mercury Jet Drive weighed 367 pounds while a 190 hp MerCruiser stern drive weighs 848 pounds, for a difference of 481 pounds), which vastly improves the all-important horsepower-to-weight ratio. This is one of the reasons jet-driven craft have such punchy acceleration and performance.

The Tango Xtreme is definitely easy on the eyes. Its low-profile hull and bold color options allow you to pick a color scheme that matches your personality. Our test boat was white and black with silver metal flake accents, and we were getting looks from the time we pulled into the marina until the time we left.

Inside you’ll find a different kind of seating than what you’re used to with a traditional bowrider. This boat drives and handles like a race car, so it’s good for everybody to have his or her own seat and one or two grab handles. Three seats sit forward of the engine compartment, with the starboard seat belonging to the driver. There’s another seat forward to port that faces inboard and slightly aft, as well as a seat forward to starboard that faces inboard and slightly forward.

By going on the diagonal, these two seats give each passenger much more legroom than if each seat faced directly inboard. All of these seats have Sugar Sand’s web suspension seating, which prevents your behind from bottoming out and hitting a hard surface while navigating through bumpy water. Even though this is a small boat and most of the space is dedicated to seating and the motor, there is still a decent amount of storage space. There are a couple of compartments in the bow, which will hold your PFDs and some other gear. Under the port seat is dedicated storage for a small carry-on cooler, which comes standard. There’s a big ski locker in the sole, which will hold your water toys and other gear. There’s also room in the engine compartment on each side of the motor.

All the way aft is the integrated swim platform. Sugar Sand probably could have made this a much smaller swim step and increased the acreage in the cockpit, but we’re glad to see a large swim platform, which is a big plus in the watersports arena. The platform has a nonskid surface and a boarding ladder that deploys at a 45-degree angle instead of straight down, so getting back aboard is more like walking up stairs than climbing a ladder.