Re: Yamaha Jet Boat
SO MANY misconceptions on jet drives in this thread, it makes me SICK. It's incredibly obvious that many people in here stating that "props are still supreme" and "jets have many negatives, still catching up, making you go for a swim, etc" are totally full of it.
I've owned and driven both; actually the first boat I owned was the Yamaha in my signature. The primary misconception in this thread is regarding maneuverability. YES jets have a more complicated control system which requires understanding and thought before throwing controls around, but the possibilities are far greater than a single engine I/O or outboard.
When I bought the jet boat, I dreaded close-in maneuvering due to the misconceptions - I mastered the boat within a month and could go anywhere/do anything including tight docking areas with expensive boats all around in restaurants and stuff.
Now, having sold it and being the owner of a single I/O - it's the opposite. I could throw my Yamaha in neutral, turn the wheel hard-over, and throttle-up; the boat would rotate on its' own axis!!! You could almost achieve this with an I/O but you'd still be covering ground and would be switching gears/hard-over steering every few seconds.
Don't disregard the draft issue. 18" versus 32+" is nothing to laugh at, it allows me and my friends to sit in the water on the sand listening to music with water at our chest while we have to push the boat out of the way when it floats over to us - not a bad problem to have!
The usable space behind the boat is also great.. the lounge areas the newer yammies offer is spectacular, it's literally an "engineless hull design" as some call it. Plus, if safety is a concern w/ sharp objects.. there's no contest - on my LS I could hang on the grab handles and float my legs up under the transom flush against it - smooth as glass with zero protrusions except the transducer and speedo pickup.
"some" yamahas have clean out plugs?! My 13-year-old yamaha had it, and I'm pretty sure they all did! All the new ones do obviously, and the new single engine draws 12" of water!
Another advantage is the planing time. Coming out from bridges and no-wake zones, my old Yammie would KILL any boat on the lake, I don't care if it had twin ZZ502s, there was simply no comparison.
Granted top-speed efficiency has always been a problem with jets, but for many applications and family-owned boaters, this doesn't matter.
It's not an issue of "catching up" - it's a matter of offering a package of advantages that no other drive system can offer. Period. Nothing I stated above can be argued with or skewed. The MAIN issue revolving around these engines for ME is the fact that they lack top-end speed and sound like a weed-wacker instead of a nice healthy V8. My LS would do 55, but wouldn't sound even half as good as a bayliner doing 40 w/ a 350MPI.
I don't care what you pick one way or another - as I stated before, I'm now in the I/O crowd with a big block Chevy, but I absolutely loved the capabilities that my old Yammie had, and if someone offered that with a V8 I'd jump on it in a heartbeat! Yes I know Ultra makes some awesome larger jet boats, but they're still just fair-weather run abouts.
