Tell me about Jet Skies

[slag]

I'm going to try to get one of the new SXR standups. They look nice, albeit a bit large..

 

[FeuerFrei]

jet, jets
sky, skies
ski, skis

 

[DaTT]

I'm going to try to get one of the new SXR standups. They look nice, albeit a bit large..

I would love to try a stand up machine. They aren't sold in Canada for some reason.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Thanks so much for the feedback guys. Yea, I meant the sit down ones, better for longer distances.

Wholly crap, didn't realize the Houston to Cancun trip might be so far - 1,845 miles or what not. However, it looks like most of that is due to the route strictly hugging the coast. If you went straight from Houston to Cancun as a crow flies, it looks like the distance might be halved. Is that something that would be feasible on a personal watercraft? I would guess you have to tow an extra gas can or two.

Thanks!

 

[monkeydelmagico]

If you went straight from Houston to Cancun as a crow flies, it looks like the distance might be halved. Is that something that would be feasible on a personal watercraft? I would guess you have to tow an extra gas can or two.

Thanks!

Anything is possible but why would you want to?

I used to be a test rider for sea doo many moons ago back in my prime. PWC are fun for recreation. Trying to ride one distance in any kind of chop is going to be brutal. Cutting straight across the gulf means you will be subjected to 2-4 ft seas most of the ride. Trying to maintain anything above 20 knots will be nut busting. Good luck and let us know how your adventure turns out.

 

[DaTT]

Thanks so much for the feedback guys. Yea, I meant the sit down ones, better for longer distances.

Wholly crap, didn't realize the Houston to Cancun trip might be so far - 1,845 miles or what not. However, it looks like most of that is due to the route strictly hugging the coast. If you went straight from Houston to Cancun as a crow flies, it looks like the distance might be halved. Is that something that would be feasible on a personal watercraft? I would guess you have to tow an extra gas can or two.

Thanks!

Typically a PWC is good for around 90 miles at best fuel consumption rate. The tanks are usually 15-16 gallons. You would need far too much fuel to make that journey straight across.

 

[SearchMaster]

And do you REALLY want to risk being stuck in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a tiny little "boat"? I know you're trolling but...

 

[rstrohkirch]

I would do it.

The internet tells me you can easily signal if you get stranded.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've never owned, but ridden them quite a bit. They are very dangerous and people often let their kids ride without realizing the danger...they always figure they'll land in water and be wearing a life vest. You're more likely to have a collision, hit bottom, or get thrown off at high speed on most lakes. The rotax engines suck water up from underneath the watercraft, so it's not uncommon for them to suck rocks or trash up when in shallow water. Needless to say, that can do damage.

The new ones can go upwards of 70mph easily....which is pretty scary even on flat water. Trim makes a huge difference in how they handle, but can also mask how unstable they are if your speed changes. Be responsible if you get one and only goof off when you're far away from other jet skis, boats, or dangers...then get all serious again and be safe.

 

[Jeeebus]

Good luck and let us know how your adventure turns out.

If he actually tried to make it from Houston to Cancun by cutting straight across, I suspect we'll be hearing about it from a Coast Guard press release as opposed to from him.

 

[Darwin333]

You're kidding right? Considering the range of a jet ski is about 90 miles you'll be stopping to fill up about 20 times during that trip and at a top speed of around 60mph it would take you 30 hours not including time for refueling and rest stops.

You gotta do roughly 35 to get that kind of range at wide open you usually get less than an hour on a tank, maybe 50 miles top. So he'd actually be looking at a 60ish hour trip and that's assuming he could find places to refuel every 90-120 miles (depending on the ski). Even with a few extra 5 gal tanks strapped to the back it's still not even remotely feasible. Also I think there is a large area along the way that is some kind of wildlife reserve and isn't developed so nowhere to stop for gas. Even the places that are "developed" I'd be wary of being able to find the required fuel stops.

 

[WT]

Be prepared to be hated by every other boater on the water as you violate every safety law, cut much too close to shore and endanger swimmers lives, buzz to close to fishers and hook their lines, and get drunk and crash into things.

^^ This guy nailed it ^^ To OP, you can satisfy the need to experience a PWC with a rental while at the shore. Rent one for a day and you'll be good to go for another year. The ONLY reason to buy one is if you have a place at the shore.

 

[DaTT]

^^ This guy nailed it ^^ To OP, you can satisfy the need to experience a PWC with a rental while at the shore. Rent one for a day and you'll be good to go for another year. The ONLY reason to buy one is if you have a place at the shore.

There are responsible PWC owners/operators, just like there are irresponsible boat owners/operators.

 

[WT]

There are responsible PWC owners/operators, just like there are irresponsible boat owners/operators.

Agreed. I was generalizing, and that's not fair. In my experience around Ocean City, MD, we get so many guys renting these things that it's getting rare to see one driven responsibly. You can always tell the rental jerks - rental sticker prominently displayed, farmer tans and showing their stupid, unsafe riding style. Its cheaper to rent a PWC, hence why we see more of them acting stupid than the boaters.

 

[Darwin333]

I personally couldn't imagine a summer without tearing it up on a PWC.

I plan on buying a 300hp machine next season.

You and me both, I am biased towards Kawasaki's just because of my experience but I am seriously leaning towards the Sea Doo RXP. Kawasaki still pretty much owns the professional racing side but the RXT-X has some awesome race inspired features and Riva has some awesome and very cheap (relatively) packages to crank up the speed. With the Kawasaki's it would cost a metric fuckton more, require pulling the engine and replacing all kinds of engine parts along with the same mods on the RXT to get substantial performance increases. With the RXP/RXT you can get crazy boosts from just replacing the air intake/filter (easy), new impeller (easy), adding a tune (easy) and the speed override module. That gets you up to 80mph for only $1600, +13mph for that cheap and maybe half a days worth of work is just freaking awesome. Just a few years ago or so, heck probably even last year, it was outside of the realm of sanity that you could get a 13MPH gain, or close to 20%, without replacing half the engine with aftermarket parts. Plus the stock adjustable sponsons and the handlebar mounted reverse (manually pulling up the reverse gate can be a PITA) are awesome as well.

The only thing I really need to dig into is it's rough water handling. Most of the summer I leave my ski on our lift in Orange Beach and while it's there I am usually running on choppy water and that's if I stay in the bay. If I go out into the gulf, well it's the gulf. When I bring it home for the year and before I bring it out I get a few weeks on some nice glass lakes here at home but that's a rather small portion of my season. Historically Kawasaki's have handled rough water way better, one reason I don't like Yamaha's along with the retarded ass rooster tail, and also why I'm looking at the RXT instead of the RXP.

 

[Darwin333]

Thanks so much for the feedback guys. Yea, I meant the sit down ones, better for longer distances.

Wholly crap, didn't realize the Houston to Cancun trip might be so far - 1,845 miles or what not. However, it looks like most of that is due to the route strictly hugging the coast. If you went straight from Houston to Cancun as a crow flies, it looks like the distance might be halved. Is that something that would be feasible on a personal watercraft? I would guess you have to tow an extra gas can or two.

Thanks!

You want to take a PWC that at 1/3rd throttle and a speed of 35MPH that has a MAX range of 120 miles into the open Gulf well out of the site of land???? Even if you do strap some extra gas cans on the back and even if you don't run into seas big enough to knock them off, exactly how much extra gas do you think you can carry???

Miami to Bimini, Bahamas is considered a long range PWC trip that is always done in large packs and usually has a support boat cruising with them and thats not even a 60 mile trip. Don't worry, once you actually get on the water and start riding in some pretty serious chop your ambition for going a thousand miles+ across the freaking open Gulf of Mexico will die off pretty quickly even if you can somehow magically solve the fuel issue.

 

[olds]

If I was still a Mod (so I wouldn't get banned) I would have started a new account under Jet Skies and responded to this thread.

 

[Darwin333]

If he actually tried to make it from Houston to Cancun by cutting straight across, I suspect we'll be hearing about it from a Coast Guard press release as opposed to from him.

No suspect about it. Simply isn't possible. If he somehow managed to haul enough gas, get decent weather/seas the entire way, not lose the fuel he was carrying, not fuckup during any of the dozens of fuel transfers, not have any mechanical issues/overheating from running a PWC over a thousand miles across the open Gulf and somehow had enough room for water and sunblock, he would get too beat up to complete the journey. If you want to do something like that get a pretty decent sized boat.

PS: Sitting on a PWC in the Gulf while it's not running isn't fun or easy. They don't have rudders so when they are not running you have absolutely zero control over which direction they are facing and you generally want to be facing into the waves not taking them broadside.

 

[DaTT]

You and me both, I am biased towards Kawasaki's just because of my experience but I am seriously leaning towards the Sea Doo RXP. Kawasaki still pretty much owns the professional racing side but the RXT-X has some awesome race inspired features and Riva has some awesome and very cheap (relatively) packages to crank up the speed. With the Kawasaki's it would cost a metric fuckton more, require pulling the engine and replacing all kinds of engine parts along with the same mods on the RXT to get substantial performance increases. With the RXP/RXT you can get crazy boosts from just replacing the air intake/filter (easy), new impeller (easy), adding a tune (easy) and the speed override module. That gets you up to 80mph for only $1600, +13mph for that cheap and maybe half a days worth of work is just freaking awesome. Just a few years ago or so, heck probably even last year, it was outside of the realm of sanity that you could get a 13MPH gain, or close to 20%, without replacing half the engine with aftermarket parts. Plus the stock adjustable sponsons and the handlebar mounted reverse (manually pulling up the reverse gate can be a PITA) are awesome as well.

The only thing I really need to dig into is it's rough water handling. Most of the summer I leave my ski on our lift in Orange Beach and while it's there I am usually running on choppy water and that's if I stay in the bay. If I go out into the gulf, well it's the gulf. When I bring it home for the year and before I bring it out I get a few weeks on some nice glass lakes here at home but that's a rather small portion of my season. Historically Kawasaki's have handled rough water way better, one reason I don't like Yamaha's along with the retarded ass rooster tail, and also why I'm looking at the RXT instead of the RXP.

I am buying the RXT-X 300 in the next few months. I am going with the T because I want to be able toss it around somewhat from time to time, but still stick cornering too and the P, from what I read, sticks to the water too well to be able to toss around.

The Riva SCOM will get the T upwards of 78mph on the dash in perfect conditions...and for only $200. That's all the nodding I will likely do as I don't plan on owning this machine for one second out of warranty. Sell it in three years or so and buy a Spark or something, that's my plan.

 

[ScottFern]

I just bought a SeaDoo Spark this spring and it has been amazing and tons of fun. Love it. Not too expensive either.

 

[slag]

I've owned several older sit down pwc and while they are fun for a bit, it can get a bit old imho. That's why we bought a few standups to play around on (to compliment our boat). If you are looking for a real fun challenge every time you go out, get a standup and learn to ride it.

 

[zinfamous]

Jet Ski is a brand name, you want to know about personal water crafts.

what is your opinion on novelty flying discs?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

what is your opinion on novelty flying discs?

Remove the novelty part.

 

[ronbo613]

Most likely you will use it for awhile then it will wind up in your garage covered with other junk. If you plan to use it on weekends and holidays, you will enjoy your time standing around the local boat launch waiting to launch or haul out your PWC.

 

[Darwin333]

I am buying the RXT-X 300 in the next few months. I am going with the T because I want to be able toss it around somewhat from time to time, but still stick cornering too and the P, from what I read, sticks to the water too well to be able to toss around.

The Riva SCOM will get the T upwards of 78mph on the dash in perfect conditions...and for only $200. That's all the nodding I will likely do as I don't plan on owning this machine for one second out of warranty. Sell it in three years or so and buy a Spark or something, that's my plan.

You have a good point, I like tossing mine around too and didn't really consider you wouldn't be able to do that as much in the P. It does make sense though as it's purely racing inspired and thus would need to stay glued to the water as much as possible in a turn. Regardless the bigger hull of the T will handle a lot better in rough water which I need anyways. I don't think you will get up to 78 just off the SCOM and not installing the powerfilter and if you do that you might as well add the impeller. Not sure if you can retune to stock or if they can check that for warranty purposes. The filter can be returned to stock in an hour or so though, same with the impeller.

But even if you only get 74 or 75 it's still hella fast.