Earlier this summer, I was living at the beach (just for some seasonal work taking a break from college). There isn't much to do in the area for the college aged crowd so my brother, a buddy, and I were sitting on the couch and I said "dude we just got paid...let's by an old beat up jet ski". We looked at rentals but they were nearly 100/hr so we figured we would buy a cheap 600 dollar ski and as long as we got a little more than 6 hours on it we got an OK deal.
Fast foreword a few days we have an old beat 94 yamaha waverunner III off craigslist. We read a bit about jet skis but not nearly enough. We were told it was running great and water ready. It started up fine and he revved it a few times out of water and we were mesmerized and left with it.
We take it out...rather clueless. We forget drain plugs...near disaster. It's having trouble starting...discouraging. With 2 of us on it...it feels like it's about to sink. We finally work up the nerve to take it out in the intercoastal waterway...and suprisingly it runs great!!! We are zipping along the water so we go a bit too far down the waterway because 20 mins later the engine is running terrible. Horrible bogging and misfires and no power...it literally would not go much faster than idle.
We try to get back to the boat rAmp but we are about 70 blocks away. The engine starts dying out and we decide to flag some help! These two older women volunteer to tow us in on some new WRs so I kill our ski and hop in the water to grab their tow line. I am sitting there about to tie our ski up...trying to remember all the knots I memorized for my newly acquired boating license...but the lady decides to not kill her ski. She decides to go in circles around me like a shark while her tow rope is in the water...
This looks good...right?
She finally kills her ski but it is too late...the rope whips out of my hands and her rope is sucked up her intake grate and wrapped several tiMes around her prop shaft. 2 skis down
We get all of our skis to the beach and we flip hers on her side to see the damage...I know the rope will not come out bit she wants to try to unwind it. One thing leads to another and she is borrowing tools from a guys house and she has a hacksaw in her grate trying to cut the rope out...scratching away at her prop shaft. She then takes a hammer and screw driver to try and pry the ropes apart as she proceeds to bang on her drive shaft ignoring my desperate pleas to stop. Lastly she tries to take her grate off but the bolt is stuck. She asks for our help and of course the bolt head shears off. Finally she gives up...yelling at me for not watching out for all 12 feet of rope while she rides over her own rope. Her friend begins to tow her away and our newly acquired ski is beached...we decide to pop the hood and let it cool off and air our and see what kind of mess we got into. 15 mins later we start it up after a few times And cautiously make it back to the ramp.....
BUT NOT BEFORE WE PASSED THE TWO LADIES BECAUSE HER FRIEND RAN OVER HER OWN TOW ROPE...AND HER SKI IS DOWN
how is that for a craigs list deal !
Fast foreword a few days we have an old beat 94 yamaha waverunner III off craigslist. We read a bit about jet skis but not nearly enough. We were told it was running great and water ready. It started up fine and he revved it a few times out of water and we were mesmerized and left with it.
We take it out...rather clueless. We forget drain plugs...near disaster. It's having trouble starting...discouraging. With 2 of us on it...it feels like it's about to sink. We finally work up the nerve to take it out in the intercoastal waterway...and suprisingly it runs great!!! We are zipping along the water so we go a bit too far down the waterway because 20 mins later the engine is running terrible. Horrible bogging and misfires and no power...it literally would not go much faster than idle.
We try to get back to the boat rAmp but we are about 70 blocks away. The engine starts dying out and we decide to flag some help! These two older women volunteer to tow us in on some new WRs so I kill our ski and hop in the water to grab their tow line. I am sitting there about to tie our ski up...trying to remember all the knots I memorized for my newly acquired boating license...but the lady decides to not kill her ski. She decides to go in circles around me like a shark while her tow rope is in the water...
This looks good...right?
She finally kills her ski but it is too late...the rope whips out of my hands and her rope is sucked up her intake grate and wrapped several tiMes around her prop shaft. 2 skis down
We get all of our skis to the beach and we flip hers on her side to see the damage...I know the rope will not come out bit she wants to try to unwind it. One thing leads to another and she is borrowing tools from a guys house and she has a hacksaw in her grate trying to cut the rope out...scratching away at her prop shaft. She then takes a hammer and screw driver to try and pry the ropes apart as she proceeds to bang on her drive shaft ignoring my desperate pleas to stop. Lastly she tries to take her grate off but the bolt is stuck. She asks for our help and of course the bolt head shears off. Finally she gives up...yelling at me for not watching out for all 12 feet of rope while she rides over her own rope. Her friend begins to tow her away and our newly acquired ski is beached...we decide to pop the hood and let it cool off and air our and see what kind of mess we got into. 15 mins later we start it up after a few times And cautiously make it back to the ramp.....
BUT NOT BEFORE WE PASSED THE TWO LADIES BECAUSE HER FRIEND RAN OVER HER OWN TOW ROPE...AND HER SKI IS DOWN
how is that for a craigs list deal !