Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

robcarync

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
82
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 !
 

Home Cookin'

Fleet Admiral
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
9,715
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

there is justice in the universe after all!

Those misadventures are a good part of life--no real harm done and you got a good story out of it.
 

12vMan

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
1,532
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

:D that's funny!
 

mxfever

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
215
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

Good stuff!
 

cheburashka

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 28, 2005
Messages
715
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

there is justice in the universe after all!

Those misadventures are a good part of life--no real harm done and you got a good story out of it.

What the heck is that supposed to mean? It's justice because someone who uses a watercraft of a type you don't like damages her craft when trying to help out someone else?

That's a funny sense of justice.
 

DuckHunterJon

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Apr 19, 2010
Messages
1,082
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

I didn't take it as Home Cookin' was slamming jet ski's, but rather slamming the woman who flared up at someone else about a self inflicted problem.
 

Stamey

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 7, 2010
Messages
286
Re: Craiglist Waverunners...And Spur of the moment purchases

What the heck is that supposed to mean? It's justice because someone who uses a watercraft of a type you don't like damages her craft when trying to help out someone else?

That's a funny sense of justice.

If the rescuer's watercraft was damaged legitimately when attempting to help out someone else, it wouldn't be justice, such as if the tow eye pulled off her jet ski when pulling the disabled ski. The fact that she was stupid and then had the nerve to yell at the person she was rescuing because of the problem she inflicted upon herself, DESPITE advice from someone else, then yeah, that is justice. Of course, the second lady is probably just ignorant and didn't deserve what happened, except that she witnessed the SAME thing happen to her friend only minutes ago, so I don't know that I feel that bad for her either. Nothing you can do but laugh if people won't learn from their, or others' mistakes.

Chris
 
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