Boats

Off Topic
1

So I am in the market for a boat. As of right now I am looking into just a bowrider but as of late I have been considering a wakeboard boat as well. Currently I have my eye on one of the new Yamaha Twin engine jet drive in both style boats in the 21’-23’ range. I have read some reviews on the Yamaha but I’d like to hear some personal feedback. Here is one of the reviews.

http://www.familyfunonthewater.com/bestofboating/reviews/SX230HighOutput.html

Does anyone have any feedback/experience on the Yamaha’s or do you have one that you recommend that isnt’t a jet drive. I have looked at the Air Nautigues but I am not ready to drop 56k on a boat.

Thanks

TR

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I have a 2006 Skeeter SL190 with Yamaha 150 four stroke. It’s a fish/ski runabout that is just what I was looking for. I fish alot but I also have two kids. I wanted to be able to tow them around and wakeboard as well as fish with it. I don’t have a picture of my boat ready to post so I found one on the net.

So many boats to choose from. I know most boat companies but I can honestly say I didn’t know Yamaha made a boat. They look pretty good and you can’t go wrong with a Yamaha motor. Mine came with a good warranty.

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I forgot to add…check out www.iboats.com. Good website with boat forums.

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http://www.boattest.com/index.aspx

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I have a J24 racing sailboat, but I am known to powerboat on occasion, in disguise of course.

The big drawback for jet drives is that they tend to clog (a lot). They are not good in salt water high wave conditions. Because the pumps need a steady flow of water, wave jumping even the smallest swells causes it to stall. It’s meant for smooth flatwater boating anyway. Do you want inboard power? What about I/O or outboard power? What do you want to use the boat for mainly?

My husband has a 23 foot 1996 Pursuit center console with a Yamaha 450 outboard for fishing and general runabout in Long Island Sound. It can also pull me on a wakeboard and several drunken sailors in a tube. The only drawback for me is there is no head, and unless it’s August, the water can be pretty cold!

6

The first thing I would want to find out is who is making the hull for Yamaha?

I can almost guarantee you Yamaha are not the ones making it.

Couple questions.

Will you be trailering or docking? If docking, dry or wet? I see you are in MI, so I assume you will be on the Great Lakes, or do you intend to use it on inland waters?

What is the main thing you think the boat will be used for?

7

[quote]apwsearch wrote:
The first thing I would want to find out is who is making the hull for Yamaha?

I can almost guarantee you Yamaha are not the ones making it.

Couple questions.

Will you be trailering or docking? If docking, dry or wet? I see you are in MI, so I assume you will be on the Great Lakes, or do you intend to use it on inland waters?

What is the main thing you think the boat will be used for?[/quote]

I wll find out about the hull. Who are some companies to watch out for when it comes to the hull?

I will be trailering for the time being and I will mainly be using on inland waters. Mainly we will use it for going out on the lake and relaxing, tubing, wakeboarding or skiing.

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[quote]MaloVerde wrote:
I have a 2006 Skeeter SL190 with Yamaha 150 four stroke. It’s a fish/ski runabout that is just what I was looking for. I fish alot but I also have two kids. I wanted to be able to tow them around and wakeboard as well as fish with it. I don’t have a picture of my boat ready to post so I found one on the net.

So many boats to choose from. I know most boat companies but I can honestly say I didn’t know Yamaha made a boat. They look pretty good and you can’t go wrong with a Yamaha motor. Mine came with a good warranty.[/quote]

I seen a show on the fish/ski boats and they looked quite nice. Thanks for reminding me to look into those.

9

regal 2000

best boat for the money

http://www.regalboats.com/viewBoat/index.cfm?boat_id=133&Boat_Model=2000&boat_name=2000%20Bowrider

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[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
I have a J24 racing sailboat, but I am known to powerboat on occasion, in disguise of course.

The big drawback for jet drives is that they tend to clog (a lot). They are not good in salt water high wave conditions. Because the pumps need a steady flow of water, wave jumping even the smallest swells causes it to stall. It’s meant for smooth flatwater boating anyway. Do you want inboard power? What about I/O or outboard power? What do you want to use the boat for mainly?

My husband has a 23 foot 1996 Pursuit center console with a Yamaha 450 outboard for fishing and general runabout in Long Island Sound. It can also pull me on a wakeboard and several drunken sailors in a tube. The only drawback for me is there is no head, and unless it’s August, the water can be pretty cold!

[/quote]

I will be in freshwater inland lakes. Good point about the clogging. I know that it has an access from inside the boat to unclog it but who knows how often it will happen and it could get annoying.

As I said in another response it will be used for wakeboarding, relaxing, skiing, or tubing. And I had my eyes on the Yamaha because I have heard good things about their reliability with their 4 stroke engines and I have always had the impression that the I/O were high maintenance.

Thanks for the response

11

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
The big drawback for jet drives is that they tend to clog (a lot). They are not good in salt water high wave conditions. Because the pumps need a steady flow of water, wave jumping even the smallest swells causes it to stall. It’s meant for smooth flatwater boating anyway.[/quote]

The boats I work on are 11M RIbs, powered by twin Cat diesels and Kamewa jets. I have operated these boats in sea states from pond-like glass, to big Pacific rollers, to East Coast 8 footers. The Pacific tends to roll, so it is easy to time the crests and keep the boat in the water without bow plunging. The Atlantic, on the other hand, tends to be more chaotic, with sharper waves and little or no set pattern. So the boat inevitably ends up in the air when we run in these types of seas. As many times as I have launched my boat, I have never seen a boat ‘stall’ because the jets run dry. The jet drive itself is completely separate from the inner workings of the engine. The engine will continue to turn even if the boat is on a trailer. You would burn up the raw water impeller if you did this(raw water impeller sucks seawater into the cooling system to cool the jacket water, or coolant), but the jet drive itself would be unharmed.

As far as the system clogging, the only thing I have sucked into the actual drive portion that caused a problem was a sheet of 1/2 inch neoprene which shredded in the drive impeller and then jammed the system up(boat still ran, albeit much slower at higher RPMs). I suppose it could be possible to suck rope or something in, but I’ve never done it. If you suck stuff into the cooling system(which is much more common), then you can overheat and, again, burn up your impeller. Don’t know about civilian boats, but ours have strainer baskets in the system to catch anything sucked in, such as sand, garbage, shrimp, whatever. In this case, you would just open the top, pull the basket, dump it out and rinse it, and then slap it back in. No worries.

THe thing about it being for flatwater boating only, I’m guessing you meant the Yamaha boat itself?

12

If you will be trailering and using primarily on inland waters my recommendation is almost always an aluminum hull with an outboard.

It is light and will trailer well, and you will have a much easier time with shallow or very steep boat ramps, as the condition and slope of these can vary greatly. Plus, winterizing and maintenance are a piece of cake.

I have probably owned 6 boats over the last 9 years, ranging from 17-37 feet, and one of my favorites that I wish I never sold was a 19’ '95 or '96 Crestliner SST. I sold the original motor and put a Yamaha 200 horse 4 stroke on it. It was awesome.

The hull is aluminum with a walkthrough windshield and a built in engine bracket. So, essentially, an 19 footer will have considerably more inside space than a traditional 19 footer.

Additionally, mounting the outboard further back on the hull made it a remarkably dry and smooth riding hull.

Crestliner recently brought back the SST hull.

Here is what they look like now:

http://www.crestliner.com/boat_info/boat_model.asp?BID=148

My wife really wants to get another one to pull around out here, but I have owned 2 boats at once, and refuse to do it again.

In regards to which hulls to avoid, find out who makes it and I will give you an opinion.

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[quote]boatguy wrote:

The boats I work on are 11M RIbs, powered by twin Cat diesels and Kamewa jets. I have operated these boats in sea states from pond-like glass, to big Pacific rollers, to East Coast 8 footers. The Pacific tends to roll, so it is easy to time the crests and keep the boat in the water without bow plunging. The Atlantic, on the other hand, tends to be more chaotic, with sharper waves and little or no set pattern. So the boat inevitably ends up in the air when we run in these types of seas. As many times as I have launched my boat, I have never seen a boat ‘stall’ because the jets run dry. The jet drive itself is completely separate from the inner workings of the engine. The engine will continue to turn even if the boat is on a trailer. You would burn up the raw water impeller if you did this(raw water impeller sucks seawater into the cooling system to cool the jacket water, or coolant), but the jet drive itself would be unharmed.

As far as the system clogging, the only thing I have sucked into the actual drive portion that caused a problem was a sheet of 1/2 inch neoprene which shredded in the drive impeller and then jammed the system up(boat still ran, albeit much slower at higher RPMs). I suppose it could be possible to suck rope or something in, but I’ve never done it. If you suck stuff into the cooling system(which is much more common), then you can overheat and, again, burn up your impeller. Don’t know about civilian boats, but ours have strainer baskets in the system to catch anything sucked in, such as sand, garbage, shrimp, whatever. In this case, you would just open the top, pull the basket, dump it out and rinse it, and then slap it back in. No worries.

THe thing about it being for flatwater boating only, I’m guessing you meant the Yamaha boat itself?[/quote]

The OP provided a link to his civilian boat of interest that has all the stats. It sure ain’t your 36 foot RIb, that’s for sure. But even if we assume equal overall length, horsepower, fuel capacity, etc. wouldn’t a solid hull boat still move through the water and handle quite differently than an inflatable boat? Just wondering if those big military inflatables handle as “squishy” as my 12 foot inflatable Zodiac dinghy with a 2 horse outboard. Guess not!

14

The yamaha is a sweet boat, the biggest concern with clogging is making sure you are deep enough before nailing it.

Are you in southeast Michigan. What lakes are you planning to frequent?

I have a 21’ FourWinns deck boat. It does a little of everything, but nothing particularly well.

15

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
boatguy wrote:

The boats I work on are 11M RIbs, powered by twin Cat diesels and Kamewa jets. I have operated these boats in sea states from pond-like glass, to big Pacific rollers, to East Coast 8 footers. The Pacific tends to roll, so it is easy to time the crests and keep the boat in the water without bow plunging. The Atlantic, on the other hand, tends to be more chaotic, with sharper waves and little or no set pattern. So the boat inevitably ends up in the air when we run in these types of seas. As many times as I have launched my boat, I have never seen a boat ‘stall’ because the jets run dry. The jet drive itself is completely separate from the inner workings of the engine. The engine will continue to turn even if the boat is on a trailer. You would burn up the raw water impeller if you did this(raw water impeller sucks seawater into the cooling system to cool the jacket water, or coolant), but the jet drive itself would be unharmed.

As far as the system clogging, the only thing I have sucked into the actual drive portion that caused a problem was a sheet of 1/2 inch neoprene which shredded in the drive impeller and then jammed the system up(boat still ran, albeit much slower at higher RPMs). I suppose it could be possible to suck rope or something in, but I’ve never done it. If you suck stuff into the cooling system(which is much more common), then you can overheat and, again, burn up your impeller. Don’t know about civilian boats, but ours have strainer baskets in the system to catch anything sucked in, such as sand, garbage, shrimp, whatever. In this case, you would just open the top, pull the basket, dump it out and rinse it, and then slap it back in. No worries.

THe thing about it being for flatwater boating only, I’m guessing you meant the Yamaha boat itself?

The OP provided a link to his civilian boat of interest that has all the stats. It sure ain’t your 36 foot RIb, that’s for sure. But even if we assume equal overall length, horsepower, fuel capacity, etc. wouldn’t a solid hull boat still move through the water and handle quite differently than an inflatable boat? Just wondering if those big military inflatables handle as “squishy” as my 12 foot inflatable Zodiac dinghy with a 2 horse outboard. Guess not!
[/quote]

The larger inflatables have have stiffening strakes on the bottom of the tube to keep them from folding.

I recently saw an inflatable catamaran with a 40hp outboard that was badass, turned on a dime at 30mph. Funny thing was, he tried pulling a tuber but couldn’t get it on plane.

16

[quote]Testy1 wrote:
The yamaha is a sweet boat, the biggest concern with clogging is making sure you are deep enough before nailing it.

Are you in southeast Michigan. What lakes are you planning to frequent?

I have a 21’ FourWinns deck boat. It does a little of everything, but nothing particularly well. [/quote]

Im in Fenton so I will be on Lake Fenton alot. I will alos head north to Murphy Lake in Millington as well. I plan on making two trip a year to Center Hill Lake in Tennessee as well. That place is just amazing.

17

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
boatguy wrote:

The boats I work on are 11M RIbs, powered by twin Cat diesels and Kamewa jets. I have operated these boats in sea states from pond-like glass, to big Pacific rollers, to East Coast 8 footers. The Pacific tends to roll, so it is easy to time the crests and keep the boat in the water without bow plunging. The Atlantic, on the other hand, tends to be more chaotic, with sharper waves and little or no set pattern. So the boat inevitably ends up in the air when we run in these types of seas. As many times as I have launched my boat, I have never seen a boat ‘stall’ because the jets run dry. The jet drive itself is completely separate from the inner workings of the engine. The engine will continue to turn even if the boat is on a trailer. You would burn up the raw water impeller if you did this(raw water impeller sucks seawater into the cooling system to cool the jacket water, or coolant), but the jet drive itself would be unharmed.

As far as the system clogging, the only thing I have sucked into the actual drive portion that caused a problem was a sheet of 1/2 inch neoprene which shredded in the drive impeller and then jammed the system up(boat still ran, albeit much slower at higher RPMs). I suppose it could be possible to suck rope or something in, but I’ve never done it. If you suck stuff into the cooling system(which is much more common), then you can overheat and, again, burn up your impeller. Don’t know about civilian boats, but ours have strainer baskets in the system to catch anything sucked in, such as sand, garbage, shrimp, whatever. In this case, you would just open the top, pull the basket, dump it out and rinse it, and then slap it back in. No worries.

THe thing about it being for flatwater boating only, I’m guessing you meant the Yamaha boat itself?

The OP provided a link to his civilian boat of interest that has all the stats. It sure ain’t your 36 foot RIb, that’s for sure. But even if we assume equal overall length, horsepower, fuel capacity, etc. wouldn’t a solid hull boat still move through the water and handle quite differently than an inflatable boat? Just wondering if those big military inflatables handle as “squishy” as my 12 foot inflatable Zodiac dinghy with a 2 horse outboard. Guess not!
[/quote]

My sister is in the Coast Guard and loves the inflatable Jet drive and swears by them. She says they are fun as hell to drive.

18

[quote]trailrash wrote:
Testy1 wrote:
The yamaha is a sweet boat, the biggest concern with clogging is making sure you are deep enough before nailing it.

Are you in southeast Michigan. What lakes are you planning to frequent?

I have a 21’ FourWinns deck boat. It does a little of everything, but nothing particularly well.

Im in Fenton so I will be on Lake Fenton alot. I will alos head north to Murphy Lake in Millington as well. I plan on making two trip a year to Center Hill Lake in Tennessee as well. That place is just amazing.

[/quote]

The Yamaha sounds like a good boat for what you are doing.

Are you buying from a local dealer? It can make a big difference if you need support.

Definately don’t buy a ski boat without riding in one first. Most handle very well, but ride like shit.

Check out the Portage chain of lakes in Pinckney sometime, 7 lakes and miles of river.

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BTW, DO NOT buy a new boat.

Unless you like losing $$$$$.

20

[quote]apwsearch wrote:
BTW, DO NOT buy a new boat.

Unless you like losing $$$$$.[/quote]

Although I love both boats and fishing, my old man always said that boats are a “huge hole in the water that you throw money into”.

That, and that old joke about how the two happiest days with a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it…

Either way, good luck guys. I’d love to have one one day