First outing on Yamaha 212x

[dansshin]

Took Wednesday & Thursday off from work and took my family out on our new 2013 Yamaha 212x that I just recently purchased. Wow what a day. There was a lot of first time things for everyone in our family! It was first time for me driving a jet boat. It was first time out with my new 212x. It was first time towing anything on our MDX. It was first time my family tried wake boarding. It was first time my son and daughter tried knee boarding.

By the end of Wednesday my wife and I were feeling comfortable with driving our new jet boat, whole family was knee boarding successfully (with my daughter and wife having success on first try, which was amazing) and I was able to wakeboard on my first try too. We finished today with tubing on the "Bandwagon". I think my family did pretty good considering! It was very fun filled day and we'll be heading out again on Friday.

All this wasn't without few newbie moments I'm afraid.

On Wednesday, shortly after getting in the water I thought I forgot to close the drain plug at the bottom so I rushed back to the dock and took my son's goggles and dove in but it was already closed. LOL. After that I was on my way but boat just wouldn't go fast even though I pushed the throttle forward. It took me few minutes to find out that it was because the cleanout ports wasn't shut. After that it was all fun though. LOL.

Today I went to a different lake and launched the boat successfully again but then realized I didn't have the boat keys with me so I had to drive back home while wife and kids waited at the end of the dock with the boat.

Hopefully all these newbie silliness is out of my system now! LOL.

We are headed out again on Friday!

Below are some pictures from our outing.

 

[RiverRat]

I may have forgotten the boat key once upon a time... now I just always leave a set in the glove box.

 

[octavio3311]

AWESOME looking 212. That is by far the BEST color combo. But I may be biased.

 

[dansshin]

LOL. Thanks. At the lake I was at on Thursday I saw a 2014 212x Blue and it looked pretty sharp. Really caught my eye zipping around out there. Also I really like the 2012 212x Black design as well. As I was preparing to leave the lake, 2014 212x owner asked what year my boat was and said it looked nice but while I generally agree it looks nice I think it's bit on the plain looking side.

 

[octavio3311]

Hands down - the BADDEST ASS color combo!

 

[dansshin]

LOL. Regardless I really like my boat and so does my family.

 

[dansshin]

If anyone has any good advice on how to fold and store the "MONSTER" bandwagon tube (pictured above), please let me know. Currently we managed to fold it put it in the storage space under the floor but we couldn't put anything else there other than the tow rope that goes with it.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Congrats on your first outings with alot more to come!

 

[dansshin]

@jcyamaharider Thank you.

Kids are really enjoying the new activities. I let each of them invite a friend today and they all had great time.

Here are few pictures from today. Debating if we should go out again tomorrow... LOL.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

What are you using to inflate the tube? I have an airhead 12v inflator and I use it to deflate as well. Suck at it down flat then lay the top flat, fold the sides to center then fold again in half, then I fold/roll it up starting at the end opposite of the lower section fill that way on next deployment I can hang it over the back seat and start filling, it unrolls on its own out the back of the boat.

 

[dansshin]

I bought these. They seem to work good. I use it to inflate and deflate.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000FE5PBA/ref=yo_ii_img

We did something similar today. We deflated it and folded in half and rolled it tight as we could and used the tow rope to tie the two ends and put it in floor storage. It was bit smaller than our first time but still doesn't leave any room to store the 2 wake boards we have.

We'll give your method a try next time.

 

[Julian]

Great photos....and we've all made those mistakes at least once! We have a list that week keep on the fridge for boating.... Has things in BOLD like: Keys, towels, XM radio, sunscreen, cooler, sunglasses, GPS etc....as we used to always forget something!

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

Thats the same pump I have and yes those big tubes take a lot of room...

 

[dansshin]

Thanks Julian. None of that silly mistakes today as everything went pretty smooth but wife and I talked about having boat bag with all our essentials in it right after she told me she would manage the keys from now on the other day. LOL.

 

[Julian]

Yup....that is another good idea...we have a boat bag where all of that lives...forgot to mention that. But sometimes one still pulls stuff from the boat bag and forgets them.

 

[GTBRMC]

@dansshin Thanks for sharing the pix from your first few outings with us. Great to see you having so much fun as a family together on the water!

One word of caution: I note you have a jar of grape jam/jelly on your table. Be very careful with any drinks or semi-liquid foods colored red or similar... They can permanently stain your vinyl if you get unlucky.

Anyway, keep enjoying that boat as a family!

 

[dansshin]

@GTBRMC LOL, you have eyes for detail my friend! Thanks for the heads up. We'll be extra careful with the grape jelly.

 

[buckbuck]

...and no Cheetos.

 

[rkluck]

Very nice boat and a great time had by all. I bet you have all the little mistakes done now! HA

 

[tdonoughue]

Actually the 'no food' rule is quite tough when you have young kids that way. My compromises...
1) Bring pretzels. Relatively clean (but when they get wet they expand and get messy).
2) Restrict messy food (especially Doritos, etc.) to the back deck. This way they get to have the mess, but it is easily cleaned up by the next wave...
3) No cokes on my boat. One spill makes a complete mess. Learned that one the hard way. Water is better for them anyway.

Merely suggestions, of course. The prime thing is to have fun on the boat safely.