Personal Water Craft - why no more Jet Ski?

Resurrection · 07-03-2013, 01:03 PM

Most people refer to PWC as Jetskis. However Jetski is the brand name offered by Kawasaki. Kawasaki were so succesful at the PWC game that their brand name is often used to describe all types of PWC.

However, these days all the PWC I see in use are SeaDoos. Are Jetskis no longer popular? Or are the SeaDoos so much better than what Kawasaki has to offer? I am interested to hear from people who own or have owned PWCs.

deesun · 07-03-2013, 01:43 PM

I live on the Gold Coast and see all brands in the water. Seadoo have the best name but with that comes the highest cost of servicing. $400+ once a year depending on useage and or if you need a supercharger kit. Comprehensive insurance about $600 a year, yes dearer than my FGXR6T. Jetski shops around the GC are booming and I think I can give a few reasons why. 1. NSW doesnt want you to own a jetski. They are banned on Sydney harbour ( no thanks to Bob Carr) and restricted in a number of places from the gong to Newcastle. 2. Horrendous licence fees. Paid yearly I think its about $150 and three yearly about $330. These are major hurdles in NSW. In QLD it is added to your drivers licence for a low once off fee and there forever, no more fees, nada,nun,zip. The huge Broadwater with many ramps makes it easy to find a spot to put in, although parking on weekends can be a nightmare.
The Broadwater has a 40knot limit which can be easily broken on almost any ski. Top speed of the newer skis would be 80 knots/150kph and acceration 0-100k in 4 secs. Come off at that speed and the water will feel like blue readymix.
When I looked for my skis a year or so ago I was surprised at the number of skis available in VIC.
Anyway thats my experience, if you have one you will know what a black hole they are, but FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

dogphlap · 07-03-2013, 01:44 PM

I used to have a personal water craft but I called it a kayak.

MAD · 07-03-2013, 02:12 PM

I spent an hour in huge swell at Noosa and was bored after about 30 mins.
I'm glad I didn't buy one to find that out.

mik · 07-03-2013, 02:14 PM

i get down near the bay Point Gellibrand (williamstown) once or twice a week , and see jet ski`s and ski doo`s fairly frequently, they do look a lot of fun, i can imagine they would be expensive toys.

GhiaEB · 07-03-2013, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAD

I spent an hour in huge swell at Noosa and was bored after about 30 mins.
I'm glad I didn't buy one to find that out.

Depends on how versatile you are. Haha

Cheese3 · 07-03-2013, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhiaEB

Depends on how versatile you are. Haha

image

Thats what I call a fishing rig , imagin pulling up a shark on that thing wowee the fun !

mik · 07-03-2013, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhiaEB

Depends on how versatile you are. Haha

image

how cool is that..........

BadMax · 07-03-2013, 06:44 PM

SeaDon't are quite popular due mainly to marketing. Funny think is, they are quite well known for being expensive to run, unreliable and unsteady.
Funny thing is, in Vic I'm seeing more and more Yamaha's and Kawsaki's out on the water.

Each to their own. I chose mine because of the well documented reliabilty, quite quick and good all round hull.

Phil B · 07-03-2013, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deesun

Top speed of the newer skis would be 80 knots/150kph and acceration 0-100k in 4 secs. Come off at that speed and the water will feel like blue readymix.

I have been on a donut behind a 260hp supercharged Kawasaki jet ski before, stupidly fast, even compared to a V8 ski boat. And the driver didnt realise that the speedo was in mph, not km/h!

I can testify that water is that hard at 50...mph.

I remember counting doing 4 flips on top of the water before I went through, the next time I was sliding on top and had time to grab my shorts before I went through the water. I was actually quite scared and called it quits, I could barely move the next day.

xbxd351 · 07-03-2013, 10:06 PM

I've had my RXP for a couple of years it never skipped a beat until this season. Rusted hose clamp on the inlet hose wreaked havoc causing the hull to take on water. Stranded out in the port phillip heads of all places waiting for my mates to find me is not a whole lot of fun. Then after about 6 oil changes to flush all the water out got it going again only to replace all the electrical sensors and switches as they fail one by one. Absolute pain in the ***. Theres a lot more crap involved in owning and operating these things than most people would realise.

deesun · 08-03-2013, 01:01 AM

I have two, both Seadoo 2008s, RXP 255 two seater and an RXT 255 three seater. No probs with reliability at all. Serviced once a year. Last bloke to service mine came to my house and did it there. Easier than dragging them in to a workshop.
MAD, sounds like you went out in too rough a seas. I am lucky here on GC I have Broadwater, ocean, river all within 15min drive from home, if the ocean too rough I just stay inside. But I agree if its too rough then its no fun, but on the fun days its great.

Iggypoppin' · 08-03-2013, 04:23 AM

Went out on a Kawasaki something last year and it was stupid fast, faster than other jetskis I'd been on; the owner vowed to throw me off but couldn't do it. Ended up flipping the thing and we all ended up in the drink. Great fun but I hardly had the energy to lift myself up into the thing afterwards let alone drive home that Arvo, then go to work for 7 hours! Great fun those jetskis.

ltd · 08-03-2013, 07:26 AM

I think there's been so much regulation particularly in NSW with both PWC and Jetski that most have given up.
Special interest groups, the Greens etc who are worried about a spotted badger or some such animal and it's migratory habits near the shore line translate to tougher restrictions and a max speed limit of 8 knots etc, so people don't bother.
In a nutshell, basically the fun police; narcissists who secretly fantasise about their own mothers (or fathers) have ruined it for everybody because they themselves aren't able to experience joy - unless they're in the company of their aforementioned mothers (fathers).

MAD · 08-03-2013, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deesun

I have two, both Seadoo 2008s, RXP 255 two seater and an RXT 255 three seater. No probs with reliability at all. Serviced once a year. Last bloke to service mine came to my house and did it there. Easier than dragging them in to a workshop.
MAD, sounds like you went out in too rough a seas. I am lucky here on GC I have Broadwater, ocean, river all within 15min drive from home, if the ocean too rough I just stay inside. But I agree if its too rough then its no fun, but on the fun days its great.

It was pretty fun for the first 30mins.
I don't remember how big they told us it was, but it certainly felt like we were scooting up a 5 storey building made of water.
Got some great air, but yeah after a while it was just boring doing the same thing over and over.

TZENU · 08-03-2013, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheese3

Thats what I call a fishing rig , imagin pulling up a shark on that thing wowee the fun !

Imagine it was a Mako too...

gozzaxr6t · 08-03-2013, 11:16 AM

Best bet is to stay away from the supercharged range if your gonna ride it n stress if it breaks, how am I gonna pay for it. Best thing to do is buy a 01,02 model seadoo single seater 2 stroke.

Great fun, easy to throw around and do jumps with. If it craps itself at least a rebuild dosent cost as much. Yearly servicing, correct flushing after every ride and correct lubrication after rides will give you many hours of fun.

That's just my experience with 4 stroke supercharged and 2 strokes.

**FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0** · 19-03-2013, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadMax

SeaDon't are quite popular due mainly to marketing. Funny think is, they are quite well known for being expensive to run, unreliable and unsteady.
Funny thing is, in Vic I'm seeing more and more Yamaha's and Kawsaki's out on the water.

Each to their own. I chose mine because of the well documented reliabilty, quite quick and good all round hull.

Hay BadMax,

Not sure what you're basing your assessment of SeaDoos on, but I have had mine for 17 years now, and the biggest problems I've had is a hole in the exhaust and a broken neck on the plastic fuel tank. Admittedly, mine is a 2-stroke and is not exactly the most pwerful beast on the water, but it's still a ball of fun.

Bought my 95 SPi in 96 after the original owner decided he needed a larger craft. Since then, I've had it serviced a few times by the guys at Melbourne SeaDoo, and apart from the above mentioned issues, it hasn't cost me anythng other than numerous cans of WD40 or equivalent, a few sponges here and there and a little bit of time to clean it out after a ride.

With the exhaust, the mechanic did a 'temporary' repair about 8 years ago, and it hasn't caused a problem since. With the petrol tank. I ended up doing soem research on the net and found that there was a recall for this problem in about 1998 (IIRC). I contacted BRP Aust and they advised that they would send me a replacement tank, free of charge

. This was around 5 years ago, so I was pretty stoked that they still honoured the recall.

Everytime I took my ski for a service, the guys would say that they are amazed at the condition of it and that I must really look after it. I keep telling them that it really isn't that hard. I predominantly (98% of the time) run in fresh water, so I don't have to worry about flushing the ski out after a ride, but I always wash down the engine bay with fresh water when I get home, then drain and dry it completely, then spray generously with WD40 or equiv. I then let it air out before I store it away. Takes me all of about 30 mins after each ride. Hardly what I call significant effort!

I know this is only a very small sample size, but from my experience, SeaDoos are neither expensive to run/maintain nor are they unreliable. Quite the opposite actually.

Craig H