Welcome aboard
@Jessica and
@The Budnick's ! Being a new boat owner can be a host of emotion, from over zealous to total frustration. Boating when debris or grass is present will pose issues to any boat, not just a jet boat. But the kind of debris, and speed at which you transition, have a lot to do with how you have to deal with it. I am curious, is the water in your river brackish? Any boat with a small jet drive like those in your Chap, or any of the family open bow size jet boats, will not fair well being moored on an ongoing basis in water with any salt content. Any enclosed mooring, like a slip/dock/pier, will trap debris between the boat and mooring, and it is always a good idea to try to watch to see what your conditions trap, and either find a way to prevent it, or clear it before you move.
The "Reverse Move" described above is leaving out one very crucial step. You have to do all three of the moves at the same time. And the setup is critical. Get your boat going backward as fast as you can safely do so. It is this backward movement that flows through the nozzle and washes away grass and "non lodged" debris out of the intakes. But with a very flat transom, the boat will stop quickly so you must do all the steps at once, not one at a time. So once moving as fast backward safely, you do these...
Kill the engines AND move the throttles full forward, to raise the reverse gates that block the flow of water from moving back forward into the pump and out through the intakes.
@Jessica ,
@The Budnick's is right, hard plastic or anything that jams into the pump and lodges between the blade and the liner, will require more to remove it. Foreign objects and driftwood, bark, etc. have a bigger impact of jamming. The reverse move is more for clearing loose grassy debris, but I have driven into floating debris and seen it just as I ran into it. I have killed my engines and drifted to a stop, started again and done the reverse move, just as insurance. If you kill the engines, and move into neutral, you may not lock up your engines. If your starting out with debris in your intake before you even get away from the slip, then the problem is hard to overcome. Have you guys looked into a lift for the slip? They are expensive, but it could solve much of the issues you face, especially if your in brackish water, because it will just quickly devalue and damage your boat prematurely. I know your engines are set up differently than the Yamaha's, so your cooling system may not affect your engine/exhaust, but it will still affect pump performance if subjected to that kind of water weeks at a time or longer. Everything we do in life is a compromise, I hope you guys can find the ones that fit you the best!
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