Cobra Venom Magnum AK with Fangs works great!

[GoVols01]

I installed the Cobra Venom Magnum AK with Fangs on my '17 212x last week and took the boat out over the weekend. I'm happy to say, I'm a believer in the system. I've had twin engine I/O boats before and expected the new Yamaha to be able to turn with the motors as well - sadly, it can't do this very well from the factory. During our outing, I had to navigate around a couple marinas I'm not familiar with and had to spin the boat around a few times in close quarters. I gotta say, it handled beautifully! I noticed no difference in top-end speed as well as planing time. Ability to turn while coming off-plane is greatly improved as well. I can't believe Yamaha doesn't engineer the boat to handle this well from the factory.

For those not familiar with turning your boat using the engines, the key is to ensure the steering wheel is straight. Then you use the throttles like you would drive a skid-steer. If you want to go right, drop the right throttle down into reverse and the left throttle forward into drive. You will need to apply much more throttle to whichever engine is in reverse, as all boats, especially jet drives, are less efficient with reverse thrust.

At one point during the day, a guy and his girlfriend on a Seadoo were jetting along at WOT. I came from across the channel heading toward the same marina he was and kept up with him up to the no-wake zone. Once in the no-wake zone, the guy was asking me all sorts of questions about the boat and was amazed to see how fast she is.

 

[Matt Phillips]

I've found on my 242 withe fans that I don't even need to reverse the inner engine. All I need to do is crank the wheel and she will turn in her own length.

 

[Ronnie]

I have an older boat without an articulating keel but have to add that the fang habe made maneuvering in reverse a lot better. I have had three different models of cobra fins on two models of Yamaha jet boats. All of the fin models (i.e., origial fixed position single piece design, manually variable position multi piece design and now spring loaded variable position multi piece design, all with progressivley larger fins), did great job but the fang are what improved responsiveness in reverse. Just my two cents.