19' Yamaha Sea Trial/Demo

[Jeff L24]

I live in the Philly suburbs and my local Yamaha dealer (Highway Marine Quakertown) claims they do not do sea trials, even for new boat purchases. Coming from a stern drive, I really wanted to experience a Yamaha first hand. If anyone is in the general area and willing to do a sea trial, I will happily compensate you for your time. The nearest water is Beltzville, Blue Marsh, Schuylkill near Black Rock, Delaware River (Croydon or Ridley) and Lehigh River (Allentown). Anyone willing to help me out?

 

[Ken Sherlaw]

Hey Jeff,
We found it absolutely amazing that boat dealers (especially Highway Marine) expect you to spend the kind of money we all are spending on a Yamaha without ever being on one! We went through that over the past two years. We had an old Chris Craft I/O so weren’t sure about the leap of faith to the jetboat (still aren’t for sure!). Finally found Mariners Cove in NY that had a 2018 in the water and were willing to take us out in it. Also Went there since they had leftover 2019 242x and that’s the boat we wanted as well. Even though Highway Marine is much closer we appreciated the ability to do a test run of a comparable boat on the water. We also tried to find someone locally here to do a ride with but came up empty. We said we’d offer that opportunity if we ended up with a boat to help others out. So here we are, although not exactly what you are looking for, if you just want to see what the jetboat experience is like and willing to drive up to Lake Wallenpaupack (poconos) you are welcome to come check it out and do a test ride in a 242X. Completely understand if you want to find something more comparable and/or closer to you. Lake Wallenpaupack is about 1 1/2 hours above Highway Marine I’d guess. You can run on WAZE if you want to see how far to Silver Birches Marina from Philly area. Can contact me direct if interested.

 

[jamesk]

I was going to buy our SX210 there, same thing happened they would not do a demo.
Felt I was being oversold on how happy I was going to be with a jetboat and do to the fact I did not want to take the depreciation hit from buying a new boat and possibly selling it a year later, so I walked. Ended up finding a good deal on a one year old 10 hour boat and was able to test drive it.
But I am sure plenty of people buy them without ever riding in one.

 

[TimW451]

I liken a boat dealer to a car dealer. Choose one based on price or customer service, not proximity. Being a first time boat owner customer service was number one for us. I wanted “Lexus“ experience and support. These will be further for you, but I would look at Beacon Light Marina in Middle River, MD (who I bought from) they are 15 min off of I95 north of Baltimore. Or Bayside Jet Drive on Delmarva peninsula, in Ocean View, DE and Berlin, MD.