[Rhodes22-list] Jet Skis (UNCLASSIFIED)

Tue Apr 1 00:10:57 EDT 2008

Mike --

Nice to hear from you...good luck with your purchase.  I'll bet you'll have fun, and everyone will like the new toy.  One other thing I forgot to mention......My neighbor at the lake has 3 kids between 18-25, with assorted friends of all ages, and I have watched them beat up a Sea Doo GTX he bought that is newer than either of ours.....it has suffered from some dock rash and various water wrecks that have knocked out most all of the electronic instrumentation, but the biggest problems have been when it was capsized numerous times (which is inevitable if they're ridden aggresively in rough water or wake jumping), and then not properly righted.  They have to be rolled back a certain direction to avoid water getting into the engine.  Then, if they have taken on a lot of water during the capsize, they have to brought back up on to plane for awhile for the self-bailer to remove the water in the engine compartment....might have to drop one or two riders while the driver does this if they're being ridden two or three aboard.  

Finally, if the engine has filled with water because of improper righting, it's important to know what the proper procedures are (or else get it to the shop pretty quickly).  The neighbor's boy didn't want Dad to find out what had happened, so after one particularly impressive crash, they towed it into the dock, put it on the lift, then went home.  The next week-end Dad got a big and expensive surprise when he discovered it had been sitting there all week with the cylinders full of water.  It's usually pretty straightforward, remove the plugs, cycle as much water out as possible, maybe add a little top oil depending on the engine, put in new plugs and keep cranking (usually more juice than will be in the on-board battery, so have a charger or power-pack handy) hoping it will fire on that first set of plugs....once it's running I've watched him run it for a while back and forth in the cove till it seems to be running reasonably smoothly again, and then finally putting in a second set of plugs....I don't know if you could get by with only one set of plugs.....but that's his system, and it works for him a couple of times a year!  We've never had ours capsized (at least that I know of...), but they haven't been ridden by our kids as much.

You proabably already know or have heard all this anyway, so I apologize if feeding you leftovers.....

Take care, and have fun!

Willard

________________________________

From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org on behalf of Corley, Michael J COL MIL USA TRADOC
Sent: Mon 3/31/2008 8:45 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Jet Skis (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Thanks for all the info, particularly about safety and learning to ride.
Matches what I heard in a boating safety course about the first hour
being the most dangerous.  And you are right about they have no neutral
gear so they are always moving when the engine is running.  As Arthur
mentioned in his post I am looking for ways to keep the "kids"
interested in the water.  I am thinking I am going to buy new for the
reasons you mentioned.

Mike
S/V Ranger
Hampton, VA   

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Downs, Willard
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 5:00 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Jet Skis (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mike --

We have two SeaDoos, a 2001 GTS, and a 2002 GTI (SeaDoo low end models
in 01 and 02, each with 85 HP), and we have enjoyed them very much.   We
bought the first one for exactly the reasons you mention, my wife and I
thinking we'd not use it very much but they would be good for adult kids
and guests.  My wife went out the first time on it and didn't come back
for an hour......we quickly realized they were lots of fun....and we
didn't want to ride together, so the second one came along the next
year.

We chose to buy new because most of the used ones we looked at were very
beat up.  We are on Lake of the Ozarks in MIssouri, which is a pretty
rough lake on week-ends, and it's the unusual one that will not have
been riden hard and put away wet, and they don't tolerate being run into
things very well.   Anyway, some quick comments:

1.  You don't need lots of HP to have fun....even if the kids want the
225+ HP models.....ours at 85HP are plenty fast, though if I was buying
another new one, I'd probably get 100 or so.  It does make a difference
if you put 3 people on one...we usually ride with only one, or at the
most two aboard. 

2.  With reasonable maintenance and care, they are pretty
reliable....have had virtually no problems with ours.

3.  Gas consumption will be higher than you expect....you can burn 20
gallons or so a day if there is lots of use.

4.  Easy to ride once you have some time on one, but a steep learning
curve the first couple of hours, particularly with docking........most
of the dings and dents will happen than......and when being maneuvered
close to other boats or waverunners...  Even for experience boaters the
first hour or so is a little trying if you have to maneuver much.  For
the unexperienced, my observation is that it can take 5 hours or so at
least for them to be good enough so that you don't have to worry much
about them running into something. With jets,  when the engine is
running, the thing is going somewhere.....once you're good with reverse
you can almost hold it stationary and maneuver it a slow speed.  Of
course, when the motor is off, there is no steering (some have a sort
steering with the motor off, but it doesn't offer that much control at
best..), and I've seen a lot of dock bangers happen when someone is
coming in, cuts the motor, and then realizes they can't steer the thing
shortly
  before it crashes into something.

5.  Safety is important.....especially if ridden aggressively, or for
wake jumping....etc...etc....which of course is what the kids always
do...

6.  Hull design is important.....the high performance models will go
faster and carve tighter turns, but tend to be more unstable a slow
speed, and can be tipped or rolled more easily.  We chose the former,
and that has proven to be a good choice for us.  I think they newer hull
designs are probably all reasonably stable now, compared to some of the
earlier performance models.

7.  Ours are on a lift when not in the water,  which eliminates a lot of
the hassle of what to do with them when you're not using them.....we are
2 minutes from being on the water on one whenever we want, and when you
come in, not much to put away.  I don't know how much additional hassle
trailering them would be if you did it every time you wanted to use
one......probably not that much....people do it all the time.

8.  We have fun with ours whether it's absolutely flat and calm (then
it's speed and turns), or like a washing machine on Saturday aft from
all the power-boat wakes (then it's fun finding a line, riding
reasonably smooth, and negotiating all the chop).

Hope that helps some, let me know if I can help with anything.

WDowns

________________________________

From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org on behalf of Corley, Michael J
COL MIL USA TRADOC
Sent: Fri 3/28/2008 5:28 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Jet Skis (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

This might be blasphemy, but I am going to ask anyway because between
political comments you really do get good advice from da list.
Does anyone out there have experience with jet skis?  Thinking of buying
a low end Yamaha Wave Runner, preferably used.  Don't worry, I am
keeping my Rhodes, this would be a 2nd "fun boat" for use by myself and
adult children age 20-25.

Mike Corley
S/V Ranger
Hampton VA
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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