2021 Monterey M-225 — Seneca, SC 29678

A 2021 Monterey M-225 at Seneca, South Carolina — Lake Keowee water — asking $32,495 through Eclipse Marine. The M-225 is Monterey's 22-foot deck boat: outboard on the transom in the 200-to-250-horse range, a bow like a veranda, honest seating for seven, and a centerline locker more than eight feet long that swallows every board and rope the family owns. The press liked it — a magazine test ran one to 47 mph and came away calling it well constructed and keenly priced — and a used 2021 at well under half what a new one invoices is the keen part compounding.

Say plainly what it is on this shelf: the deck boat that got filed with the tow boats, and not entirely unfairly. With a couple hundred horses on the back it pulls tubes and skiers without strain, and a tower could be optioned on; a summer of kids behind it will be a good summer. But the wake is a planing runabout's wake — clean, small, nothing to board on — and surfing is out of the question forever, because behind an outboard the propeller occupies the exact water a surfer falls into. If the habit you are funding is wakeboard-shaped, this is the wrong shape of money.

The against-list from Monterey owners generally, worth carrying to the survey: gelcoat cracks reported on older hulls, occasional hatch leaks, and engine-compartment ventilation gripes on some models — balanced against a brand reputation that sits comfortably mid-fleet, better than the price class implies. On a 2021 with an outboard, most of the classic sterndrive worries simply do not exist; confirm the Mercury or Yamaha on the back has its service stamps and the hull has never met a dock at speed, and the mechanical story is short.

The interesting comparisons are both a rung away. For $7,500 more, the Yamaha 212 Limited S is the tow-sports native this boat politely declines to be — twin jets, a tower, and a wake you can actually use:

For $3,495 less, the Tahoe 550 TS is the same do-everything-gently idea one size down and one build-quality tier lower:

The full spread from picnic boats to surf hulls lives on the powerboat shelf. If the honest brief is a family day boat that tows on Saturdays rather than a tow boat that carries passengers, this is the best-built version of that brief on this page — survey it first:

Sources: Powerboat & RIB magazine test of the Monterey M225; boatguide.com specifications for the 2021 M-225; GoDownsize on common Monterey problems.